Landmarks Preservation Commission June 25, 2013, Designation List 465 LP- 2549 CATHERINA LIPSIUS HOUSE (AKA DR. FREDERICK A. COOK HOUSE), 670 Bushwick Avenue (aka 670-674 Bushwick Avenue, 676 Bushwick Avenue and 931 Willoughby Avenue), Borough of Brooklyn Built: 1889-90; architect: Theobald Engelhardt Landmark Site: Borough of Brooklyn Tax Map Block 3194. Lot 31 On June 18, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Catherina Lipsius House (aka Dr. Frederick A. Cook House) and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 2). The hearing was advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. There were two speakers in favor of designation including the owner and a representative of the Historic Districts Council. There was a letter from Council Member Diana Reyna in favor of designation. There were no speakers in opposition to designation. Summary This impressive mansion in the American Round- Arched style was constructed for Catherina Lipsius and her family in 1889-90. They were the prosperous owners of the Claus Lipsius Brewing Company, one of the numerous German brewers in Bushwick, Brooklyn at the end of the 19th century. The German community thrived in the Eastern District of Brooklyn, during the second half of the century, bolstered by numerous immigrants fleeing the unsuccessful revolutions in Germany. Henry Claus, Catherina’s first husband, established his brewery in 1865, but died in 1872. The brewery name was changed to the Claus Lipsius Brewery upon Catherina’s marriage to Rudolph Lipsius in 1876. She managed the brewery herself after the deaths of both her husbands, and commissioned this house for her family in 1889. This elaborate American Round-Arched style house was designed by prominent Brooklyn architect Theobald Engelhart, whose work was popular in this German immigrant community. He is responsible for the designs of many important commercial and industrial structures, clubs and residences, including numerous brewery buildings in the neighborhood, many of them using this German-influenced style. Examples of his work include buildings for the William Ulmer Brewery complex in Bushwick (a designated New York City landmark) as well as for the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company (now within the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Historic District). This house, constructed of red brick with stone and terra-cotta trim, features a dramatic, rounded corner tower that is a defining feature of the building. The high mansard roof with pilastered dormers, embellished chimneys and delicate cornice detailing creates a strong finishing statement for the two- and-one-half story building. The main facade is marked by horizontal string courses and moldings, including rough-faced stone that continues over the round-arched windows. The style combines elements from medieval and classical architecture; details from the latter can be seen in the formal columned stone portico at the entrance. To the rear is a two-story section with a columned porch and rear entrance. The Lipsius family sold the house in 1902 to Dr. Frederick A. Cook and his wife, a successful physician and later arctic explorer. Cook became well-known for his claim that he was the first man to reach the summit of Mount McKinley and his subsequent claim that he had reached the North Pole before Robert E. Peary in 1908-09. The controversy between Cooke and Peary continued for many years, ruining the wealth and reputation of both. The house changed hands again in 1920 and was then owned for many years by an Italian family, whose presence in the previously predominantly German area of Bushwick exemplified the changing demographics of the neighborhood. Despite some alterations over time, the house remains remarkably intact and serves as a rare surviving reminder of the late 19th century period when the German immigrant community flourished in Bushwick and the manufacture and consumption of beer was a major part of the lives of people in this community. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS Bushwick, Brooklyn1 The town of Bushwick, near the present boundary between Brooklyn and Queens, was one of the original six towns in Brooklyn. In 1852, Williamsburgh, the western and most populous section of the township, became an independent city. However, its municipal status ended three years later, in 1855, when it and all of Bushwick were incorporated within the City of Brooklyn. Thereafter, until Brooklyn's consolidation into Greater New York in 1898, Bushwick, Williamsburgh and Greenpoint were known collectively as Brooklyn's Eastern District.2 During the 1850s large numbers of Germans immigrated to New York following the political upheavals in central Europe in 1848 and Bushwick began to lose its rural, agricultural