John and Elizabeth Truslow House
96 Brooklyn Avenue | also 1331 Dean Street | Crown Heights | built 1905
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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
Elizabeth Truslow buys the Brooklyn Avenue corner lot, and her husband John hires the Parfitt Brothers
Elizabeth K. Truslow, wife of John Truslow, bought the empty lot at the northwest corner of Brooklyn Avenue and Dean Street on June 4, 1887. John Truslow had been a stove manufacturer and then president of the Brooklyn Board of Assessors from 1873 to 1886. The year after he retired, he commissioned the architects Parfitt Brothers to build the family's new house, after the family had lived in a wooden house at Brooklyn Avenue and Pacific Street.
- 1887
The Parfitt Brothers build a red brick Queen Anne house with gabled wings that seem to float
The Truslow House, built in 1887-88, is a three-story Queen Anne house of red brick with sandstone and granite trim. Instead of heavy ornament, the Parfitt Brothers stressed its shape: gabled wings cut away at the first story so they seem to float, topped by gables, towers, finials and chimneys. The corner entrance porch rests on granite columns. The Landmarks Preservation Commission called it one of the firm's finest houses.
- 1892
A state census finds John and Elizabeth Truslow at home with three sons and five servants
The February 1892 New York State census listed the Truslow house as home to John Truslow, 65, and his wife Elizabeth, 57. Their sons Robert, a journalist, and the students Arthur and Walter lived there too. So did an older woman named Hester Truslow, a missionary from Jamaica named Jane G. Sharpe, and five female servants from the United States, England, Ireland, Scotland and Sweden.
“…the census enumerator for New York State recorded the house as occupied by the 65 year old John Truslow and his 57 year old wife Elizabeth…”
- 1896
Elizabeth Truslow sells the house to Rev. Adolphus Behrends of Central Congregational Church
In 1896 Elizabeth Truslow sold 96 Brooklyn Avenue to the Rev. Adolphus J.P. Behrends, who served as minister at Central Congregational Church on Hancock Street, one of Brooklyn's largest and most prestigious congregations. He did not live in the house long, dying a few years after the move. By the 1900 census his wife Frances was listed as the household's head, and the home also held two sons, her brother and mother, a niece and an Irish servant.
“In 1896, Elizabeth Truslow sold the house at 96 Brooklyn Avenue to the Reverend Adolphus J.P. Behrends, minister of the Central Congregational Church…”
- 1910
A coffee exporter's household of 29 people fills the house
In 1910 the heirs of William Hoople, a merchant who had bought the house in 1902 and did not live long afterward, sold it to Maria de Angel, wife of the South American coffee exporter Alezandro de Angel. The family lived there for ten years. The household included the couple's five sons, nine daughters who were unmarried, two married daughters and their husbands, three grandchildren and six servants, 29 people in all.
“The de Angels lived in the house for ten years with their five sons, nine unmarried daughters, two married daughters with their husbands…”
- 1943
Dr. Ethlin Lamos buys the house and turns part of it into apartments and an office
The marble dealer Edward McGratty and his wife Helen had owned the house from 1920 to 1943, living there with six sons, a daughter and two servants in 1925. In 1943 it was sold to Dr. Ethlin Lamos, whose estate held it until 1995. He lived and practiced there, and under him the upper floors became apartments. Then in 1954 he put up a one-story extension at the rear and gave the two-story rear wing a third story.
- 1995
Sue Simmonds buys the house after seeing it from the B65 bus, and gets code violations
Sue Simmonds said the house caught her eye from the B65 bus and seemed to be asking for help; in 1995 she paid $175,000 for it. It had long since been cut up into six rent-stabilized units plus an apartment for the owner. She started the landmarking process, but tenants soon reported missing repairs and the city cited her for more than 150 code violations that were already on record when she bought. Brownstoner reports she eventually lost the building.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 1997
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Truslow House
On September 16, 1997, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the John and Elizabeth Truslow House, on Block 1208, Lot 47, as an individual landmark. At the hearing that May, two people spoke in favor, including the owner, and nobody opposed. The commission described it as a major work of the Parfitt Brothers and one of the firm's best residential designs, one that kept almost all of its original exterior forms and materials.
- 2013
Neighborhood Restore buys the Truslow House for about $52,000, and it is later sold for affordable housing
The nonprofit Neighborhood Restore bought the house in 2013 for a little more than $52,000, with permits to renovate its seven apartments, according to Brownstoner. A later update says the nonprofit sold it to NIA JV, LLC, working with ELH Mgmt., which had restored the Imperial Apartments. Those partners planned to turn it into affordable housing and had filed plans with the LPC for exterior restoration.
Source: brownstoner.com
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