Back Yard View of Development Projects between 1st & 2nd Place

The height on 360 Smith Street condominium project is being calculated under the “Wide Streets” Zoning Text.
The rearyard extension of 122 First Place resulted in my viewing of cinderblocks instead of the sunrise out my kitchen window.
Additional floor and rearyard extension at 126 First Place

The mechanical units on the roof of the recently renovated Hannah Senesh Community Day School. I am continually dismayed that the school had so little respect and understanding of its new home in Carroll Gardens that its Board of Directors approved a design that willfully violates the urban context of our historic rowhouse brownstone neighborhood. And I am constantly amazed that architecture professional journals continue to applaud willful buildings that violate the urban contexts in which they are located, as though exciting architecture is only possible to the degree that it’s contextually inappropriate.

As a follow-up to the meeting at the CB6 Landmark/Land Use Committee on Thursday, April 24th, which approved the proposed Zoning Resolution Text Amendment to define the Place blocks and Carroll, President, and Second Street, between Smith and Hoyt Streets, as “Narrow Streets” for zoning calculation purposes.

I appreciate the concerns of the lady who was almost crying because she claimed that she might lose her property rights. But there has to be a balance between property rights and the rights of preserving our neighborhood.

The apartment house adjacent to where I live on First Place recently built an extension in their rear yard, which resulted in the lost of the window in my kitchen and stairwell. Every morning I miss my 20-year ritual of looking out this window to watch the sunrise, and seeing the people at the subway plaza, enjoying my neighbors amazing homing pigeons soaring above or perched on the clothes lines in the backyards, as I fix my breakfast. My neighbor exercised their rights as a property owner and now I get to look out on their cinder block wall (see above.) Do only property owners have rights? What about my right for air and light?

The NYC Department of Planning Incorrectly Mapped these Streets as "Wide Streets."

Carroll Gardens is a planned community, created by law in 1846 and 1852, and the Department of Planning incorrectly mapped these streets as “wide streets”. The proposed Zoning Resolution Amendment addresses this error. The old Brooklyn law, which is attached to the deed of every property on the Place blocks, sets the metes and bounds of the neighborhood with two 13-foot sidewalks and a 24-foot “carriage way” equaling 50 feet. The Zoning Resolution considers a Wide Street any street 75 feet or more in width.

Historian Frances Morrone in his book, “An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn” says that with great foresight, the surveyor, Richard Butts, planned the area with garden setbacks in 1846. Each house is setback behind 33.5¼ feet deep gardens, which have become the area’s signature. Butts’ cleverness is apparent in two ways. First, the houses are so sited on their lots that they have unusually deep front yards – the “gardens” of Carroll Gardens. Second, he fiddled with the grid in a way one wishes many more developers had done: the east-west streets jag slightly so that houses terminate the vistas along these streets.

The old Brooklyn law specifically notes the northern and southern limits of the streets, with respect to a starting point of the street, clearly indicating that the street line begins at the sidewalk edge, not at the building line. Interestingly, Butts elected to eliminate one street in the normal street grid and then evenly divide up that left over space to create courtyards between the street lines and the building lines.

I consider protecting our heritage as a noble mission that benefits everyone, and that I want to whole-heartily thank the community board our local elected officials for supporting this Zoning Resolution Text Amendment!

Carroll Gardens Courtyard Activities

The Department of Transportation refuses to ticket illegally parked cars in the “courtyards.” They claim they have no enforcement agents. Their legal department is evaluating this problem, but this is only just part of the problem. I would also like your thoughts on if there should be legislation to clarify what elements, including tents, porticos, retaining walls, etc., that can be constructed in the courtyards.

Sidewalk cafes are regulated by the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs. I think that courtyards with a commercial overlay, on the Place block corners on Court Street and the corners of President, Carroll and Second Streets, which are conducting commercial activity in their courtyards, should also be regulate by DCA. After all, the courtyards are owned by the City and considered part of the street.

If anybody would get hurt while shopping at one of the stores that use their courtyard, such as Mazzone Hardware, or while eating and drinking at one of the food establishments or beer gardens that serve in their courtyard, there is no indemnification for the City, and it would be liable. This is why the Department of Consumer Affairs should regulate any restaurant, bar, or other commercial activity that operates in a courtyard on the Place blocks on Court Street and on President, Carroll and Second Steets.



Portico in a couryard at 1st Place















Mazzone True Value - 4th Place & Court Street



PJ Handley's - 4th Place & Court Street















Dunkin Donut - 1st Place & Court Street
Gowanus Yacht Club - President & Smith Streets










3rd Place & Court Street. This building is for sale and the realtor mentions the availability of the use of the courtyard.

