Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-27
FAMOUS BROOKLYN
ROAD SOON TO PASS
Stately Villas and Palaces
Will Yield to March
of Time.

With the doom actually pronounced,
but resisting to the end the march of
ultra modernism, soon will pass into
memory the last spot of its kind in the
City Of New York. The famous Shore
Road, Brooklyn, easily the most pic
tureSque 2-naile stretch in the munich
pal limits, will yield its stately villas
and palaces 10 virtually continuous
facade of huge piles, similar TO those of
Riverside Drive. These, with their cold
unromantic brick and stone, will sup
plant the beauty spots, some of which
Tor the best part of century have kept
this area wholly unchanged in char
ecter as countryside against any en-
croachment.
These fine places were built when
homes were homes, not merely stopping
places, and some of the earlier ones
were selected out of broad acres owned
by their builders as the ideal sites for
their manors, with areas surrounding
the substantial houses, reaching from
the bay front for a half mile back to
what now is Third avenue. Few streets
were cut through until 80 years ago,
and the dividing lines were the lanes
and driveways between estateS-mere
dirt or gravel paths. Entrances mostly
were on the present Third avenue, then
q dirt highway, and the main road TO
Fort Hamilton. In a few instances,
gateways and lodge houses were or,
what now Is Ridge boulevard.
From the Schermerhorn mansion, on
GowaH1uS Bay down to the Narrows was
q vista OF rare appeal and of ideal
residential comfort and enviable COM
Inunity life. Large dwellings, with
lawn, grove and garden, outlined the
fronts, set well back from the shore.
The "landscaping" was the work of
generations of those who knew nature
from close contact with growing things.
The structures were adorned with Gu
polas and towers, as was the fashion of
the period, even the immense barns
and carriage houses following this
mode. The social life was about the
most exclusive of OLD Brooklyn, not ex-
cepting the once glorious Heights. At
that time, the upper part of this was
Gowanus, which merged into Bay Ridge,
the dividing line being the present
Sfxty-ninth street, or Bay Ridge ave-
nue., at the intersection of which with
Third avenue stool until recently the
old Bay Ridge Tavern of Colonial days.
With the passing of the Schermer-
horn homestead began the intrusion
which, however, aimed to preserve the
n1agnificence and the excluSiveness that
marked the entire residential stretch.
The Scher1nerhorn house. by the way,
was the birthplace of Mrs. Caroline
Aston founder of that family's social
prestige and who ruled the 400" for
decades.
Passing south from the Schermerhorn
acres, one found long line of Van
Brunt homes, of Van Borgens Oater
ni0oarnized into Bergen, Van Cleefs,
Van Cots, Van Names, Van NeSses, Van
VooyaiseS and other descendants of set
tiers OF Breuckkelyn. But posterity
was restless, and N some instances
reckless, and these Shrines fell into
other hands mostly good hands. who
kept their prestige and their menages
fairly well. Two of the old places
still stand intact, thought necessarily
renovated and somewhat modernized.
but retaining the original outline and
furnishing. These, which still vie with
their newer neighbors, are the Bergen
house, near Seventy-fourth street, and
Van Brunt home, south OF the Cres-
cent Athletic Clubs big house and
grounds at Eigthy-fifth street. It has
been succeed and its surrounding plot
has diminished, but still stretches back
about 300 feet TO Narrows avenue. 1t
was on the bay shore of this house that
Justice Van Brunt fatally shot a burg
lar, Charles Mosher. with whom is sup
posed to have died the secret of the ia
NOUS Charlie Ross kidnapping.
A real show place was the Nash
estate, reaching from the bay to its
lodge house and gateway on Third
avenue, and extending from Fifty
seventh to Sixtieth street. The resi-
dence was a castle in imitation of the
Elizabethan period, set In a grove of
oak and elm trees that began at the
sandy beach of the bay. Standing on
an open space of lawn, the home gave
the feeling of England of centuries ego