The Bedfordshire

The five-story brick building with the multistory brownstone arches at 1200 Pacific St. is The Bedfordshire, an apartment building constructed in 1891. Montrose W. Morris designed the Romanesque Revival style building which helped to house the rapidly increasing population of Brooklyn in the late nineteenth century. The Bedfordshire is part of a neighborhood of hundreds of buildings south of Atlantic Ave./ north of Eastern Parkway/ east of Bedford Ave. that was designated the Crown Heights North National Register Historic District in 2014. The building still holds ten residential units that are now condominiums.

The 1880s brought the introduction of apartment style living to the Brooklyn middle classes, but the trend didn't reach the Crown Heights neighborhood until the 1890s. Multi-family housing had gotten a reputation for inferior living conditions as seen in tenement housing crowded with poorer residents. Architect Montrose W. Morris and developer Louis F. Seitz collaborated on The Bedfordshire and several more apartment buildings in Brooklyn. One, The Imperial, is directly next door at the corner of Pacific St. and Bedford Ave. The Imperial (1892) is one year younger than The Bedfordshire. Morris designed both the Alhambra (1889-1890) and the Renaissance (1892) on Nostrand Ave., as well as a limestone double house (1890) for financier Henry C. Hubert at 50 Prospect Park West.

The first story of The Bedfordshire is faced in brownstone; a brownstone stoop leads to the central doorway. A frieze band in terra cotta supported by dwarf pilasters is labeled "BEDFORDSHIRE" above the entrance. The angled window bays with stained glass transoms are framed by three-story brick and brownstone arches on the second through fourth floors; the light-colored brick is curved at the inner edges of the arch. The fourth and fifth floors are separated by a molded crown with leafy decorations. The top (fifth) floor has six smaller arched windows. The main facade is capped by a foliate frieze and bracketed, cast metal cornice decorated with modillions. Brownstone quoins define the building's front corners. The wrought iron fencing between the sidewalk and stoop or basement windows is a later addition.

One of the early residents of The Bedfordshire was Charles W. Field, who lived there by 1898. He was one of hundreds of people appointed by their local alderman as one of the Commissioners of Deeds for the City of New York in April 1898, as the former City of Brooklyn transformed into one of the five boroughs of New York City. Three of the eight flats were occupied in 1900 by tenants who listed their occupation as a capitalist, a lawyer, or a produce merchant; each was a married man with one child. One new resident of the building in 1912 was the Reverend Uriah T. Tracy.

Anonymous. Personal Mention. The Living Church. Vol. 47. October 26th 1912. 901 - 901.

Anonymous. The City Record. Official Journal. April 1st 1898. 1812 - 1814.

Caratzas, Michael D. Danza, Cynthia. Presa, Donald G. Designation Report, Crown Heights North Historic District, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. New York, NY. New York City Government, 2007.

Dolkart, Andrew S. Guide to New York City Landmarks. Hoboken, NJ. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

Historic Districts Council. The Imperial Apartments, The Bedfordshire Apartments, Six to Celebrate. Accessed February 16th 2022. https://6tocelebrate.org/site/the-imperial-apartments-the-bedfordshire-apartments/.

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designation Report, Imperial Apartments, 1327-1329 Bedford Avenue, Borough of Brooklyn, LP-1432. New York, NY. New York City Government, 1986.

Street Easy. Building: The Bedfordshire, StreetEasy. January 1st 2022. Accessed February 16th 2022. https://streeteasy.com/building/the-bedfordshire#tab_building_detail=4.