Carroll Gardens Courtyard Restrictions

The NYC Administrative Codes that protect the courtyards are:
Code §19-132 Restrictions on First Place, Second Place, Third Place and Fourth Place in the borough of Brooklyn. The buildings to be erected upon the lots fronting upon First place, Second place, Third place and Fourth place in the borough of Brooklyn, shall be built on a line thirty-three feet five inches and a quarter of an inch back from the sides or lines of such places as they are now established by the map of the city, and the intervening space of land shall be used for courtyards only.

Code§19-136(b) Obstructions: It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, to use any portion of a sidewalk or courtyard, established by law, between the building line and the curb line for the parking, storage, display or sale of motor vehicles.

Old Brooklyn Law creating the courtyards that is attached to deed of every property on the "Place" blocks.

Carroll Gardens Courtyard History

Even though the streets are narrow (24 ft.), NYC DOB consider the Place blocks, and Carroll, President, and Second Streets between Hoyt and Smith as wide streets when considering the FAR of a zoning lot. This allowed developers extra floors on this building at 116 Third Place.

Illegal parking in the courtyard at 100 Fourth Place.

The area of Brooklyn now known as Carroll Gardens was laid out in the mid-1800s with great foresight, by the surveyor Richard Butts; and the neighborhood’s signature courtyards were created by law in 1846 and 1850 as a neighborhood easement. His “Map of the City of Brooklyn and Village of Williamsburgh,” showing the size of blocks and width of streets as laid out by the Commissioner, the old farm lines, water line, and all recent changes in streets, shows that between Henry and Smith Streets, the five streets of Summitt, Woodhull, Rapelje, Cooper and Coles were to be altered to provide for four new streets, First through Fourth Place, that were be 50 feet wide.

The metes and bounds that formed the neighborhood’s “Place” blocks, courtyards, and width of the streets, was legislated in old Brooklyn law in 1846 and 1850, and is attached to the deed of every property on the “Place” blocks. The courtyards are protected by this covenant, owned by the City, and considered part of the street, with the property line beginning at the building line. The old Brooklyn law creating the courtyards was transferred into the New York City Transportation Code.

The old Brooklyn law specifically notes the northern and southern limits of the streets, with respect to a starting point of the street, clearly indicating that the street line begins at the sidewalk edge, not at the building line. The law also clearly lays out the width of the street (two 13-foot sidewalks and a 24-foot "carriage way") equaling 50 feet. Interestingly, Butts elected to eliminate one street in the normal street grid and then evenly divide up that left over space to create courtyards on the "Place" blocks, between the street lines and the building lines.

When City Planning mapped the courtyards as part of the street in the early 1960s, it included the two 33.5¼ feet courtyards as part of the 50-feet street, resulting in a 117.5 foot street. Since zoning allows a higher FAR for “Wide Street”, or streets wider than 75 feet, this has allowed developers in recent years to take advantage in this quirk in the interpretation of the law that created the courtyards. Even though the streets are narrow, this produced an opportunity for developers to add extra stories that are out of character with the brownstone row houses.

The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association has been working with the local elected officials and New York City Plan to change the zoning code to map the “Place” blocks and President, Carroll, and Second Streets between Hoyt and Smith as narrow streets. To remedy this erroneous interpretation of the law that formed the courtyards, the NYC Department of Planning has proposed the following text amendment, which was first presented, reviewed, and approved by Community Board 6, Landmarks/Land Use Committee on April 24, 2008:

Presentation and review of proposed Zoning Resolution Text Amendment (#N080345ZRK), known as the Carroll Gardens Places Text Amendment, submitted by the Department of City Planning that would define 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place and 4th Place between Henry Street and Smith Street; and 2nd Street, Carroll Street and President Street between Smith Street and Hoyt Street, in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn Community Board 6 as 'Narrow Streets' for zoning calculation purposes.

Since the early 1990s, another problem threatening the integrity of the courtyards is that the Departments of Transportation and Buildings began issuing curb-cut permits to property owners, who wanted to park their cars in the courtyards. We were told by City Planning that it is probably because in an R-6 zone, if there is 18-feet or more footage in front of a property, that DOB will allow a property owner a permit. The problem with resolving this issue is that the courtyard restriction is in the Transportation Code, and not part of the zoning resolution, and neither DOB nor DOT will claim jurisdiction to resolve this problem, and the Department of Planning says it is an enforcement problem.

Architectural History

President Street between Smith and Hoyt Streets

Carroll Gardens is a quiet residential community that has retained its nineteenth century atmosphere. As with most Victorian neighborhoods, brownstone and brick houses were built on a hill, saving twentieth-century residents from pollution that borders on the east in the Gowanus Canal and on the west and south by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. On Bergen Hill, the gaslight era is preserved in cobblestone streets, trolley tracks, slate sidewalks, ornamental iron fences and stoop railings, as well as the stately brownstone homes themselves.