landscape. Many of these new immigrants settled in Williamsburgh and Bushwick and began to develop the area's most famous local industry, brewing. The area boasted a number of features attractive to the brewing industry: an abundant water supply, soil suitable for the construction of underground storage chambers, and convenient water and rail transportation, as well as sufficient local demand. Henry R. Stiles, the notable Brooklyn historian, wrote in 1870: "That quarter of Brooklyn, the Eastern District irreverently designated as Dutchtown, has been for some time the centre of the lager bier manufacturing interest in the Metropolitan District. Here are located some of the largest breweries in existence in the country. Surrounded by a population almost exclusively German, they all enjoy a local patronage to a considerable extent..."3 A second wave of development in Bushwick began after the construction of the elevated railroad along Myrtle Avenue in 1888, making the area an attractive alternative to congested downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan.4 Development, consisting primarily of three-and four-story multiple dwellings, spread eastward toward the Brooklyn-Queens border during the following decade. The population remained largely German until the 1930s and 40s. Beer in Bushwick Although beer was a staple of the American diet from the earliest days of the Dutch colonies, much of what was consumed was brewed in small breweries or for personal use. The industry grew slowly over time, primarily producing English-style brews, such as ale, porter, stout, and common beer, using top-fermenting yeast. By the 1840s and 50s the huge numbers of German immigrants brought with them a taste for lager beers, and the brewing industry was 2 revolutionized in cities where they settled, particularly in areas such as Bushwick, Brooklyn. Lager beer is “an effervescent malt beverage, brewed by using the bottom-fermentation process, in which a special yeast settles as residue at the bottom of the brewing vats.” 5 “By the 1870s Brooklyn had become a major center of production in American beer brewing, as numerous establishments, largely run by Germans, flourished in the borough’s Eastern District (Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick).”6 Between the 1850s and the 1880s, 11 separate breweries operated there in a 14-square block area.7 “By the 1880s, 35 breweries had been established in Brooklyn,”8 generating an estimated $8 million in revenue annually. Claus Lipsius Brewery One of the earliest enterprises to begin brewing German-style beer in Bushwick was the Henry Claus Brewery, begun in 1865 by German immigrant Henry Claus, with a facility at 471 Bushwick Avenue,9 later expanded to both sides of Forrest Avenue. Henry Claus died in 187210 and, in an unusual situation for this period, Henry’s widow Catherina Claus ran the brewery until she married Rudolph Lipsius by 1876. At this time, Rudolph Lipsius stepped in and the brewery was renamed for both owners, the Claus Lipsius Brewery. The Claus Lipsius Brewery prospered and Rudolph was “well-known and highly esteemed” in the tight-knit German-American community.11 Rudolph became very active in the industry, adding another building to the facility in 1877,12 and helping to create the Long Island Brewers Association in 1880.13 He died of cancer in 188214 and Catherina again took over the business. When he became old enough and after his military service, Catherina’s son Henry Claus stepped in to manage the business as well. Catherina Lipsius House Henry Claus and his wife Catherina originally lived near the brewery, at 487 Bushwick Avenue (near Forrest Avenue), with their four children.15 Many of the German breweries were located in this general area and many owners lived nearby, at one point giving Bushwick Avenue the name Brewer’s Row. Later, the family lived at 467 Bushwick and by 1889 Catherina purchased the property at 670 Bushwick Avenue. Located at the corner of Bushwick and Willoughby avenues, the site was still undeveloped land at that time.16 In the building application, the cost of the new house was projected to be $25,000.17 The Lipsius family engaged architect Theobald Engelhardt, popular among the German-Americans of the area, to design this house in the American Round-Arched style. The Rundbogenstil style of architecture developed in Germany between the 1820s and 1860s and was brought to this country through journals and the numerous architects, students and builders who immigrated here. The style began to be used in the United States beginning in the late 1840s and 1850s. What was known as the Rundbogenstil in Germany was translated in America into a new form that was based on the old one but distinct from it.18 While this style had developed in Europe because of certain