Hidden in Cobble Hill between Warren and Baltic Streets is the Warren Place Mews?a narrow enclave of 34 homes built in 1878 along an English-style courtyard. The narrow rowhouses are built in a style known as Workingmen's Cottages, and that's for whom builder Alfred Tredway White intended them. White was an early and strong proponent of affordable housing, whose motto was "Philanthropy Plus Five Percent"?a sentiment that differentiated between accommodating the working class and charity. According to architectural historian Francis Morrone, an 11 1/2-foot-wide rowhouse on Warren Place rented for $18 a month when it was newly constructed in 1878. More recently one of the units went on the market for $4,500 a month.
If 11 1/2 feet is too narrow for your living taste, one of the 8 larger endcap homes (that face Warren or Baltic Streets rather than the English courtyard) is on the market for the workingman-unfriendly price of $1.375 million. It is being sold by Judith Daykin, who purchased the property in 1976 for $36,000. 1 Warren Place is still narrower than a conventional Brooklyn townhouse, at 16 feet wide, but the 1,056 square feet of space is spread over 3 floors and contains 2BR/1.5BA, a parlor, hardwood floors, and two fireplaces. There is also an approximately 780-square-foot garden behind the house with an elevated deck. If you buy it you can lord all this space over your new neighbor, the precocious Simon Rich, the youngest-ever SNL writer and Brooklyn townhouse owner.
· In Cobble Hill, a Mews You Can Use [WSJ]
· 1 Warren Place [BrooklynBridgeRealty]
· There's a Townhouse for Rent on One of NYC's Secret Streets [CurbedNY]
· Now Direct Your Envious Glares to the Youngest Brownstone Owner [CurbedNY]
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