Willow Place Colonnade survivor asks for $3.45 million

This Willow Place home, the only survivor of a colonnade, has not been on the market since the 1960s.

Here’s one for the old house lover or the merely curious. This Willow Place home, the only survivor of a colonnade, has not been on the market since the 1960s.

The simple wooden columns on the facade of 46 Willow Place provide a hint at its origins, as does a more intact row across the street. Listing photos show that some details remain from the 1840 construction date, such as wide plank floors and a marble mantel, while there are also some later updates, such as a Deco-era bath.

Within the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, the 20-foot-wide home was once part of a row built in a style that peaked in popularity in New York in the 1830s and 1840s. The impressive houses known as LaGrange Terrace on Manhattan’s Lafayette Street is perhaps the best-known example of a colonnade in New York City, but Brooklyn also had a number of examples of the popular style.

Advertisements for colonnade houses in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Clinton Hill, and Williamsburg began appearing in local newspapers in the early 1800s. This house, its lost neighbors and the row across the street at 43 to 49 Willow Place probably date from the 1840s. In 1853, some of the houses in the row made the news when a health inspector found “a nuisance of the worst description,” according to a researcher. Brooklyn Daily Eagle report, showing yards and privies in ‘offensive condition’.

The row of 46 Willow Place can still be seen intact at a card from 1929but by the time of the tax photographs of circa 1940 only two in a row, nos. 44 And 46, were still standing. The empty lots where the others once lined up were eventually filled with three modernist houses in the 1960s.

This home has not changed hands since 1969, just a few years after the Brooklyn Heights Historic District was designated. The original square columns need some TLC, but they are intact and still have a dentilated cornice. The Greek Revival style front door includes pilasters, sidelights and a transom.

The single-family home is two rooms deep with a side stairwell. A 20th century kitchen is located at the rear of the living room floor, while above are two floors of sleeping space. There are two full bathrooms in the house.

In the entrance hall there are still some wide plank floors and an original staircase with a new post and curved handrail. The front room has a later wooden floor and ceiling tiles, but the black marble mantelpiece has a typical Greek Revival profile.

Paneling and floor tiles have been added to the rear living room and 1950s kitchen cabinets have been installed, along with a vintage wall oven and hob.

Upstairs are two bedrooms connected with wardrobes plus a small third bedroom or study. The bedroom facing the street has wide floorboards combined with later wall moldings and a mantelpiece with Colonial Revival details. The fireplace tiles look like a change from the Deco era.

The full bathroom on this floor also has some period details, such as the green sink and bath. A 1930s i-card for the house states that planning permission was granted in 1935 to make it a two-family home, so perhaps the bathroom and some other details date from this conversion.

On the top floor there are two further bedrooms and two more small study rooms, one with a Deco era wall sink and the other with a skylight. There is no bathroom on this floor, but perhaps in a renovation the small study with the sink could be converted into a full or half bath. The bedroom facing the street has no windows, only a skylight and a brick chimney wall.

The garden level contains the mechanics and is largely unfinished; from the listing photos it looks like the concrete floor has been recently painted. There is a door to the rear garden which, together with the small enclosed front garden, offers potential for someone with green fingers.

The property is listed by Paul Murphy of Compass at $3.45 million. What do you think?

[Listing: 46 Willow Place | Broker: Compass] GMAP