The Landmark at Strong Place, 58 Strong Place: Review and Ratings

Review of 58 Strong Place by Carter Horsley

This imposing, four-story, former church building, circa 1851, at 58 Strong Place in the Cobble Hill Historic District in Brooklyn was designed by Minard Lafever and was converted to 23 condominium apartments in 2011 by Jim Plotkin and David Yerushalmi.  

The building, which originally was a Baptist Church and is an example of Early English Gothic Revival style of architecture.  It is known as The Landmark. 

The developers' other projects in Brooklyn include the State House in Brooklyn Heights, the Satori in Gowanus and the Absolute in Clinton Hill. 

Baxt/Ingui was the architectural firm for the conversion. 

Lafever, once described as the Christopher Wren of America, designed one of the original landmark buildings of Sailors Snug Harbor in Staten Island, the 1932 Greek Revival-style Old Merchant's (Seabury Treadwell) House at 29 East 4th Street in the East Village, and the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, which Andrew Dolkart, the architectural historian, noted is 'one of the earliest and most sophisticated evocations of English-inspired Collegiate Gothic, creating the educational atmosphere of Oxford and Cambridge." 

Lafever was the author of the Young Builder's General Instructor in 1829, the Modern Builders Guide in 1833 and Beauties of Modern Architecture in 1835. 

In his September 8, 2002 "Streetscapes" article in The New York Times, Christopher Gray noted the Lafever was "one of the most influential architects in the United States." 

"He did not hew to any particular style," according to Mr. Gray, who added that "His St. James Church on James Street near Madison Street in Manhattan (1837) is Greek Revival, his Old Whaling Church in Sag Harbor, N.Y. (1844) is Egyptian Revival, his brownstone St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church at Montague and Clinton Streets in Brooklyn Heights (1847) is neo-Gothic and his Church of the Holy Apostles at Ninth Avenue and 28th Street in Manhattan (1848-1854) is Romanesque/Italianate."

Bottom Line

A mid-19th Century Gothic Revival church in the Cobble Hill Historic District by Minard Lafever, one of the nation's influential early architects.  It was converted to 23 condominium apartments in 2011.

Description

A September 3, 2014 article by Lore Croghan in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle noted that "we love the eye-catching church bell standing in the yard at 58 Strong Place," which was illustrated in a photograph/.

Amenities

The building has a picnic area, a gym, a bicycle room, a virtual doorman, an elevator and is pet-friendly.

Apartments

A three-bedroom unit on the fourth floor has high, sloped ceilings, according to a June 11, 2015 article at ny.curbed.com by Zoe Rosenberg, adding that it "comes with four interconnected terraces that the living room and two bedrooms look into, which is probably a pretty righteous place to spend summer."  The apartment has a 37-foot-long living room with an open kitchen. 

A one-bedroom apartment on the second floor has 20-foot-wide living/dining room with an 10-foot-wide open kitchen with an island, an 11-foot-long den and a 26-foot-long hall.