theoretical considerations, here architects and builders often picked up only its materials and forms, including decorative elements derived from Medieval as well as Classical buildings. They used the physical embodiment of the styles to represent the places people had come from and that were evocative of home. Thus the Medieval influences on the American Round-Arched style buildings were seen in the dark brick facades, the round-arched windows, often with distinctive moldings or voussoirs and rough-cut stone trim. Strong string-courses often defined the horizontal divisions of a building and were derived from northern Italian Renaissance palazzi, as was some of the more elaborate detailing such as columns and pilasters. 3 Theobald Mark Engelhardt (1851-1935)19 Prolific architect Theobald M. Engelhardt was born in Brooklyn to German parents who immigrated to America in the mid-19th century. He received his early education at the Williamsburgh Turn Verein school,20 and later graduated from Brown’s Business College and received a certificate in Architectural Drawing from Cooper Union. Engelhardt worked in the office of his father Philip – a successful carpenter and builder – until Philip retired in 1877, at which time the younger Engelhardt opened an architectural practice. Philip Engelhardt is credited with having built the original school building of the Williamsburgh Turn Verein, as well as a number of brewery-related buildings.21 Theobald began his own practice in Bushwick, originally at 14 Fayette Street and later at 906 Broadway (in a building that he designed), and eventually worked on buildings for more than ten different breweries, including the William Ulmer Brewery, a designated New York City Landmark. Engelhardt worked in various styles, including Gothic Revival, American Round-Arched, and Queen Anne, designing mansions, houses, tenements, factories, banks, and churches, many of which were located in Brooklyn’s Eastern District. His works include St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (1891) at 152-157 Milton Street, the Greenpoint Home for the Aged (1886-87) at 137 Oak Street, and the houses at 122 and 124 Milton Street (1889), all located in the Greenpoint Historic District. He designed the former Maison au Candy Company (1885, reconstructed 1970s), now the Cadman Plaza Artists Houses at 22 Henry Street in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, and 60-64 Kent Street in the Eberhardt Faber Pencil Company Historic District. Engelhardt also designed the Eastern District Turnverein at Bushwick and Gates Avenues (1902), the clubhouse and addition for the Arion Singing Society (1886 and 1902) at 27 Arion Place, and St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran German church and school (c.1890) at 626 Bushwick Avenue. As stated in a contemporary account, “During a period of over forty-five years of his professional activities, Mr. Engelhardt has designed and constructed many of the largest manufacturing and commercial buildings in the city of Brooklyn, as well as a number of hospitals and dispensary buildings, residences and modern homes,”22 many of which remain throughout the Eastern District. Dr. Frederick A(lbert) Cook23 In 1902, Catherina Lipsius sold the house and property to Mary Hunt, who would soon become the second wife of Dr. Frederick A. Cook.24 Cook was a successful doctor of German lineage who, after his first wife died in 1890, became involved with Arctic exploration. Cook had previously lived nearby at 335 Bushwick Avenue, but once married, moved to this larger house, more fitting for his new family and his prosperous medical practice that he set up in the building. Cook’s first experience with arctic exploration was as a doctor on Robert Peary’s first exploration of North Greenland in 1891-92. He was able to use his medical skill, as well as his careful observations and interest to begin an anthropological study of local peoples that he continued on later trips.25 Cook became a confirmed explorer, either leading or participating in seven more trips between 1893 and 1907. During these trips, he performed medical treatments wherever necessary, made serious anthropologic discoveries about the numerous native tribes he encountered, took many important photographs of newly observed areas of the globe, and contributed numerous technological innovations to the difficult situations found during the trips. When he was home in Brooklyn, he continued his medical practice, and at the same time lectured and wrote about his observations and experiences. In 1906, he made his second attempt to scale Mt. McKinley in Alaska, and upon his return claimed that he and one other person had reached 4 the summit on September 16, 1906. His next effort started in July 1907 when he left Massachusetts headed for