Some months ago, as I went out one morning to breathe the air along Glenwood Road, I was approached by Honora Dash. Like me, she is a lifelong Van Morrison fan (her email address honors his sweet 1971 tune, "Tupelo Honey") but was somewhat saddened by Van’s resistance to Covid lockdowns in Ireland. Hopefully his wonderful soundtrack for Kenneth Branagh’s transcendent Belfast will erase all that. However, on this morning Honey had more immediate concerns: Why did T.B. Ackerson build two & three family houses on Westminster Road while Corbin built only one families on Argyle, Rugby and the Courts?
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| 1903: Before Construction by Ackerson & Corbin, Looking South from Glenwood Road |
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| 1905: Coney Island Avenue Trolley Being Raised to Grade; Ackerson Sales Shack at SE C/O Glenwood Rd |
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| 1905: Spring. Looking South on Westminster, Just North of Intersection with Glenwood. |
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| 1905: October 31 Ad in Brooklyn Eagle for Westminster Two-Families |
Lacking a degree in early 20th Century Economics, I nonetheless explained as best I could: A financial panic in 1903 caused a run on the banks. The worsening financial climate likely influenced Ackerson to fill the 30-odd lots he had just purchased from the developer, Germania Real Estate & Improvement Company, with two-family homes. Why? Because Ackerson knew they would be easier to sell. “One rent carries all,” his ads declared in August 1905. And he also marketed them as investment properties, even offering management services to absentee landlords for his Westminster Road buildings.
As for John R. Corbin, he had a very close connection with Germania (his company’s VP was also Germania’s VP – see https://bit.ly/3HxDadg) and counted on forbearance of payments owed to Germania should his one-families not sell immediately. (For a mammoth discussion of the magnificent homes built by Ackerson and Corbin see http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2208.pdf.)
Honora then wanted to hear more about the first owner of her house, who her own excellent research had established as being “hoity-toity.” Yes indeed! According to the 1914 Woman’s Who’s Who of America, Frances W. Downes of 755 Westminster Road was a member of the Mayflower Society and ninth in descent from Myles Standish. She also led the Brooklyn chapter of “Women’s New England Colony No. 8,” whatever that was, and hosted regular meetings of the Daughters of the American Revolution in her West Midwood home.
And yet, proximity to what passed for American royalty was no protection from ruin: in 1910, the Downes’ upstairs tenant, Walter C. Hodgson, who owned clothing stores at 140 Flatbush Avenue and West 101st Street & Broadway (“Hodgson’s Haberdashery”) owed over a hundred creditors a total of $37,000. Bankruptcy and new tenants ensued.
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| 1910: US Census for 755 Westminster (aka E 12th St) |
In the Roaring Twenties, Frances and Charles Downes both passed away at 755 Westminster. In 1923 a Brooklyn Eagle ad noted their “16 room modern Colonial” with “hardwood interior and electricity…garage… splendid home” had been “built by Ackerson Co.” – a generation later, the Ackerson brand still mattered.
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1940: Tax Photo for 755 Westminster - House Has Been Faithfully Preserved.
Note Ye Olde Lamp Post |
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| 1983: Tax Photo for 755 Westminster - Same as it Ever Was |
And here’s where it gets easy: from the 1920s until the 1980s when Honora and her husband Jonathan bought the home, it was owned by the Earle Family. The patriarch, Oscar Earle, appears to have been something of a mysterious inventor for Western Union and years from now when secrecy prohibitions expire, we might yet learn he saved the world from Nazis and/or fended off extraterrestrial attempts to settle in the Cut. Honora & Jonathan have lately been considering other realms beyond West Midwood. Which recalls a song by one of Van’s friends back in the 1970s who wrote “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.”
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| 2021: 755 Westminster Road |
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| 2021: 755 Westminster Road |
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| 2021: The Dash Family - Long May You Run |
