Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

This large Neo-Grec style with Second Empire elements brownstone building sits on a canted corner lot and was built as an ensemble with 185-187 Sterling Place. The buildings were designed by architect William Cook, built by J. V. Porter for original owner John Konvalinka at a time when speculative residential development in the Prospect Heights area increased in anticipation of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883. . This building, constructed with ground-floor storefronts and living space above, was completed during the period in which Flatbush Avenue was developing into one of the area's most important commercial thoroughfares. Featuring a central tower flanked by identical facades the ensemble has classically-inspired details such as pedimented entryways, heavily bracketed door surrounds, full window enframents, prominent cornices, and dormered slate roof. There have been some alterations to the windows; however, the building remains remarkably intact.

129 General Description Brownstone mixed-use building with stone, wood and wrought-iron decorative elements; partial slate mansard roof and full stone window and door enframents; prominent four story tower with flanking facades along Flatbush Avenue and Sterling Place; upper floors have six bays, storefronts with metal bulkheads on Flatbush Avenue, and three bays with storefronts with wood bulkhead on Sterling Place; Flatbush Avenue facade: three stories; six bays; channeled cast-iron piers separate storefront bays at ground floor; separate entrance to upper floors featuring consecutive transoms; metal-and-glass storefront display window cases rests on metal or stone bulkhead, glass-and-metal store entrance on right; the upper floors are separated by a bracketed denticulated cornice; three one-over-one double-hung windows at each story with full bracketed stone enframents; rusticated piers running from the second floor to the roofline denticulated cornice mark the buildings divisions; three bay store front with central metal-and-glass central door; canvas awning over storefront flanking display window cases sitting on a metal or stone bulkhead; slate mansard roof with projecting firewalls; denticulated wood cornice interrupted by pedimented wall dormers featuring sunburst motif. Central tower: wide stone platform at main entrance to upper floors, features historic double-leaf wood door, brownstone full enframements with decorative fluted piers, brackets with incised details support a molded stone cornice, that gives way to another set of brackets, supporting the wrought-iron balconette of the second floor window, full molded stone enframements and angled pediment; third floor features a one-overone double-hung window with full stone enframements with a segmental-arched pediment; the arched fourth floor window features paired one-over-one double-hung windows with a arched transom; followed by a bracketed wood cornice, and a pyramidal slate roof with copper flashing, topped by a iron crested widows’ walk. Alterations: (375 Flatbush Avenue) storefront updated; door to upper floors replaced; facade painted; non-historic light fixtures above main entrance; doorbell and intercom by main entrance; metal alarm system box upper left of corner of storefront; transom above store entrance altered to accommodate an air conditioner. (377 Flatbush Avenue) storefront updated; entrance; transom above store entrance altered to accommodate an air conditioner; iron railing encloses main entrance; windows replaced throughout; doorbell and intercom by main entrance; non-historic light fixture over main entrance; at roof cresting missing finials. Sterling Place facade: three bay store front with central wood-and-glass central door; flanking display window cases sitting on a wood or stone bulkhead; canvas awning over storefront; bracketed cornice with raised decorative square panels, dentils and foliate design above the first floor; upper floors identical to 375 Flatbush Avenue; slate mansard roof with projecting firewalls; denticulated wood cornice interrupted by pedimented wall dormers featuring sunburst motif. Alterations: transom above store entrance altered to accommodate an air conditioner; store front painted; six non-historic light fixtures with metal conduit above storefront. Site Features: metal basement access doors
- From the 2009 NYCLPC Historic District Designation Report

This wonderful concoction of Arts and Crafts timber fretwork, gabled verandah, terracotta finials and complex rooflines of red terracotta tiles at varying angles appear on a grand red brick Edwardian villa built in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon.

Standing proudly behind a white picket fence with finial capped newel posts, this sprawling villa was built around the turn of the Twentieth Century in the popular Queen Anne style, which was mostly a residential style inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in England, but also encompassed some of the more stylised elements of Art Nouveau, which gave it an more decorative look. The red brick from which the villa is built is in keeping with the Arts and Crafts movement, as are the half-timbered bargeboards underneath the gables. Yet the curling fretwork of the wide verandah are Art Nouveau in design.

Queen Anne style was most popular around the time of Federation. With complex roofline structures and undulating facades, many Queen Anne houses fell out of fashion at the beginning of the modern era, and were demolished.

Houses built in this style were often referred to as "Reformist houses" because they challenged the formality of the mid and high Victorian styles that preceded it, and were often designed with uniquely angular floor plans. This is an example of a more traditional layout with a central hallway off which the principal rooms were located.