Building Grandeur
Photos: Courtesy of the Pratt Institute Archives (232 and 241 Clinton), Christopher Gray, Office for Metropolitan History (245 Clinton), Diana Pau (229 Clinton), NYC MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES (213 CLInTON)
Charles Pratt’s architectural legacy in Clinton Hill
By Adrienne Gyongy
Clockwise from top left: Charles Pratt’s house at 232 Clinton Avenue • Charles Millard Pratt’s house at 241 Clinton Avenue • George DuPont Pratt’s house at 245 Clinton Avenue • Frederic Bayley Pratt and Caroline Ladd Pratt’s house at 229 Clinton Avenue • Herbert Pratt’s house at 213 Clinton Avenue
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n addition to building Pratt Institute, Charles Pratt built five mansions in Clinton Hill for himself and his family. Four still stand to this day on Clinton Avenue, which is one of the few grand boulevards in the United States to have survived relatively intact from the 19th century. More than a decade before founding Pratt Institute, oil magnate Charles Pratt established a residence in the immediate vicinity of the school he envisioned. An early widower, he was already remarried to his late wife Lydia Ann’s younger sister, Mary Helen Richardson, when he moved into his magnificent Italianate brownstone villa at 232 Clinton Avenue, designed by architect Ebenezer L. Roberts and built in 1874. With its greenhouse, gardens, and carriage house, the distinctive home expressed the aspirations of Brooklyn’s urban residents and attracted other wealthy industrialists to Clinton Hill. Today it houses St. Joseph’s College. With two children by his first wife and six by his second, Charles Pratt was a family man with a generous heart and loving spirit. He presented each of his first four sons—Charles Millard, Frederic, George, and Herbert—with a substantial house as a wedding gift. The Charles Millard Pratt mansion at 241 Clinton Avenue was designed in 1893 in the Romanesque Revival style by architect William B. Tubby, who also designed the Pratt Library and South Hall. The home features a dark green Spanish tile roof and a
spectacular Tiffany glass bay window near the entrance. It is constructed of red Roman brick trimmed with red sandstone and features an arched porte-cochère and Byzantine-style carving. It is now the official residence of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn. Next door at 229 Clinton Avenue is the Frederic Bayley Pratt and Caroline Ladd Pratt House. Designed by architects Babb, Cook & Willard, the Georgian Revival structure was completed in 1898. The house was originally linked to the other children’s mansions with a columned pergola. Donated to the Institute in the 1940s, “Pratt House” was for many years used as a student dormitory. Today it serves as the official home of the president of Pratt Institute and still houses several students on the top floor. The George DuPont Pratt mansion is nearby at 245 Clinton Avenue. A formal, foursquare Renaissance Revival-style house with stone trim, the brownstone was designed by architects Babb, Cook & Williard in 1901. It is currently part of St. Joseph’s College. Son Herbert’s sweeping colonnaded house at 213 Clinton Avenue, built in 1908 by architect James Brite, is no longer extant. The house was demolished in 1942 and replaced by housing for war workers at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Still, Charles Pratt’s mansion and his sons’ three houses remain as a lasting legacy of architectural excellence just a short walk from Pratt. 11 7 7