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The Beauty of the Brownstone - How NYC Real Estate Got Its Classic Look

New York City’s most iconic residential neighborhoods typically include rows and rows of beautiful Brownstone homes. The gorgeous architecture tends to span the best of city life but also suggest a hint of something more than the purely urban. How did this type of home become so representative of places like New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston? The Brownstone has a surprisingly rich history that includes a number of twists and turns you may not expect!

Brownstones derive their names from a granular, porous sedimentary rock also called Triassic sandstone. During this time in history, enormous deposits of this material accumulated all along what today we know to be the Connecticut River Valley. When English settlers first arrived on American shores, they opted for brownstone material for homemaking because of its malleability relative to much harder granite, although the latter was readily available and abundant locally. In addition to it being easier to work with, brownstone was also preferable due to its gorgeous color.

As the United States population exploded over time, so too did the use of brownstones. Very quickly, its low mining cost became a third benefit over competing raw material for builders to consider when constructing new homes. Because there was so much brownstone in easily accessible areas to all major urban areas in the Northeast - specifically Boston and New York - it rapidly intensified its reputation as the material of choice.

Brownstones as we know them today date back to the early 1800s, when the Queen Anne style gained favor in places like Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. As the country grew wealthier, affluent members of communities in these booming cities sought ways to illustrate their newfound wealth. As such, they opted for elaborate home designs, complete with carved exteriors, intricate detailing, and high stairway entrances. Globally renowned architects like Robert Adam, Charles Bulfinch, and Normand Show heavily influenced the style as well.

Charles Bulfinch actually earned a place in history as the man who many experts recognize as the first American to practice architecture as his profession. Among the many projects he oversaw, such iconic landmarks as the Capital Building in D.c., the Boston Commons, and much of Harvard University are the result of his work.

Key visual elements of classic brownstones include overhanging eaves, a second-story porch, pedimented porches, dentils, oriel and bay windows, painted balustrades, spindle work, and more. The details typically vary, as preferences ebbed and flowed over the past few decades, but the overall look remains as immediately recognizable as ever. Brownstones are certain to continue playing a prominent role in the aesthetic wealth of places like New York city for many more centuries to come.

Liberty Island’s Dynamic Past

Since she was reassembled in the United States and begun her proud residence in America, the Statue of Liberty has led a wild and adventurous “life” as one of the country’s most prominent monuments. In the decades that followed her establishment, she became an increasingly significant symbol and source of inspiration to the immigrant men, women, and children who sailed under her gaze on the last leg of their trip to New York’s shores. She was made even more spectacular, given her position inside the courtyard of Fort Wood’s star-shape walls - a military installation that dated back to the War of 1812.

The United States Lighthouse board was charged with operating and maintaining the Statue of Liberty until the start of the 1900s. At that time, the War Department took over. On October 15, 1924, A Presidential Proclamation officially declared Fort Wood - and, by extension, the Statue of Liberty which stood on its grounds - a National Monument. As the 1930s got underway, administration of the National Monument transferred onto the National Park Service where it remains. In 1937, all of Bedloe’s Island (now called Liberty Island) was put under the National Park Service’s jurisdiction. Ellis Island was folded into the same management on May 11, 1965, and officially became a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

In the beginning of the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan assigned Lee Iacocca to lead a private sector-funded restoration of the Statue of Liberty. Lacocca was, at the time, the Chairman of the Chrysler Corporation and led the charge for what was an $87 million restoration effort. They established a public/private partnership between the government’s National Park Service and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. Even today, this effort remains the most successful partnership of its type in our nation’s history.

As part of the restoration work, the French and Americans once again teamed up, as architects, engineers, and conservators from both countries joined together to figure out exactly how to best preserve the Statue for generations to come. They erected scaffolding and repaired holes, removes paint, and replaced rusting iron with stainless steel. The flame and parts of the torch that had been damaged  by water over the decades was replaced by an exact replica. They took special care to recreate Bartholdi’s original plans, to the smallest detail. On July 5, 1986, a newly refurbished Statue reopened in celebration of the 100-year anniversary.

The Surprising History of Lady Liberty

For over 100 years, the Statue of Liberty has stood as a testament to the United States’ proud ideals, as well as a symbol of New York City as the vibrant heart of this great nation. Its status as such was cemented at the turn of the last century, when the Statue was the first thing the masses of immigrants traveling to be processed on Ellis Island saw that stood proudly on the American soil which would soon welcome them with open arms. Experts currently estimate that nearly half of all American people descend at least in some part from the communities that passed by on these ships. Clearly, the Statue of Liberty deserves its exalted position as a facet of the collective American identity.

Therefore, you may be somewhat bemused to learn that the Statue is far from an exclusively American endeavor. In fact, the monument is actually a give from the French, proposed by a gentleman named Edouard de Laboulaye all the way back in 1865. A decade later, the famous sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi won the right to design it, with the desired date of completion being just a short two years later. One approved, the design’s execution became a joint endeavor by both the United States and France. The two allies titled the project, “Liberty Enlightening the World.”

Unfortunately, both countries quickly ran into funding troubles. The French employed a number of different tactics to raise money, including public fees, charging for government-sponsored entertainment, and a lottery. The United States mirrored those efforts with their own fundraising approach that included art exhibitions, auctions, and prizefights.

Bartholdi, who had designed the beautiful monument, also quickly embraced the fact that he would need significant help from an engineer to resolve any potential structural problems relevant to building such an enormous thing. The United States was responsible for building the pedestal, but they too had issues. Joseph Pulitzer gained fame for allowing the editorial pages of his widely circulated newspaper to encourage support for the project and condemn those who were not being active enough to resolve the financial shortfalls that were plaguing the project. Finally, in 1885, the fundraising goal was met. The project was completed the following year. In France, they had completed the Statue a little bit earlier, in the summer of 1884. Nearly exactly one year later, the Statue was on a ship from France bound for New York city. You may be surprised to learn the Statue was shipped in pieces and reassembled atop the pedestal over the course of four months. In October, 1886, President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated the Statue of Liberty in front of an enormous crowd of spectators.