Renaissance Apartments

140 Hancock Street | also 482 Nostrand Avenue, 480 Nostrand Avenue | Bedford-Stuyvesant | built 1892

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1892

    Realtor Louis Seitz hires Montrose Morris for the Renaissance Apartments

    Louis F. Seitz, a local realtor, commissioned architect Montrose W. Morris in 1892 to design the Renaissance on the corner of Hancock Street and Nostrand Avenue. Seitz had first hired Morris for the Alhambra, on Nostrand Avenue opposite the new Girls' High School, and was so pleased that he ordered this building and the Imperial as well.

    “…commissioned by Louis F. Seitz, a local realtor, in 1892 and designed by the noted Brooklyn architect, Montrose W. Morris…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1892

    The Renaissance is among Brooklyn's earliest apartment houses designed for the middle class

    When the Renaissance went up, middle-class New Yorkers in Brooklyn still lived in single-family rowhouses, and there was real prejudice against flat living. Apartment houses only became socially acceptable late in the century. The quality of the design and the richness of its materials were meant to win middle-class families over to the idea.

    “It was only toward the end of the century, that it became socially acceptable to live in an apartment house.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1892

    A striped brick and terra cotta apartment house with conical towers recalls French Renaissance models

    The commission report says the design recalls its French Renaissance antecedents. The facade is built of buff Roman brick and terra cotta in continuous striped bands, with a central pavilion on Nostrand Avenue carrying Corinthian columns. Round corner towers with slate conical roofs and a steep slate mansard fifth story complete the design.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1986

    March 18

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Renaissance Apartments after a 1983 hearing

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on June 14, 1983; five witnesses spoke in favor of designation and none opposed. It designated the apartment house at 140-144 Hancock Street a landmark on March 18, 1986. The landmark site is Brooklyn Tax Map Block 1837, Lot 53.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

Nearby

All 23 buildings with stories in Bedford-Stuyvesant