{"nrhp_refnum":"95001026","name":"Renaissance Apartments","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"480 Nostrand Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brooklyn","county":"Brooklyn","state":"NY","lat":40.68232749200007,"lon":-73.95020350099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-08-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story masonry apartment building at 480 Nostrand Avenue, on the corner of Hancock Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, built in 1892 to designs by Montrose W. Morris.","why_significant":"The building is argued to be a distinctive and fanciful example of luxury apartment house design in Brooklyn. It is also an important work of Montrose W. Morris, an architect noted for residential work in New York City. It shows the French Renaissance style through its corner towers, steep roofs and elaborate terra cotta ornament, and it reflects Bedford-Stuyvesant's first major speculative real estate boom.","narrative":"Completed in 1892 at the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Hancock Street in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, this five-story apartment house was designed by architect Montrose W. Morris for realtor Louis F. Seitz. Buff-colored Roman brick facades are covered with terra cotta trim, including engaged Corinthian columns, Greek frets and coffered arches. Three conical-roofed corner towers, steep slate mansard roofs and a pavilion-like entrance bay give the building its French Renaissance character. It was one of three large apartment houses Morris designed for Seitz, and these were among the most prestigious multiple-family residences in Brooklyn. The building rose during the area's first major speculative building boom, when ferries, rail links and the Brooklyn Bridge turned a rural district into a dense residential one. Later alterations include added fire escapes, an enclosed entrance and a rooming-house conversion in 1943, reversed in 1955. The building is still used as apartments.","period_of_significance":"1892","architect_builder":"Morris, Montrose W.","architectural_style":"Late Victorian: French Renaissance","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still used as multiple dwellings. The interior has been renovated several times and no original finishes survive. Exterior alterations include a later entrance enclosure and added fire escapes.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:50.68639-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/95001026.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001026/0653847e43-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001026/0653847e43-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Onorland","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Renaissance_Apartments.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Onorland</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Renaissance_Apartments.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318505","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Apartments","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7312400"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/brooklyn/renaissance-apartments-95001026/"}