Let's walk back to Prospect Park West, the most prestigious avenue of Park Slope. It runs along elegant Prospect Park and used to be called Ninth Avenue until someone (probably a real state agent) renamed it around 1895. The avenue was lined with grand mansions, alas, only a few survive. Given that this is a prime location, also called Brooklyn's Gold Coast, large apartment buildings of Park Avenue style replaced many of the old mansions in the early 20th century. Let's take a look at three remaining mansions. No.53 Prospect Park West - Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society Meeting House, the former William H. Childs House, dating from 1901. A Jacobean extravaganza, erected by the inventor of the Bon Ami cleansing powder. Next to it is 49 Prospect Park West - Poly Prep Lower School, formerly the Woodward Park School and before that the mansion of the Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society. A Romanesque Revival building constructed in 1892 with rock-face and foliate-carved limestone, a polygonal and a round corner tower.
Walk back towards Grand Army Plaza and turn into Berkeley Place. Right around the corner is No.276 Berkeley Place - George P. Tangeman House , dating from 1891. A brick, granite and terra-cotta Romanesque Revival, paid for by the inventor of the Cleveland Baking Powder. Cupid caryatids hold up the shingled pediment, with bulky Ionic columns supporting a frieze of scallop shells. Walk back to Prospect Park West and take a look at the Montauk Club building, an exuberant Venetian Gothic palazzo, constructed in 1889-1891. Its architects wanted it to look like the brownstone, brick and terra-cotta version of the Ca d'Oro! It is a great example of the extravagant taste of the times. The club, whose membership is open to all (if you want to shelve out the $500 annual membership fee), bears the name of a local tribe, which explains the 8th Avenue friezes at the 3rd and 4th stories, honoring these former local residents of New York State.
Walk back to Seventh Avenue and have a cup of coffee or if it is already evening have dinner at one the many restaurants on Seventh, Sixth and especially Fifth Avenue. You will appreciate why Park Slope is one of the most livable big city neigborhoods in the U.S.of A!