Most of the major development begin in the late 1860s with the construction of rows of brownstones and was completed by the early 1880s. The housing reflects the general method employed for urban residential development during that time. The Carroll Gardens brownstones are a form of terrace house that evolved in England toward the end of the seventeenth century. By building an entire street of row houses and treating them as an architectural whole, comparatively small homes could be given the dignity of a palace. Architecturally, the buildings reflect the high standards of builder of a century ago. The older houses were custom-designed for prosperous merchants; however, the post-Civil War row houses were produced on a mass production basis for those of more modest means. It was, and still is today, a representative, solidly middle-class community.

Draining of the swampland by the Gowanus Canal in the late 1860s stimulated land speculation east of Smith Street, and the pattern set by the Places was followed. On Smith and Court Streets, stores at street level with living quarters above provide the neighborhood with the shops and service that is required.

The sense of remoteness and the feeling of sunny, airy openness, on the Place Streets, and Carroll and Presidents Streets, is the result of the foresighted, mid-19th century planning of Richard Butts, a surveyor. In his map of 1846, he provided blocks of unusual depth, resulting in lots with houses set back behind front yards 33.5 feet deep. The success of Butts’ plan is that the east-west streets jog slightly so that houses terminate the vistas along these streets. This pattern shut off these streets from the bustle of Court and Smith streets. The impression is that of a protected enclave, an oasis within the city.

The builders used brownstone facing shipped by barge from quarries in Jersey and Connecticut arranged with a wide variety of ornamental elements manufactured in small, local factories to offer house buyers mantles for fireplaces, louvered shutters, banisters, moldings of distinctive designs. The buildings illustrate a number of the popular styles of the late 19th century: late Italianate, Neo-Grec and Victorian Gothic. The woods used for moldings and banisters were mahogany and walnut; while, at the end of the century, oak enjoyed a brief vogue. Although pines of various types were usually secondary woods, red English pine was used as flooring in the early-Victorian brownstones.

Excerpts from the Carroll Gardens Historic District Designation Report, 1973, and Jeanette Jeanes for background material

Recent South Congregation Church History

By the 1940s, the church was thriving and numbered 2400 members, but in the years following World War II, members moved away and dropped to fewer than 100. In 1982, the church, faced with a $9,000 winter heating bill and dwindling membership, the congregation accepted an offer from a developer to convert the church and chapel into luxury apartments.

In a New York Times article “Church Makes Novel Deal with Developer,” dated December 5, 1982, the church’s pastor, the Rev. Neville-Simmons Smith said, ''As you can see, we cannot maintain the building with our meager resources. The plaster has cracked on the wall behind the pulpit, and the old stained-glass windows along the south wall are broken and chipped.”

After the 1851 Romanesque-style church was sold, the congregation worshiped in the former Ladies’ Parlor behind the church. Fortunately, the church complex had just been granted landmark status by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in the spring of 1982, so the church’s exterior could not be architecturally altered.

Reporting why the New York Landmarks Conservancy approved the conversion of the church, its Executive Director Laurie Beckelman wrote in The State of Churches report, “The proposal for the church is innovative in that it enables the congregation to remain within the church complex and continue to serve the immediate community. While plans for the interior call for the retention of as much of the original building fabric as possible, the creation of three residential floor levels will dramatically alter the scale and sense of the original interior space.”

In 1993, the small congregation, lead by Rev. Smith, merged with Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, and in a sad way brought the story of the relationship of South Congregational Church and Plymouth Church to a full circle.

Break in the Steeple of the South Congregational Church

Brooklyn Public Library Brooklyn Collection

“A break in the steeple of the South Congregation Church,” was reported in the January 4, 1979 Brooklyn Eagle, "Fears that There will be a Big Crash this Afternoon." The article continued, "The slates have been blown away from the lower portion of two of the octagonal sides, it reported, and the wind has thus a ready access to the interior, the result of which is to make the entire tower rock from side to side, with a prospect of collapsing at any moment.”

The tower was described as about eighty feet, and it slopes gradually in from the base until it reaches a sharp point at the top, which is ornamented with a Corinthian capital. The church and tower were constructed about eighteen years ago, and during its construction a shocking accident occurred, which resulted in the instant killing of two men and serious injury to several others. The casualty was caused by the falling of a scaffold in the interior of the edifice.

The article described that it was not a matter of surprise, to those who resided in the neighborhood and had observed the steeple moving from one side to the other during more than ordinary severe gales, that it has not fallen long ago.