Clinton Hill Queen Anne

This Queen Anne rowhouse and its adjacent twin were commissioned in 1887 by Charles Erhart as homes for his two daughters. In the following decades, this Clinton Hill landmark had multiple owners and served uses as varied as offices for the Brooklyn Public Library, a Catholic girls’ school, and a recording studio/rooming house.

Our challenge was to rehabilitate this landmark for a family that had fallen in love with the building and wanted it as their home. They valued entertaining and hosting and with this in mind, we worked to preserve the traditional details and grand scale throughout the lower levels while simultaneously enhancing connection and spatial flow. To house the new kitchen, we built a curved extension on top of the original foundation of a long-gone conservatory. To connect the parlor level and basement, we replaced a narrow back stair with a new sculptural open riser staircase allowing light to penetrate from the skylight above. At the floors above we removed walls to restore bedrooms to their original proportions and create private sanctuaries away from the bustle of entertaining below.

Restored, this Grande Dame of a building serves as a hub both of family life for its owners and of social and cultural life for the wider community.