70 
House Garden 
The living room on the ground floor, once the servant’s dining room, was flnished with neutral walls, 
the old marble mantel painted black and furniture in the Colonial style was chosen 
THE REJUVENATION of a BROWNSTONE HOUSE 
How an Old New Tork City House JVas Kemodeled 
to Accommodate Four Families Comfortably instead of One 
MARY McBURNEY 
D uring the past few years in 
New York, high rents have 
driven many of us to leave our for¬ 
mer quarters in modern apartment 
houses, to find homes in remodeled 
brownstone residences which were 
built so extensively between 185c 
and 1890, and which still stand in 
their original state, in long rows, in 
many New York side streets. 
These old brownstone fronts gen¬ 
erally have high ceilings and are 
spacious. Though once housing a 
single family, when remodeled they 
are often made to provide comfort¬ 
able quarters for a family on each 
floor. 
Just after the war, owing to in¬ 
credible advances in our apartment 
house rent, we found ourselves 
among the forced vacaters. Eventu¬ 
ally, we cast our lot with three other 
families in a like situation. After 
much exploring, consulting with real 
estate agencies and endless discus¬ 
sion, we determined upon an old 
three-story and basement house in 
the East Fifties, with the typical 
brownstone front, stoop, and serv¬ 
ants’ entrance beneath. 
Our imagination had to work ac¬ 
tively when we finally bought, for 
the house had seen sixty years of 
usage, beginning when it was new 
with uptown comfort and respect¬ 
ability, and tailing off at the time of 
our purchase with tenement sordid¬ 
ness. 
After buying, we went through a 
period of difficulties and delays. 
However, in spite of ail the trials of 
post-war conditions, high costs, and 
indifferent workmen, we completed 
alterations and then were able to 
congratulate ourselves upon what we 
had done. 
We had provided ourselves with a 
{Continued on page 100 ) 
the dining room on the second 
floor is used only at night, an inside 
room without windows was furnished 
for this purpose 
