Prospect Park has a number of surprises that were in place long before the Park was created in the 1870s. One of these is Litchfield Villa, just inside the entrance at Prospect Park West and 5th Street. It was built by engineer Edwin Litchfield, who figures prominently in early Park Slope and Gowanus history: he built the Brooklyn Improvement Company headquarters on 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street (left empty for many years but now being restored by the adjoining Whole Foods) and in great part, leveled the Revolutionary-era Old Stone House that was later reassembled in Byrne Park on 3rd Street and 4th Avenue.
The villa was designed by prolific architect Alexander Jackson Davis, who spearheaded the Gothic Revival style.
The south side of the villa has an enclosed porch with a driveway alongside. This may have been a carriage entrance area a one time. The pillars in the Corinthian form, but in a very special modified style. Note the corncob and wheatsheaf detail at the top of each column. The columns themselves are modeled after bamboo stalks!
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