Known as the Commandmant's Mansion, this sprawling Federal style house was built in 1805 and was originally part of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Today, it's privately owned and out of place in relation to the dense, low-rise neighborhood around it. The building itself is something of an enigma; it's located at the end of a driveway set back from the street by a locked gate, it can only be glimpsed in pieces from certain angles or streets, and the architect is unknown. [Photo by Scouting NY]

1908. Part of the Dumbo historic district, this William Tubby-designed warehouse is one of the neighborhood's better-looking industrial buildings. It was originally built for the paint company Benjamin Moore, and it's facade was meant to echo the two Federal-style townhouses that it replaced. [Photo via DumboNYC Flickr]

1894. Thousands of tourists pass by the handsome Eagle warehouse every day to get to Brooklyn Bridge Park, but few stop to admire the Frank Freeman-designed building. It's simple, but interesting, with its name emblazoned on the parapet and on the grand Roman arch entrance in bronze letters. The small attic windows and iron grilles help break up the large brick facade. [Photo via Wikipedia]

1885-1892. Once the largest hotel in New York, the Hotel St George isn't one building, but rather a collection of buildings that were erected separately and joined together. The most beautiful building in the group is actually the last building that was built. The 10-story Renaissance Revival structure faces Clark Street and was designed by Montrose W. Morris with a lacy brick and terracotta facade. It's no longer a hotel, and the buildings have been separated into various residential developments.

1888-89. The Herman Behr Mansion is one of the city's best specimens of Romanesque Revival design. It was built in 1888 and 1889 and designed by architect Frank Freeman for (hence the name) Herman Behr, an industrialist. Since 1919, the building has been a hotel, a brothel, a residence—in a sharp about-face—for members of the Franciscan order, and then a rental building.

1878-81. This Renaissance Revival building has been the headquarters of Brooklyn Historic Society since it was built. George B. Post was the designer, and he was selected through a competition between 14 architects. The facade is filled with intricate sculptures, including busts of Michelangelo, Beethoven, Gutenberg, Shakespeare, Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, a Viking and a Native American. Be sure to go inside—the historic interior is just as beautiful as the exterior.

1901. Jammed with street vendors, stroller-pushers, courthouse workers, and Trader Joes shoppers, Court Street is one of DoBro's busiest throughfares, and it also happens to be one of the most architecturally interesting. If you look up, away from the glassy storefronts, many of the buildings are quite gorgeous. Chief among them is the Temple Bar Building, a Beaux-Arts beauty topped with three baroque copper cupolas. The most interesting details are the hardest to see from the street: each cupola features a carved female face above the window and carved male faces at each corner. At the street level, you can see similar ornamentation on the east facade, where there is a lion's face. [Photo via Complex]

1885-91. One of the most beautiful buildings in Brooklyn, hell, in all of New York City, the Romanesque Revival Cadman Plaza Post Office was designed by Mifflin E. Bell. The original building is the castle-like part you see at the front in the photo. It boasts a boatload of elaborate details, like polished granite arches, rosette and cable moldings, elaborate dormers, and a slate-covered mansard roof.

1908-10. Surprisingly, this Charles B. J. Snyder-designed school is not landmarked. Snyder was the Superintendent of Buildings for the NYC Board of Education from 1891-1923, and he changed the way schools were built. Designed in the English Collegiate Style, the Westinghouse school features his signature wide expanses of windows. It was designed to inspire students with a grand portico and decorative Gothic quatrefoils.

1897-98. Although it's similar to many Beaux-Arts buildings built around the same time, 81 Willoughby Street stands out for a few unusual features, like the elaborate cartouche encircled window at the top corner. Rudolph Daus was the architect, and since the building was constructed for NY and NJ Telegraph company, Daus had to design "an elaborate filtration system that drew air in from the roof, down to the basement, through multiple cloth filters, and forced up by means of fans and ducts." [Photo and details via Brownstoner]

1835-45. Federal-style townhouses, particularly brick ones, are quite common throughout much of brownstone Brooklyn, but this set is notable for the fact that they were picked up and moved from their original location on Johnson Street (the architect's name also happened to be Johnson). They were built for wealthy families at the time, but today they house offices.

1906-08. When it comes to well-known Brooklyn banks, the towering Williamsburgh Savings Bank steals the show, but not far away is the Classical Revival-style Dime Savings Bank, designed by Mowbray & Uffinger. The building is grand in every sense of the word; the entrance is topped by a sculpted pediment depicting two men that represent agriculture and industry, and the east and west walls are flanked by a portico and embedded with colonnades of Ionic columns.

1840. This faded pink building was built as a Civil War infirmary and currently functions as a school. Unfortuntely, we couldn't dig up much information about it's history, so if you have intel, leave a comment. Aside from the odd color, the building has some interesting details, like a carved cornice and small, ornate gable pediment.

1908. Back in the day when the IRT train was elevated through Brooklyn, this building functioned as the station headhouse. Today, it's just a shell of a structure, and it's actually been hollowed out to act as a giant skylight for the tracks beneath it in Atlantic Terminal. The elaborate design, with the carved fruit garland and rounded pediment, was created by Heins & LaFarge, and it really just goes to show they don't make 'em like they used to.

1901. Carriage houses are quite common throughout Fort Greene, and this charmer is a lovely example. However, we weren't able to dig up any history on the place other than the year it was built, so if you have intel, leave a comment.

1892. If there's a beautiful historic building in Clinton Hill, chances are it was designed by William Tubby for the Pratt family. This Tubby-designed trio of fantastical townhouses is notable for the oddly small windows on the top floor, as well as the decorative crow-stepped gable atop the facade. A closer look also reveals the whimsical styling of the limestone doors with curving, sinuous hardware.

1889. This is another William Tubby creation, but it was not built for the Pratt family. This Romanesque Revival/Victorian brick and brownstone house belonged to Charles Schieren. It's got a lot going on: a wide arched porch, a Flemish gable, and a copper oriel (fancy bay window) along the side. [Photo and details via Brownstoner]

1890. Built by William Tubby for his favorite client, this house belonged to Papa Pratt. Tubby used rich red brick and created a Romanesque Revival house that includes a grand porte-cochere (fancy word for a porch) over the driveway. Other details include a small oriel window above the arch, a Mediterranean tile roof, and a playful eyebrow widow above the oriel. [Photo and details via Brownstoner]