678 Lafayette Avenue House

678 Lafayette Avenue | also 677 Lafayette Avenue | Bedford-Stuyvesant | built 1931

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. 1880

    William and Henrietta Lemken build the neo-Grec rowhouses at 678 and 679 Lafayette Avenue as a pair

    The Lemkens bought enough property in the late 1870s to build both houses, which went up together between 1880 and 1883. The 1880 Atlas of the City of Brooklyn still showed vacant lots on the site. The report calls 678 a three-story brownstone in the neo-Grec style.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1883

    The house is a neo-Grec brownstone with incised ornament and a heavy wooden cornice

    The report calls 678 a very fine example of neo-Grec design, a style that used simple incised ornament in place of deep carving. It rises three stories above a high basement, with a doorway framed by shell-motif brackets and a wooden roof cornice on closely spaced brackets. The report says the style appears late for Brooklyn but was common outside Manhattan into the 1890s.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1885

    May 1

    John H. Berresford, likely the first resident, is listed at 678 Lafayette Avenue

    Brooklyn directories list Berresford living at 678 as of May 1, 1885, and the report concludes he was the house's first resident. He stayed until 1892, with jobs listed as clerk, salesman, superintendent and finally manager of an unnamed business. He then moved to 197 Van Buren Street.

    “John H. Berresford was listed as living at 678 Lafayette Avenue as of May 1, 1885; it appears that he was the first resident of this house…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1977

    July 12

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates 678 Lafayette Avenue as a landmark

    The Commission designated the house on July 12, 1977, after a hearing where seven witnesses spoke for designation and none against. It praised the building's rich incised ornament and its position facing Tompkins Park. It also credited the house with helping to shelter the landmarked Magnolia Grandiflora tree.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 23 buildings with stories in Bedford-Stuyvesant