Luxury Condos Coming Soon – 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, New York

According to the New York Times (February 3, 2008), "At Seventh Avenue and Second Street, on a prime corner in the heart of Park Slope, stands an abandoned brownstone whose state of disrepair has been a source of local speculation for years. The peeling paint decorating the first story, on which mermaidlike women in rainbow-bright colors emerge from a yellow background, hints at the neighborhood’s vanishing bohemian past. But the building, at 187 Seventh Avenue, is bordered by a sidewalk shed, and windows visible overhead have been boarded up. The structure radiates a mysterious, haunted quality that encourages local residents to wonder why the place has fallen into such disrepair and what, if anything, is to come of the valuable property.

The owner, Dorothy Nash, a retired high school art teacher who still maintains a home in the neighborhood, used to live there with her family. Several decades ago, before Park Slope became fully gentrified, the building was home to tenants as well as several now-defunct businesses. On the Second Street side are three abandoned storefronts, one of which still bears a sign reading Baby Doll Boutique. It was there about a decade ago that Esther Nash, a daughter of the building’s owner, started a boutique when she was a student at Fashion Institute of Technology. Esther Nash went on to open a men’s boutique called Sugar Daddy next door. But it was the Landmark Pub, begun by Dorothy Nash about 30 years ago and operated until the late 1990s, that many longtime Park Slopers remember.

The bottom half of a sign from the long-shuttered pub bears the words "Live Music Live, Finest Beer, Wine and Liquors," though former patrons recall room-temperature beer that in their opinion probably came from a Key Food down the block. "There were very few bars in the area even in the ’80s," recalled Ryan Connor, 28, who grew up just a few blocks away and went to school with Esther Nash. "It wasn’t uncommon to see broken doll heads strewn across tables, or a homegrown folk singer playing to an empty bar, playing to the doll heads." According to Dorothy Nash, there was a reason the pub was littered with toys and doll heads. She was a divorced mother of two small children, and the playthings were both necessary diversions and a source of inspiration for her patrons. "When I opened the bar, I had two little girls," Ms. Nash said, "and I had to entertain them during the day while I was preparing for the evening. Then, when I took them home, the toys remained on the tables, and the people would come in and pick them up and they would play with them."

The Nashes say they are seeking investors to transform the building into an arts and media center, with galleries and showrooms for emerging designers. Whatever becomes of the property, Mr. Connor, for one, hopes that it will retain some vestige of its former self. "It’s a salute to the Park Slope of yesteryear," he said, adding, "It should be landmarked, as we probably won’t see the likes of it again."

Now fast forward to June 10, 2014. In the words of a local reporter, "A dilapidated, graffiti-covered Park Slope building is taking steps to be reborn as ultra-luxurious, massive full-floor residences – just like a building a block away where four-bedroom units were recently snatched up for more than $2.395 million apiece." Unfortunately, whatever the condos might look like on the inside, many of the decorative features (the scroll work ornamenting the stone turret) that gave the exterior of the original building its charm have disappeared from the renovated building. Just look at the developers’ promotional photo reproduced below: