Over the last few months, we’ve come up on quite a few old, landmarked, and freshly renovated homes from eras of Brooklyn that are long gone and hardly missed. But not one of them has invoked as much curiosity, awe, and, frankly, genuine fright, as our latest fixation, a recently-relisted mansion in Ditmas Park—because, holy Hitchcockian hell, look at this thing.
1000 Ocean Avenue, at first or any subsequent glance, is not at all like the revived historic homes you’ve seen in these pages as of late. No love, attention, or sunlight has cracked through the boarded-up windows of the barely upright South Brooklyn home in generations. Its “Colonial Revival” columns are crumbling, its once-grand staircases are collapsing, its towering portico porch with a protruding bay is in utter disrepair, its interior is seemingly lit exclusively by head lamp, and, according to both the New York Times, and more recently, Brownstoner, it is entirely possible no one has stepped foot in this anywhere from five-to-seven bedroom house since its original owners, Wall Street stockbroker George Van Ness and his wife Adelaide, lost the house in foreclosure sometime between 1913 and 1914. Though 1000 Ocean Avenue was still listed as a residence for a 1940 tax photo (probably the last time it looked even remotely habitable), it’s unclear who actually lived there at the time. The mansion next door at 1010 Ocean Avenue, built the same year for Van Ness’ father-in-law, Thomas H. Brush, at the corner of Ocean and Newkirk Avenue, has enjoyed only slightly better luck, converted to a synagogue, then a church, and, then, as of 2008, an office for a doctor with a concerning amount of one-star reviews.
And though it is currently the stuff of dark, enduring nightmares, it’s not hard to see the promise in the moldy, wood-rotted bones of this literal palace. Per Compass, which is handling the sale, there’s a carriage house out back, the driveway can easily support multiple vehicles, there are four fireplaces (two that burn wood and two that burn gas), a billiard room, a dining hall, and approximately 6,000 square feet of living space—all for about $2.6 million, a bargain for a house along that stretch of multimillion-dollar single-family homes in Ditmas Park.
The listing very reasonably describes the property as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity for a visionary buyer,” which is absolutely who will need to be at the helm of any restoration or renovation process for a building this beat to shit, the best days of which are so clearly on the worst sides of both world wars. We just hope someone gets a chance to throw the Halloween blowout this place deserves before a new owner steps in.
The post This Abandoned 19th-Century Ditmas Park Mansion is The Creepiest House on The Market appeared first on BKMAG.
