210 Rugby Road, Prospect Park South Historic District, Victorian Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York
I just learned from Living in Victorian Flatbush, the blog of real estate broker Mary Kay Gallagher and company, that you can now buy tickets for the Flatbush Development Corporation's 2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour.
The house featured in the photograph on FDC's House Tour page is 210 Rugby Road. I hope this means it's on the tour this year. This is in the Prospect Park South Historic District, and it's one of my favorites. At the top of this post is one of my photographs of this house. It's a perfect Queen Anne Victorian, with a turret and wrap-around porch. It's also visible from Beverly Road, so I pass it nearly twice every weekday going to and from the subway.
One change this year is that the tour starts out at Temple Beth Emeth at the corner of Church Avenue and Marlborough Road. This is on the north edge of the Prospect Park South Historic District. The past two years, the starting point has been the Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church in the Ditmas Park Historic District.
I'm disappointed in two more changes for this year's tour:
- There are only 12 houses on the tour this year. This is fewer than last year, which was fewer still than the year before. I don't know if this is a trend, or what this signifies for the long-term viability of the tours.
- The past two years have been House & Garden Tours. This year, apparently, no gardens are on the tour. Surely there are gardeners willing to open their spaces to visitors. Maybe the audiences for garden and house tours are simply too incompatible.
Take the Q train to CHURCH AVENUE, not Beverley Road (or Beverly, both spellings are used). Exit at the Church Avenue (south) end of the station. The start of the tour, Temple Beth Emeth, is on Church Avenue at the corner of Marlborough Road, just three streets West of the station. (Marlborough Road is the same as East 15th Street.)
You can walk 2-1/2 blocks North to Church Avenue from Beverley Road to get there. It's just a longer walk. On the other hand, it's also a prettier walk, since you walk through the Prospect Park Historic District. Take your pick!
Beautiful. That reminds me so much of the Victorians in the old downtown neighborhoods of Knoxville, Tennessee - my pre-Brooklyn stomping grounds.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to sign up for that tour.
OK. I just bought two tickets via paypal. Can't wait.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up on this - I think the BIB staff will try and make this, production schedule permitting. Great image by the way.
ReplyDeleteGetting a home ready for a hosue tour is alot of work. It is also a very emotional experience. People walk through your home making comments on your design/decor and some of the comments are rude. When I attend hosue tours I am always minful; that someone has been gracious enough to open theri home to me. I always save any comments for after I exit and always thank the homeowner and any volunteer. If we don't get more voluteers to help scout possible homes and then give them the support that they need on the day of tour, these tours may become a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteDOTS: I hope to see you next weekend!
ReplyDeleteAK: Hope you can make it. We'll have a blogger meetup!
It's hard to take a bad picture of most of these houses, especially in Prospect Park South.
Anon: Thanks for your insight. It sounds like you're speaking from experience.
We've not had the opportunity to open any of our home to visitors; we're years of work away from considering it. My gardens are in better shape, but even they are at least a year or two away from tour-worthiness.
One thing I've always taken away from each house - and garden - I've visited: the pride that the homeowners and visitors take in their homes, and the vision, commitment and patience - not to mention resources - it takes to restore and renovate. I am concerned about the long-term viability of this event. I don't know what could help ensure its future.
I have been talking with some neighbor gardeners about what we could do for a garden tour. I think we might have more success with a garden-only tour, separate from the house tour. What do you think?
I have heard our house tour compared to Cape May NJ's Victorian week house tours. Many of the houses on those tours are B&B's, mixed with personal homes. Our neighborhood is pretty much all family's homes. And yes, to have a home ready and prepared for a house tour is not just a huge undertaking but good timing! For example, if the garden looks good, it is time to paint the outside, and if the outside looks good, oops, the kitchen is ready to be updated or the upstairs bathroom just leaked! So all things considered, cherish the 12 homes that are on the tour and hope for more synchonicity next year.
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