Cornerspotted: The Bedford Mansion at 181 Clinton Avenue

This palatial home did indeed belong to oil magnate and member of the Standard Oil executive board, Edward T. Bedford. This stretch of Clinton Avenue between Myrtle and Willoughby avenues not only hosted Bedford, but was a veritable oil-rich row. Bedford's neighbors included Charles Pratt, son of fellow Standard Oil board member and Pratt Institute founder Charles Pratt, Senior. The architect was Bedford's pal Montrose Morris. Morris, who also decorated the interiors, "scoured the earth for exotic furnishings and decorative objects," Brownstoner writes of the home, where "parlor walls hung with the finest pink silk, Gobelin style tapestries, mahogany everywhere, and parquet floors strewn with huge thick silk carpets specially woven for the rooms, further topped with tiger skin rugs."
Less than 50 years after its construction, the manse—as well as its neighbors—were torn down in exchange for the complexes seen today that were constructed in the 1940's to house returning veterans.
· Hint: This Manse Was Traded in For More Compact Housing [Curbed]
· Past and Present: The Bedford Mansion ['Stoner]
· Then: 181 Clinton Avenue [NYM]
· Cornerspotter archives [Curbed]