Greenpoint Home for the Aged
137 Oak Street | Greenpoint | built 1887
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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.
- 1887
Ladies Benevolent Association buys the Guernsey Street lot from Samuel Tilden's estate for $2,750
By January 1887 the Ladies Benevolent Association of the 17th Ward, which ran the Greenpoint Home for the Aged, had found a site for a permanent building. That month the Real Estate Record and Guide listed a $2,750 sale of land on Guernsey Street, bought from the estate of Samuel J. Tilden. Architect Theobald Englehardt was hired, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that the work would cost $12,000 including the land.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1887
Theobald Engelhart designs the Home for the Aged with a pedimented center bay and an iron cornice
The landmark designation report credits Theobald Engelhart, one of the busiest architects in Brooklyn's Eastern District, with the 1887 building. It is a two-story brick structure with a symmetrical central pavilion crowned by a pediment, round-arched windows with stone keystones, and an iron balcony along the second floor. A three-bay extension to the east was probably added soon after the main building was finished.
“No. 137 was built in 1887 to house the Greenpoint Home for the Aged. The brick structure was designed by Theobald Engelhart…”
- 1888
The new Greenpoint Home for the Aged opens with prayers, songs and poems
On June 14, 1888, a gathering marked the opening of the red brick Romanesque Revival home, with prayers, songs, poems and remarks from several Brooklyn pastors and other notables. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the two-story building held the dining room, laundry and kitchen in its basement, parlors on the ground floor, and above them bedrooms for the residents and a house matron.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1900
The 1900 census counts ten women, two matrons and a servant living at the Home
The 1900 federal census listed ten residents of the Greenpoint Home for the Aged, recorded as inmates, between the ages of 54 and 85, along with two house matrons and a servant. Census records through 1940 show the number of women living there staying fairly steady, from nine to 13. According to an 1897 state report, applicants had to be aged, needy residents of the 17th Ward and pay an admission fee of $50.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1948
The former Home for the Aged is a rooming house with 17 furnished rooms by 1948
By the late 1940s or early 1950s the Home appears to have dissolved, and the property was turned into a rooming house. In 1948 the certificate of occupancy described 17 furnished rooms along with a kitchen, a laundry and a recreation room. A new certificate in 1953 showed that more rooms had been added, bringing the total to 20.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 2008
The Home sells for $500,000 and its 13 SRO tenants organize against being pushed out
After the building was listed for $2.5 million in 2007, the first time it had been on the market in decades, it sold in 2008 for $500,000. Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, an advocacy group, assisted the 13 single-room-occupancy tenants in organizing against possible efforts to remove them. Brownstoner noted that the building, within the Greenpoint Historic District since 1982, might still be serving its original purpose of housing people without other means.
Source: brownstoner.com
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