Astral Apartments
180 Franklin Street | also 76 India Street, 74 India Street, 186 Franklin Street | Greenpoint | built 1886
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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.
- 1885
Charles Pratt has Lamb & Rich build the Astral Apartments for Greenpoint workers
In 1885-86 the oil merchant and philanthropist Charles Pratt put up the Astral Apartments as housing for Greenpoint-area workers, hiring the New York firm Lamb & Rich as architects. The six-story brick and terra-cotta building takes up the whole Franklin Street blockfront between India and Java Streets. The Landmarks Preservation Commission later described its features as a sharp break from the usual standards for workers' housing.
“In 1885-86, Charles Pratt, oil merchant and philanthropist, built the Astral Apartments for workers in the Greenpoint area.”
- 1886
The Astral's plan gives workers' flats running water, a window in every room and basement baths
Brownstoner reports that Lamb & Rich based the Astral on the Peabody workers' housing in London. The six-story walk-up was built with 108 apartments, each with hot and cold running water, a stove and a toilet room of its own. Sections reaching into a courtyard gave every room a window, and tenants bathed in marble-partitioned rooms in the basement.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1888
Two attempts to burn down the Astral are reported within about two years of its completion
Atlas Obscura's entry on the Astral says there were two separate attempts to burn the building down, about two years after it went up in 1886. The account does not say who was responsible or how much damage was done. Charles Pratt had built the apartment house for the workers at his Astral Oil Works, and it is now a city landmark.
Source: atlasobscura.com
- 1894
The Astral Kindergarten opens in a ground-floor storefront, at first for tenants' children
In 1894 the Astral Kindergarten began operating from one of the building's ground-floor storefronts, welcoming tenants' children first and then other children. A library had opened in the 1890s in the India Street storefront, again for tenants at first, and later became a Brooklyn Public Library branch. Brownstoner notes that by 2018 the library space was a laundromat and the kindergarten space a restaurant.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1983
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Astral Apartments a city landmark
On June 28, 1983, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Astral Apartments, at 184 Franklin Street, a New York City landmark. At the public hearing on July 8, 1980, three witnesses spoke in favor and none against. In its findings the commission called the building among the city's most significant apartment houses of the 19th century and an early example of model housing built for workers.
“Three witnesses spoke in favor of designation. There were no speakers in opposition to designation.”
- 2011
Kate Christensen sets her novel The Astral in the Franklin Street apartment house
Kate Christensen's 2011 novel The Astral takes place in the Astral Apartments. The real building is the block-long Queen Anne apartment house that Charles Pratt put up in 1885-86 for employees of his Astral Oil Works. Wikipedia notes that its original amenities included a settlement house, a library and a kindergarten.
“The building is the fictional setting for Kate Christensen's 2011 novel The Astral: A Novel.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Astral ApartmentsWikipedia
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