General Lee Avenue and Robert E. Lee’s former home on Fort Hamilton, via Jeremy Bender/Business Insider

When four Confederate statues were removed in New Orleans last month, many sided with Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s plan, but others felt it was an attempt to erase history. Nevertheless, the monuments all came down, prompting national elected officials to take notice–even here in NYC. As 6sqft previously explained, there exists a General Lee Avenue and a Stonewall Jackson Drive in Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton, the city’s last remaining active-duty military base, and a group of local politicians has sent a letter to Army Secretary Robert Speer asking that they both be renamed, with Colin Powell and Harriet Tubman suggested as possible replacements (h/t Gothamist).

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We may not think first of Bay Ridge when we think of barrel-fronted attached limestone row houses lining sun-dappled city blocks. But they do exist, and this one at 456 74th Street asking $1.575 million is a fine example. This turn-of-the-century townhouse is filled with meticulously restored original details like 10-foot ceilings, oak parquet floors with detailed inlaid borders, pocket doors and fluted oak columns while offering a modern kitchen and bath, basement family room and plenty of play space indoors and out.

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Scoring a rent-stabilized apartment is a big win in New York City, as these regulated pads usually offer rent at below-market rates and provide tenants more protections against landlords. While more than 925,000 rent-stabilized apartments still exist in the city, these units turn over at a faster rate in certain neighborhoods than others, and their availability continues to dwindle (h/t WYNC). According to a new report by the city’s Independent Budget Office (IBO), the neighborhoods of Astoria, Morningside Heights and Bay Ridge all have high concentrations of rent-regulated housing built prior to 1974 and therefore, higher rates of turnover compared to other parts of the city.

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We sometimes see a floor plan that makes this much sense, but not often. This window-wrapped Bay Ridge apartment at 6665 Colonial Road currently has one bedroom, but the potential for another–or even two more–is immediately evident. The flow of space through the home makes important spaces like the kitchen and bath easy to get to from everywhere, while keeping private space private. The home’s interiors are sunny and cozy without being cramped. And $399,000 isn’t a number you see too often in New York City, even in well-kept secret Bay Ridge.

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It’s hard to deny the stateliness of this three-story freestanding home at 8525 Colonial Road in Bay Ridge. It’s located on a 52-by-78-foot corner lot with both a front and back yard. (The large lot also boasts a two-car garage.) Inside, charming details abound, like a wood-burning fireplace and built-in window seat. For this four-bedroom, four-bathroom home, it’ll cost a cool $2.15 million.

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The charm of a freestanding home in the middle of New York City will never get old. This Italiante home, at 237 77th Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bay Ridge, pretty much exudes all the charm and is now asking a cool $2.5 million. The 11-room house has a landscaped front yard that leads to a wrap-around porch. Once inside, a grand entrance leads you to a formal living room with hand-restored crown molding, the original windows, stained glass doors and a side entry back out to the porch. The rest of the house, too, is decked out with historic extravagances like stained glass, pocket doors and a wood-burning fireplace.

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If you’re dreaming of a townhouse in Brooklyn and you haven’t considered Bay Ridge, this 2,424 square-foot two story home at 654 76th Street might change your mind. With four bedrooms, tons of parlor living space, beautifully restored original details and a large, lovely and landscaped yard, there’s not much that isn’t just right about it.

Even the $1.35 million ask seems reasonable in this market, when expanding families are scrambling to find space they can afford. That said, the house last changed hands in 2012 for $625,000 (and we’re thinking the seller was probably happy with that number even then, especially since the home likely hadn’t been renovated).

Tour this not-to-big-not-too-small-home

The quiet old-school neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn is filled with grand and storied homes, from the elegant to the eclectic and, more than occasionally, the awkward. Overlooking the Brooklyn shore of the New York Harbor’s Upper Bay, Shore Road is an architectural mashup of eras and styles, with everything from Deco-esque apartment buildings both plain and fancy to more than its fair share of large and luxurious dwellings that trade for equally luxurious sums.

A $4,580,000 ask breathes some rarified air even in this crazy market, but the house itself fits well within a certain mid- to late-Bay Ridge-style, perhaps best described as an early ’90s interpretation of a Catskills resort contained within a suburban home. This wouldn’t be the first of its kind on Shore Road to command upwards of $4 million; while it’s not the All Marble Everything house, which sold for the tidy sum of $4.4M in April, the house at 7529 Shore Road has charms of its own. The listing promises, “all the architectural drama you can imagine, yet warm and intimate feeling.” And there’s a wall-length aquarium.

Architectural drama, this way

Bay Ridge’s infamous Gingerbread House at 8220 Narrows Avenue is making headlines again. The incredible freestanding home is back on the market after a few different attempts to sell. As Curbed pointed out, the Arts and Crafts home was first asking $12 million in 2009, then the price was lowered a few times, then it was put on the rental market for $26,000 a month. (The broker tells us that it’s only officially been on the market for around two years over a six-year period while the owners did renovations.)

Now it’s back again with brand new photos showing off its extravagant interior, alongside a price tag of $10.999 million. As the broker told us, “The overall market in Brooklyn is strong, particularly in Bay Ridge, which has become the new hot spot as buyers move south – this is an ideal time to put the house back on the market.” We got our hands on the previously-unpublished new images, so take a look and decide if this is finally the time this special house will sell.

To the interior

Built near the turn of the 20th century, this three-story, two-family brick home at 457 Ovington Avenue in Bay Ridge proudly displays many exterior architectural details often lost in newer construction. And those exquisite details happily reflect what you can expect to see after you walk in the front door.

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