Boerum Hill Historic District

Boerum Hill, in Brooklyn, is a neighborhood of roughly 250 townhouses and a few small commercial buildings erected between 1845 and 1890. The rows sit mainly on four long east-west streets: Pacific, Dean, Bergen and Wyckoff. Most houses are three-story brick buildings with stoops and areaways, built in a late Greek Revival or early Italianate manner, with some Gothic Revival, Second Empire, Neo Grec and Queen Anne examples. Their similar massing and materials give the area an unusually uniform appearance. Many retain original cast and wrought iron railings and entrances. Development began with speculative townhouse construction in the late 1840s, and little substantial building followed after the 1880s. The neighborhood housed local merchants and businessmen, and also some locally prominent residents, including Brooklyn Eagle editor Samuel G. Arnold. It was listed for its architectural quality and as a surviving example of mid-nineteenth century middle-class urban housing. Only twelve of nearly 250 buildings are considered intrusions.