the North Pole. Cook was not heard from until spring, 1909 and then made his way to Copenhagen, Denmark, declaring that he had reached the Pole on April 21, 1908. He was received in Denmark with great adulation. While there, Robert Peary, who was attempting the same goal, made it known that he had reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909 and declared Cook a fraud. Cook returned to New York to a hero’s welcome, but over time, Peary continued to cast doubt on Cook’s claims, in the press, in Congress and in court. Peary was well-connected to the National Geographic Society and other professional groups and was able to influence decisions about the issue. Cook determined to fight for his reputation, but the process depleted all his funds and in 1916, the house at 670 Bushwick Avenue was foreclosed and ownership reverted back to Catherina Lipsius.26 Subsequent History The daughters and heirs of Catherina Lipsius sold the house and lot again in 1920, to Guiseppe Giambalvo. The fact that an Italian family purchased this property was reflective of a significant change in the Bushwick community. Many members of the German community were moving out to more suburban areas and many Italian immigrants were coming here, creating their own distinct neighborhood. This family held the property until 1952, when it was sold to the “Daughters of Wisdom” a Catholic convent begun in France in the 18th century. This order had moved to New York early in the 20th century and their primary work was to help sick and needy children through the development of schools and hospitals.27 In 1960, the house was sold again to a doctor, Clement Davis, and his wife Eleanor, who owned it until 1995.28 These long periods of ownership helped preserve this building, even as the neighborhood experienced severe decline and many other large homes along Bushwick Avenue were destroyed. The current owners purchased the house in 2000. Description Two-and-a-half story house on raised basement with center entrance. Generally rectangular in plan, with rounded tower at northeastern corner and a two-story extension on rear of house. Separate one-story garage at rear of lot, fronted by large paved area. Raised lot on corner, with stone retaining wall and metal fencing. Central walkway with steps from street to main entrance and secondary walkway to rear entrance in extension. Historic: Dark red brick facing with stone entrance porch supported on embellished columns; full entablature; wood-framed glass transom over entrance; dressed stone facing on raised basement with squared window openings topped by rough-cut stone water table; rough-cut stone sill course at first and second stories; windows have round-arched tops; some paired windows but most single; rusticated stone moldings over rounded windows carved to look like voussoirs, linked across facade by carved stone course at transom level; cast-iron cornice with foliate frieze and dentil course at top of building; mansard roof on main building and eastern side of extension; center bay on northwest side projects slightly and is framed by pilasters; two-story rear extension is three bays deep, with flat roof; southern side of rear extension plain, with fewer string course divisions; rounded corner tower with three stories and conical roof; windows and decorative courses continue around tower; eastern side of building has angled, projecting bay at first story with terra-cotta frieze; dormer windows in mansard with triangular pediments supported on thin pilasters with volutes; wide brick chimneys above cornice with embossed and 5 ornamented brick panels; southeastern side of rear extension has covered porch over paired window and rear entrance; porch windows have wood frames and transom. Alterations: Metal chain-link fence surrounds entire property; all windows replaced; tops of round-arched windows filled in with solid material; non-historic double wood paneled doors; non-historic metal railing on steps to front porch and above porch; non-historic lights and intercom by front door and rear doors; some spalling of carved stone courses; sliding doors on second-story window above entrance porch, with non-historic lights; non-historic grilles on first- story windows; rear covered porch supported on non-historic poles; non-historic metal railing above rear porch; three-bay, brick garage at rear of lot with non-historic mansard roof and doors; non-historic metal grilles over basement openings on rear extension; non-historic metal railings on stairs to rear entrance; satellite antenna on roof. Report researched and written by Virginia Kurshan Research Department NOTES 1 This section is based on Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), Public School 86 (Irvington School) Designation Report (LP-1808) (New York: City of New York, 1991) and LPC, William Ulmer Brewery Designation Report (LP-2280) (New York: City of New York, 2010), report by Tara Harrison. 