Estate Condition Clinton Hill Brownstone With Pier Mirror, Seven Mantels Asks $3.5 Million

Presumably the original owner, the proprietor of a house and decorative painting concern, might look askance at the white walls, but this 1870s brownstone has enough of the original details that he surely would recognize it. In the Clinton Hill Historic District, the Italianate at 414 Grand Avenue is in estate condition but certainly has potential for an owner with the vision and funds to tackle the project.

One of a row of Italianate brownstones that were constructed between 1873 and 1874, it still has the classic exterior details of the style, including a pedimented door surround with foliated brackets, a rusticated basement and a bracketed cornice. Missing though are the original stoop railings, which can be seen in the historic tax photo.

By 1874, the city directory listed Alexander Seabury, painter, in residence. The family of Alexander and Lydia Seabury would retain ownership of the house until at least the mid 1920s. Alexander, a Massachusetts native, lived in Brooklyn but operated his painting business from lower Manhattan.

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The brownstone was built as a single-family but since then its legal occupancy has become more ambiguous. According to HPD, it’s a two-family, while the DOF has it as a three. Meanwhile, 21-foot-wide row house is set up as a four-family with one apartment per floor, each with a kitchen. The house has no certificate of occupancy, common for dwellings built before 1939.

An i-card for 1972 listed two families and two “roomers” or “boarders” in residence, and noted two kitchens, one on the garden floor and one on the top floor. (In the head-scratching logic of the i-card, the owner of the building was deemed a “roomer” because the floor he slept on did not have a kitchen.)

While there are only a handful of pictures of the interior, they are enough to show that much of the impressive detail on the high-ceilinged grand parlor level remains, including the arched double doors leading into the front parlor, where there is a gilded pier mirror, an ornate marble mantel and plasterwork.

Pocket doors with etched glass open into the rear parlor, which has the arched niches typical of the period. There is a glimpse of some unpainted molding but much of the woodwork throughout the house is painted white. One colorful bit of detail in the house that might have caught Seabury’s eye is the large gold ceiling medallion, with a string of ivy painted around the edge and a bold orange center.

The kitchen beyond, the only one shown in the listing photos, has some color from a very different era with 1970s wood cabinets and a bright yellow laminate counter. The space is windowed and a clever redesign could result in a more modern and sympathetic kitchen. Adjacent is a full bath. The only bath pictured is on the second floor and it has a claw foot tub, pedestal sink and bead board.

On the garden level, the wainscoting and mantel are sans paint and the mantel, one of seven in the house according to the floor plans, appears to have its original tile work. With its columns and over mantel mirror, it also appears of a later vintage than the more typical Italianate marble mantels found elsewhere in the house.

A metal deck off the parlor level has a staircase down to the garden, where there is stone patio. The photo does not show the entire backyard, but a patch of green with a sapling and an evergreen bush is visible.

The property is described as an “as is” sale. Listed with Joseph Dima and Josiane Lysius of Corcoran’s Dima Lysius Team, it is priced at $3.5 million. What do you think?

[Listing: 414 Grand Avenue | Broker: Corcoran ] GMAP

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