Imperial Apartments
1198 Pacific Street | also 1327 Grant Square, 1339 Grant Square, 1327 Bedford Avenue | Crown Heights | built 1892
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1892
Developer Louis F. Seitz commissions Montrose Morris, who had won him over with an open house
To advertise his new practice, architect Montrose W. Morris built his own house on Hancock Street and opened it to the public. Louis F. Seitz was among the visitors and hired Morris to design the Alhambra apartments on Nostrand Avenue. Seitz then commissioned two more large apartment houses from him, the Renaissance and the Imperial, which was designed in 1892.
“One of the visitors impressed with Morris's work was Louis F. Seitz who commissioned him to design an apartment house…”
- 1892
One of Brooklyn's first apartment houses meant for the middle class
The landmark report calls the Imperial one of Brooklyn's earliest apartment houses designed for middle-class families. Until then the standard middle-class home was a single-family rowhouse, and people looked down on 'flathouse' living. Rich materials and sound design were meant to attract families, and the building's mass blends with the surrounding brick and brownstone rowhouses.
“The Imperial is one of the earliest apartment houses to be built in Brooklyn that was designed for the middle class.”
- 1892
Hailed as the finest apartment building in Brooklyn, with bankers and stockbrokers as early tenants
Brownstoner reports that the Daily Eagle called the new Imperial the finest apartment building in Brooklyn and a rival to the Dakota. Each apartment had seven to nine rooms, with parlors, library and dining room opening into one another through pocket doors. The first tenants were stockbrokers, importers and bankers.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1892
A French Renaissance chateau in buff brick and terra cotta, with round corner towers
Montrose Morris based the design on 16th-century French chateaux, using buff Roman brick, terra cotta, slate and metal. The Pacific Street front has a central pavilion between full-height round towers, with monumental Corinthian columns and arches. The longer Grant Square side has an arcade of paired Corinthian columns, and conical slate roofs cap the towers.
“The design of the Imperial is based on the 16th-century chateaux of Renaissance France…”
- 1986
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Imperial Apartments
The commission designated the building on March 18, 1986, after a hearing on June 14, 1983 at which five witnesses spoke for designation and none against. The landmark report described it as among Brooklyn's most dignified and imposing apartment houses and a major structure on Grant Square.
“Five witnesses spoke in favor of designation. No witnesses spoke in opposition to designation.”
- 2006
A restoration turns the boarded-up building into affordable housing
By the end of the 20th century the Imperial was boarded up. In 2006 GM Architects led a restoration for Pacific Village, LLC that gutted the interior and reconfigured it for affordable housing, while the exterior was restored with copper trim put back to patinate. The project earned a 2007 Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Brooklyn Building Award.
Source: brownstoner.com
Further reading
- Imperial ApartmentsWikipedia
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