House Almost Demolished By Neglect – Restored!
This old house: Restored!
By Christie Rizk
The Brooklyn Paper
The Brooklyn Paper / Julie Rosenberg
The once-decrepit house at 135 Joralemon St., a neighborhood eyesore even before a 2004 fire (top), has been lovingly restored and is on the market (bottom).
This Brooklyn Heights house — long abandoned and then horribly damaged in a 2004 fire — is ready to make its return to civilization, thanks to a local developer and restorer who refused to see the grand dame rot away.
The house at 135 Joralemon St. had spent the last decade in a state of genteel dilapidation, its owners unable to maintain it well, and derided by residents as “the haunted house of Brooklyn Heights,” said Brooklyn Heights Association Executive Director Judy Stanton.
The house, a protected historic landmark since 1966, had fallen into disrepair, despite a city rule that requires all landmarked houses to be kept in “a state of good repair.”
By 2003, Time Out New York even called it one of the 13 creepiest places in the city. “It’s easy to picture Uncle Fester roaming the attic, testing light bulbs in his mouth — or Jeffrey Dahmer in the basement, dismembering corpses,” the magazine said.
The Dec. 31, 2004 fire completed the house’s decay (see photo left), but then the city stepped in.
“We spent a year trying to get the owner to fix up the house,” said John Weiss, deputy counsel for the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Commission even tried suing to get the owner, Alfred Palmer, to comply with the demands to fix the house.
Instead, Palmer sold the three-story house for $2.4 million in October to Howard Haimes, a local developer with a background in high-end restorations.
Haimes spent seven months restoring the circa-1833 building to its former glory.
“I’ve been wanting to do the restoration ever since I saw the place,” said Haimes, who lives on Garden Place. “It’s been a very fulfilling project.”
The 174-year-old house is unique to Brooklyn Heights, said Haimes, who thinks the house was actually built in 1828.
“That’s significantly old, especially for Brooklyn,” he said.
Haimes spent what he calls a “significant amount of money” fixing the house from top to bottom — he replaced the roof, rebuilt the sagging back porch, replaced the plumbing, electrical and heating systems, and renovated the kitchen and bathrooms.
Palmer, who lives on Hicks Street, didn’t want to comment on the new renovations.
But the neighbors approve.
“I think everyone in the neighborhood was looking forward to it being restored,” said Heights resident John Loscalzo.
Now it’s on the market.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper