Bed Stuy townhouse with mantels asking $2.245 million

The 1890s home, made up of two maisonettes, has a striking cornice and many intact interior details such as ceiling medallions and moldings.

Photo via Compass

by Susan De Vries

Consisting of two duplexes, this Bed Stuy townhome features attractive details in each unit, with plaster trim, mantels, moldings, interior shutters and wood floors. A new owner might want to make some updates to the 1890s row house at 292 Halsey Street, but there’s already plenty of appeal.

Builder David Weild built a significant number of houses on this block front, with records for single-family homes appearing from about 1889 to 1891. An 1891 file, which includes this house, identified Weild as the owner, architect and builder behind the planned row of 2.5 plus basement homes with wood cornices. Weild varied the decorative details a bit across the block with hints of Renaissance and Romanesque Revival details. At No. 292 the now paint-covered facade has leaf ornaments acting as pseudo-keystones at the living room level, rough-finished lintels above and a large bracketed cornice incorporating the windows of the upper half-storey. The details are a little clearer in the tax photo from circa 1940.

Weild advertised some of the houses in the row in 1891 as “finely finished” houses with fireplaces and tiled hearths. Other advertisements claimed that the homes were only a five-minute walk to the ‘Dr. Meredith’s Church,” the Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church.

In both duplexes you can still see fireplaces with original tiled fireplaces on the inside. The lower duplex has a kitchen, living room, dining room and the only bathroom on garden level, while bedrooms occupy the former front and back rooms. Access to the upper duplex is via the main staircase, which makes it a bit tricky. The top duplex has three bedrooms on the top floor.

The original front room has the plaster detailing and one of the six mantelpieces shown on the plan. Pocket doors open to the back room, where there is another mantelpiece, tin ceiling and arched alcove.

At garden level, the kitchen is located in the traditional location at the rear of the floor. Some design tweaks can update the space. As there is, there’s a bold tile floor, wood cabinets and white appliances. The space has access to a utility room and the backyard.

The only bathroom shown in the listing is located next to the kitchen on the ground floor and has a Deco era flair with violet wall tiles with black finish and matching accessories.

The listing only gives a glimpse of the kitchen in the top duplex. It also has wooden cabinets and white appliances, but combined with a terracotta tiled floor. It is adjacent to an original bedroom, now dining room, with a beautiful mantelpiece with trinket shelves. A bit of decorative work decorates the doorway.

The plan shows that both the second and third floors have at least some of their original passageways intact. The street-facing living room on the second floor, originally a bedroom, still has a fireplace and some fitted wardrobes.

The house has not changed hands for decades. The listing notes that updates in the past five years include a new boiler and boilers.

Perri DeFino of Compass has the listing and the home is priced at $2.245 million. What do you think?

[Listing: 292 Halsey Street | Broker: Compass] GMAP