This $10M historic wood-frame in Brooklyn Heights is one of the neighborhood’s oldest homes
Photo courtesy of Douglas Elliman
Listed for a Heights-priced $9,950,000, this compact wood-frame home at 69 Orange Street makes up in history and location what it may lack in size. Charming inside and out, the 1829 townhouse on a covetable, picturesque “fruit street” is on the market for the first time in nearly a century. Though the home could use some TLC from what we can see, there are plenty of period details, and it has been equipped with a central A/C and a washer and dryer.
Victorian add-ons to the Federal clapboard-style home include its distinctive mansard roof with gingerbread details. Interior architectural details include handrails, millwork, hardware, and molding accentuated with historic milk paint. There are six fireplaces throughout the house, five of which are fully operational.
The 2,570-square-foot home begins with the kitchen and dining room on the garden level in classic Victorian style. On the parlor floor are the more formal rooms, which here include a library and a formal dining room. The home’s wrap-around outdoor space includes a large backyard with a bluestone patio below a terrace.
On two upper floors are four large bedrooms, two home-office-ready small rooms, and 2.5 baths
The home’s location offers more from history than mere charm: The property next door is the historically significant Plymouth Church, whose first preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, was a prominent abolitionist (and brother of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” author Harriet Beecher Stowe). Famous church visitors included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Abraham Lincoln, and Mark Twain, and the church was known as a hub of the Underground Railroad.
The property’s first owner was Sarah Gracie, daughter of Martha Middagh (Van Nostrand), whose claim to fame was giving the aforementioned Brooklyn Heights “Fruit Streets” their names.
[At Douglas Elliman by Monica Luque]
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Photo courtesy of Douglas Elliman
