299 State Street House
299 State Street | Boerum Hill | built 1874
Open on the map5 entries
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.
- 1874
Builder Michael Murray buys the land for Nos. 297 and 299 State Street from William Schermerhorn
Michael Murray, a local builder who lived at 240 DeKalb Avenue, bought the land for the pair of houses at Nos. 297 and 299 in 1874 from William Schermerhorn, a member of one of Brooklyn's old Dutch landowning families. No. 299 was the last of a row of six houses (Nos. 289-299) he put up on the north side of State Street, much of which was then undeveloped.
“Murray, the builder, acquired the land for the pair, Nos. 297 and 299, in 1874 from William Schermerhorn. The Schermerhorns were one of Brooklyn's old, wealthy Dutch families…”
- 1874
No. 299 is a late Italianate brownstone, nearly identical to its neighbors on State Street
No. 299 belongs to a row of five nearly identical brownstones (Nos. 291-299) in a late Italianate style. The house has a rusticated basement under a three-story front, a round-arched doorway with Corinthian colonnettes, and an ornate roof cornice on foliate brackets. The Commission found it a fine example of the late Italianate style that adds to the dignity of the street.
“Nos. 291 - 299 are five, almost identical, brownstone houses built in a late version of the popular Italianate style.”
- 1876
John C. Herman Frost buys No. 299 from the executors of Michael Murray's estate
In 1876 the house was bought by John C. Herman Frost, a name the Landmarks Preservation Commission gives with the alternate spelling Trost. He purchased it from the executors of the estate of Michael Murray, the builder who had put up the row.
- 1970
Twenty-six witnesses speak for preservation at the hearing on 299 State Street
The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on June 23, 1970, on designating the 299 State Street House as a landmark. Twenty-six witnesses testified for preserving Boerum Hill and for creating a Boerum Hill Historic District, and nobody spoke against designating the State Street houses.
“Twenty-six witnesses spoke in favor of historic preservation in the Boerum Hill neighborhood and for the creation of the Boerum Hill Historic District. There were no speakers in opposition…”
- 1973
The Landmarks Commission designates 299 State Street, one of 23 individually landmarked State Street houses
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the house on November 20, 1973. Instead of a historic district, each of the twenty-three 19th-century houses on State Street between Smith and Hoyt Streets received its own designation report. Brownstoner credits the move with stopping further loss on a block where parking lots had been replacing row houses.
Source: brownstoner.com
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- 297 State Street3 entries
- 295 State Street House295 State Street | 3 entries
- 293 State Street House293 State Street | 3 entries
- 291 State Street House291 State Street | 4 entries
- 320 State Street3 entries
- 318 State Street3 entries