Many of us here are from families who lived the typical New York story: streaming out of the Lower East Side and into larger and larger apartments until they found themselves in the suburbs. One of those way stations for immigrant families was the Mathews tenements in Ridgewood, roughly at the corner of Forest and Palmetto. The City’s Landmarks Preservation Committee is considering a historic designation for this bit of Ridgewood. What is so notable about these particular buildings, which from the outside are not too noticeably different from the sea of similar apartments across Bushwick and Ridgewood? They were some of the first of a roomier variety, and these few blocks are completely intact.
I have mixed feelings about involuntary historic preservation. On the one hand, there are two economic issues to deal with: a moral problem in telling people what they can and can’t do their their own stuff, and the practical problem of raising housing prices by restricting supply. On the other hand, they just don’t build ‘em like they used to, and historic, human-scaled settings are good for the soul. The Queens Crapper worries that giving the neighborhood an entire year’s notice will just give them time to put a rush on any planned alterations, thus scuttling the designation. I don’t see much cause for worry — these blocks have lasted for almost 100 years without significant changes made to the facades, I can’t imagine why they would bother just now.
At some point soon I’ll do a photo walk-through of these blocks for your viewing pleasure, like I did with the Stockholm Street Historic District. Do you know someone who lives in one of these apartments and would mind letting in a humble neighborhood blogger?
Queens Crapper September 18th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
The Queens Crapper worries because I saw the problems that came just before areas were downzoned. Houses were ripped down, and foundations were poured in a frenzy so the owners would be “vested” before the zoning became official.
Oh…but these are rowhouses, not to worry, right? Wrong. Here’s the result of a lengthy period between suggestion and implementation: A Crap Above. Now that looks great on top of houses in the middle of a block of rowhouses, doesn’t it?
Jeremy Sapienza September 18th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Wow, those are exceptionally ugly.
FormerRidgewoodite September 28th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Until about 10-15 years ago or so, this particular block of Palmetto St still had it’s oringal orange brick cobblestones as the street surface. I was sorry to see it paved over in the earlky 90′s. I guess they are still under there and can restore them if they wanted to. I wonder why they don’t include some other of the famous Matthews Flat building blocks which would be Putnam, Madison, and Cornelia between Woodward and Onderdonk.
The unfortunate thing with those Matthews buildings is that while the buildings are mostly intact, within the last 20 years, most have lost their old iron railings with the posts on the end. A shame.
Christopher December 5th, 2009 at 1:29 am
I’m generally one that believes buildings should evolve. Reuse and reinvention of forms is what make cities unique. But I do think there is a falsehood in the idea that historic preservation doesn’t benefit lower income people — reusing and restoring are vastly cheaper ways to maintain and develop buildings. The cost of new construction is quite high. With an older building, the “start-up” costs are built into the building. So the only issue is one of maintenance. Of course that’s part of the rub, and why the perception is that preservation raises costs — we’re dealing with massive disinvestment in cities. Or have been dealing with. Rapid disinvestment (sometimes erroneously called white-flight — it was really more middle class flight — brought on by unscrupulous real estate agents who went about down zoning neighborhoods, buying properties and stuffing them full of families, and other acts against the community. So yeah, to restore a building, takes some some money. Not as much as tearing it down and rebuilding though. Leaving it to rot in place is horrible negligent and encourages the sprawl that many of us city dwellers are trying to escape.