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Herman Behr Mansion

Real Estate

Pierrepont’s Beloved Herman Behr Mansion Shrouded In Netting

August 15, 2012

One of Brooklyn Heights’ mightiest architectural triumphs, the Romanesque Revival Herman Behr Mansion at 82 Pierrepont Street—which changed hands in 2008 for $10.98 million—has been covered in netting, as it undergoes a mass of restoration to its facade.

It was built in 1888 by architect Frank Freeman for $80,000, and named after the mining industrialist who built it—and had a sordid existence after its namesake died. (Behr’s son Karl, a renowned tennis pro, survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.) In 1919, after the family relocated upstate—with a massive add-on—it became The Hotel Palm, which those in the know were aware was a neighborhood bordello.

Afterward, as the Franciscan House of Studies, it housed the Order of the Franciscan monks, who were sent to the Brooklyn Heights locale when they needed a place to “dry out.” In 1977, it was converted to 26 rental apartments (six lucky bastards are rent-stabilized), and it has remained 100% occupied since.

(Info extracted from Chuck Taylor’s The Smoking Nun blog here.)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45755

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