2 Henry Reed Stiles, History of Kings County, including the City of Brooklyn, NY (Brooklyn: W.W. Munsell & Co., 1884), 270-305. 3 Henry Reed Stiles, History of the City of Brooklyn, Including the old town and village of Brooklin, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh (Brooklyn: Pub. by subscription, 1867-1870), cited in Amy P. Schlagel, "Nineteenth Century Brewery Architecture in America, With Specific Reference to Brooklyn, New York," M.S. thesis (Columbia University, 1976), 20. 4 Joseph Cunningham and Leonard Dehart, A History of the New York City Subway System, Part II, Rapid Transit in Brooklyn (New York: 1977), 9-13. 5 William L. Downard, Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing and Distilling Industries (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1980), 106. 6 Quoted statements and information from Will Anderson, “An Historical Overview of Brooklyn Brewing from 1800 to the Present” in The Breweries of Brooklyn: An Informal History of a Great Industry in a Great City (Croton Falls, N.Y.: Anderson, 1976), 18. 7 Ibid. 8 Ellen M. Snyder-Grenier for The Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn! An Illustrated History (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), 148. 6 9 Curtin’s Brooklyn Business Directory, 1873-74. 10 Will of Henry Claus filed for probate on June 17, 1872, Liber 45, page 342. 11 “Saloon News,” Brooklyn Eagle, Jul. 14, 1882. 12 Brooklyn Eagle, Aug. 2, 1877. 13 Newtown Register, Oct. 14, 1880, 1. 14 “Died,” Brooklyn Eagle, Jul. 16, 1882, 5. 15 This house continued to be owned by the family and was transferred to Catherina Lipsius by her children, who were their father’s heirs, in 1899. Brooklyn Eagle, May 2, 1899. 16 Kings County Office of the Register, Liber Deeds and Conveyances, Liber 1868, p. 97, recorded March 7, 1889. Most of the land for the house was purchased from Ellen Nostrand, while a small portion on the corner was purchased from Annie DeBevoise on the same date, Liber 1868, p. 99. 17 Real Estate Record & Guide, (June 22, 1889), 898. 18 Much of the information about the American Round-Arched Style was derived from Kathleen Curran, “The German Rundbogenstil and Reflections on the American Round-Arched Style,” in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 48 (Dec. 1988), 351-373. 19 Information in this section is available from Carl Wilhelm Schlegel, Schlegel’s American Families of German Ancestry in the United States, vol. 1 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2003); Stiles; (LPC), William Ulmer Designation Report; (LPC), Eberhardt Faber Pencil Factory Historic District Designation Report; (LPC), Greenpoint Historic District Designation Report (LP-1248) (New York: City of New York, 1982), prepared by James T. Dillon and the research staff; and LPC research file, “Theobald Engelhardt.” 20 In 1856, Theobald M. Engelhardt is listed as the first scholar on the admission list of the Williamsburgh (later Eastern District) Turnverein School, where his family appears to have been very involved, his aunt as an instructor and his father as a member of the management committee. The school, which included primary, grammar, high school and later, preparatory or college classes, developed a high standard as an institution among the leading German-American families of the Eastern District. In 1873, Philip Engelhardt was the contractor and builder for the new Turnverein school building at 61-63 Meserole Street, with his son serving as his and the architect’s assistant. Like his father, the younger Engelhardt later served as a member of the school’s management committee, and was selected to design a new Turnverein building in 1902. (Schlegel 390-1; “Arion’s New President,” Brooklyn Eagle, March 23, 1903, 11). 21 Among the buildings credited to Philip Engelhardt are: the Kips Bay malthouse, the Malcolm malthouses on Bergen Street and Franklin Avenue (later Nassau Brewery, extant), the Malcolm malthouses on Flushing Avenue and Skillman Street (later Franklin brewery, extant), the original brewing plant and later, large malthouse of S. Liebmann & Son’s Brewing Company, part of the Lanzer Brewery on Liberty and Georgia Avenues (later Piel Brothers), and the Obermeyer & Liebmann brewery and malting plant on Bremen and Forrest Street in the Eastern District. (Schlegel, 392). 22 Schlegel, 392. 23 Frederick Cook (1865-1940) was born in Sullivan County, New York, the son of recent German immigrants, who then moved to Brooklyn in 1878. He graduated from medical school at New York University in 1890. The information in this section comes primarily from Bruce Henderson, True North, Peary, Cook, and the Race to the Pole (NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005); the website http://humbug.polarhist.com accessed 6/3/2013; and numerous contemporary newspaper articles about the events. There have been numerous other publications about the controversy as well. 24 Queens County Register, Liber Deeds and Conveyances. Liber 33, page 406, recorded May 2, 1902. 