A History of 158 South Oxford Street, part 1
Sometimes I do a deep dive “beyond the borders” of Brooklyn Heights. Here’s another one of those stories.
Fort Greene’s old freestanding wooden house at 158 South Oxford Street has been in the news lately. First came word in January 2026 that the house was slated for demolition, to be replaced by an apartment building. More recently, a report says NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Commission will take no action on a request to evaluate the house for designation as an individual landmark.
The headline writers are in agreement: the clapboard house is painted butter yellow. 🙂 Whether it’s properly called a country house, villa, mansion, or manse seems to be a matter of opinion. But here’s the burning question in my mind whenever I read a story about an old Brooklyn house: do we have an accurate date for when it was built?
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Old Brooklyn Heights 