It’s hard to nail down my favorite building in Clinton Hill but there’s a good chance that it’s the Joseph Steele House, #200 Lafayette Avenue at Vanderbilt, one of the largest and grandest woodframe antebellum houses remaining in Clinton Hill. The cupola is a nice touch and must have afforded views across the fields to downtown Brooklyn and to the waterfront when the house was built around 1850.
Maybe it’s near where you live and you pass by all the time or maybe it’s in a neighborhood you get to less frequently, but it’s a house that you have an emotional attachment to even though you’ve never set foot inside. For us, that house is the Joseph Steele House on the southeast corner of Lafayette and Vanderbilt. Whenever we walk by (which is frequently) we’re always hoping we’ll get to see something we haven’t before: Maybe the garden door will be open a crack and we’ll catch a glimpse of what the back stair looks like. Or maybe a light will be on in the dining room and we’ll get to see if there are moldings on the ceiling. And, of course, there are the fantasies of someday living there. We’re not the only one with a certain affection for this place. Here’s what the AIA Guide has to say about the 1850 charmer:
An extraordinary relic from the days when these precincts were farm country. Greek Revival, with elegant narrow clapboards, a bracketed cornice with eyebrow windows, and a widow’s walk with a view of the harbor in those open, early days. It wears its age well, with dignity. Jon Butler, formerly of Brownstoner
Yeah, I’d like a look inside, too. Across Lafayette Avenue is the formidable Queen of All Saints Church, and down the block is the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Architects knew what they were doing back then. Here’s more.
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10/24/23