25 This trip was the beginning of an initially favorable relationship between Peary and Cook. 26 The controversy about which man reached the North Pole first continues to this day, with supporters on both sides 7 of the issue. There have been numerous books written about the case, including the latest one in 2005. Over the years, Perry’s own claims on the Pole have been refuted, and some of Cook’s information has been accepted. However, much of Cook’s equipment and documentation was lost so his case could never be totally substantiated and his name continues to be associated with fraud. This has been reinforced by the fact that he served 5 years in Federal prison for activities related to oil exploration, an occupation he engaged in when he could no longer pursue Arctic exploration. In this instance, it has been shown that the guilty verdict was probably due again to Peary’s negative influence on the case. 27 “French Nuns Thrive in Brooklyn Haven,” New York Herald, Oct. 3, 1909, 6; www.daughtersofwisdom.org Accessed 6/4/2013. It is not clear what purpose the house served for this order. 28 Queens County Register, Liber Deeds and Conveyances, Liber 8805, page 537, recorded March 8, 1960. 8 FINDINGS AND DESIGNATION On the basis of a careful consideration of the history, the architecture, and other features of this building, the Landmarks Preservation Commission finds that the Catherina Lipsius House (aka Dr. Frederick A. Cook House) has a special character and a special historical and aesthetic interest and value as part of the development, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New York City. The Commission further finds that the Catherina Lipsius House (aka Dr. Frederick A. Cook House) is a rare surviving residence of a prosperous beer brewery owner from the late 19th century; that this grand, American Round-Arched style building was constructed in 1889-90 for Catherina Lipsius and her family; that Catherina had run the Claus Lipsius Brewing Company after the death of her two husbands, Henry Claus and Rudolf Lipsius and until it was taken over by her son; that the brewery thrived from 1865 through 1902; that the house was then sold to Mary Hunt, soon-to-be wife of Dr. Frederick A. Cook, physician and Arctic explorer who claimed to be the first person to attain the North Pole, ahead of Robert Perry; that contesting Robert Perry for his claim bankrupted Cook and the house was sold in 1920 to an Italian family who lived there for many years; that the house was designed by Theobald Engelhart, a German- American architect who worked extensively in the community; that the house is an excellent example of the American Round-Arched style of architecture that was particularly popular among the German-American community; that this style was derived from the German Rundbogenstil and combined elements of medieval and classical architecture to create buildings that provided reminders of their country of origin to newly immigrated residents; that the building displays a combination of red brick, stone and terra cotta in a grand, mansarded house with a dramatic corner tower; that the classical entrance portico and foliate cornice express classical design while the round-arched windows and doors, with their rough stone trim give the building a sense of medieval solidity; that a series of owners who held the house for long periods helped preserve this unique building so that it provides a clear reminder of an earlier period when the brewing of German lager beer was the dominant industry in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Accordingly, pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 74, Section 3020 of the Charter of the City of New York and Chapter 3 of Title 25 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates as a Landmark the Catherina Lipsius House (aka Dr. Frederick A. Cook House), 670 Bushwick Avenue (aka 670-674 Bushwick Avenue, 676 Bushwick Avenue and 931 Willoughby Avenue), Brooklyn, and designates as its Landmark Site Borough of Brooklyn Tax Map Block 3194. Lot 31. Robert B. Tierney, Chair Frederick Bland, Michael Devonshire, Michael Goldblum, Christopher Moore, Margery Perlmutter, Elizabeth Ryan, Roberta Washington, Commissioners 9 CATHERINA LIPSIUS HOUSE (aka DR. FREDERICK A. COOK HOUSE) 670 Bushwick Avenue (aka 670-674 Bushwick Avenue, 676 Bushwick Avenue and 931 Willoughby Avenue), Brooklyn Borough of Brooklyn Tax Map Block 3194. Lot 31 Photo: Christopher D. Brazee, 2013 10