The Big City Cottage on Avenue H

The 112-year-old Avenue H station house today looks an awful lot like it did a century ago. Even the chimney remains.

Before the building rose in the early 20th century, the immediate area was wooded and lightly occupied. Fresh from developing the barely profitable areas of Beverley Square East and West, the T.B. Ackerson Company built their Fiske Terrace office in 1905. A 1906 picture illustrates just how isolated the building was at the start of development. Above, a 1910 picture courtesy of Brooklyn Borough Historian Ron Schweiger paints a much more familiar picture of the station.

By the turn of the 21st century, the house was had aged into dilapidation. The exterior was chipped and wounded, pieces were falling away and the MTA deemed the station a fire hazard fit for demolition. Here is a picture of the house in 2009 showing its age (from Wikipedia).

The MTA’s 2003 plans to demolish the station were fought off the by the community who defended the city’s only “shingled wooden cottage turned transit station house.” In 2004, the station was landmarked. When the Brighton Line underwent major construction from 2009 to 2011, the station house was rehabilitated from near destruction to near pristine condition, surprising riders who had become used to an ugly house waiting to fall. Now, one interesting art exhibit later, the house remains a tangible connection to the beginnings of the neighborhood.

Do you have old pictures, documents or items from the area? We want to explore and share our history. Send it to ditmasparkcorner@gmail.com and we’ll post it on the blog.