177 Livingston Street is a handsome Romanesque office building at Gallatin Place. It was originally part of the Abraham & Straus department store complex, which once occupied 7 separate buildings along Fulton and Livingston Streets. The building features rounded corners — unusual in Brooklyn, but frequently found in the Bronx — bands of contrasting color brick, and distinctive terra cotta leaf trim in arches above the ground floor windows and entrances. Architect George Morse built several buildings in the downtown Brooklyn area.
Livingston Street is named for Revolutionary patriot Philip Livingston, the only signer of the Declaration of Independence from Brooklyn. His cousin Robert Livingston was also a founding father and worked closely with Robert Fulton in developing Fulton’s steamship Clermont. Roberts Fulton and Livingston have parallel streets named for them in downtown Brooklyn. Gallatin Place is likely named for Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) a diplomat, Senator and longest-serving Secretary of the Treasury. Fulton and Gallatin are buried in the Trinity Cemetery churchyard on Broadway and Wall Street.
5/16/14
1 comment
I used to love going to A & downtown bklyn back in the ’70’s with the subway platform and stop downstairs in the store.
It was rumored that A & B was associated with Bloomingdales. Who knows?
Thank you for keeping it all alive.