Nick Bello is a writer and photographer based in Park Slope. He loves to capture local scenery as well as research local history. Follow him on Instagram @nbello8 or on substack at:
The current head offices of Prospect Park sit in an ornate building located at the very top of third street and Prospect Park West. The building sticks out like a sore thumb, as the Italian Villa mansion clashes with the surrounding brownstone apartment buildings. But, this building predates most of the buildings in Park Slope and also the park itself, and its former owner is responsible for building up not only the surrounding neighborhood, but also the Gowanus Canal.
A Railroad Mogul Moves To South Brooklyn
Edwin Clarke Litchfield was born on January 21, 1815 in Delphi Falls, New York. The third son of Elisha Litchfield, who would soon become the postmaster of Cazenovia, New York — sparking a political career that would take him to the New York State Assembly, where he would become the Speaker of the House in 1848, and later serve two terms in congress. Elisha’s story is a true rags to riches, as he worked his way up from carpenter to businessman and then became an officer in the War of 1812. He would marry Percy Tiffany and together they would have five boys before Percy’s death in 1827. Elisha would remarry to a woman named Lucy Scott Bacon and together they would go on to have four more children.
The Litchfield’s were Protestant, thus instilling hard working values in their children. These values were the most present in Edwin, who would attend Cazenovia Academy, graduating as valedictorian of his class. He would go on to attend Hamilton College in Upstate New York and would become an attorney in Albany after graduation, eventually working his way up to a term as district attorney. His ambition also led him to dabble in the financial management of railroads, using his lawyer status at the capitol to take advantage of insider information. He married Grace Hill Hubbard in 1841, the daughter of Thomas Hill Hubbard who was one of the founders of Hamilton College. The couple and their three children would move to Manhattan in 1846 where Edwin would start his law practice of Litchfield and Tracey. That same year, Litchfield would also become the principal stockholder of an engineering firm that bought the unfinished Michigan Southern Railroad from the state of Michigan.
This prompted Edwin to go into business with his brothers Electus and Elisha and their offices would be located on Wall Street. The brothers would help to complete the railroad in 1852 and then they would also add on the Indiana Southern Railroad, creating the first first singular rail line from the Northeast to the Midwest. They would go on to develop more rail lines in the Midwest, becoming railroad barons in a very short amount of time. They also founded the town of Litchfield in Illinois and a town in Minnesota would later be named Litchfield in their honor.
Edwin, with his new riches, had his eyes on developing land in Brooklyn. At the time, Gowanus had only a few old farms occupied by families who had been there for generations. Litchfield saw the potential in this land and wanted to build an all encompassing neighborhood that would have warehouses for shipping goods along the canal, a shopping district and paved roads and also row houses for people to live. Litchfield also planned on building a grand estate atop a hill overlooking the bustling neighborhood he created.
To do this, Litchfield first bought 88 acres of land in 1852 from David Talmadge who was the son of the former mayor of Brooklyn, Thomas Talmadge. He would also purchase an even bigger plot of land totaling 152 acres for $150,000 from the Cortelyou family who had been there since before the Revolutionary War. This land included the Old Stone House, which played a major role in the Battle of Brooklyn. He would add on some more land by buying up more farms until he had a plot suitable for his neighborhood. Most predicted that Litchfield would fail in accomplishing his goal, as the land he just purchased was swampy which would make building on it a struggle. However, Edwin was determined to see it out.
A Mansion Atop The Hill
Litchfield would begin building his future residence in 1853 and hired architect Alexander J. Davis to build it. Davis had designed numerous mansions in the tristate area as well as the US Customs House on Wall Street. Litchfield and Davis settled on an Italianate style design as building commenced later that same year. The grand estate would be named Grace Hill after Edwin’s wife and it was completed in 1857 for $150,000.
The mansion featured ornately crafted stained glass windows which still survive today and are some of the last remaining examples of pre-Civil War glass work, as well as various paintings and sculptures Litchfield obtained from his travels in Europe. The ground floor had a bedroom for Grace as she became disabled towards the end of construction and had trouble walking. Upstairs there was a room with a hidden stage which is where the Litchfields put on theater and music performances. There is even a ticket window by the entrance of the room that is still there today. Litchfield spent $300,000 on landscaping for his estate which included gardens, greenhouses, horse stables, a coach house, keepers house, chicken coops and a shelter for cows.
Building Up The Slope And The Brooklyn Improvement Company
Grace Hill was just the tip of the iceberg as Edwin planned on building an immaculate neighborhood as well. Litchfield created streets on this barren swampy land with his own money. The main thoroughfare would be Third Street, which would lead from the banks of the then Gowanus Creek, through the proposed warehouse district and commercial area, and finish in front of Grace Hill. Third Street would be the widest street in the neighborhood and be fit with gas lamps.
Litchfield sunk a lot of personal funds into the building of streets and even bridges like the Carroll Street Bridge, which would be constructed in 1864. A few years after that, the first brownstones would be finished along third street, east of 5th avenue. They would go for $15,000 each at the time. That same year, Litchfield would found the Brooklyn Improvement Company, a real estate firm that was meant to develop Gowanus and make it a business hub. Their headquarters would be on the corner of Third Street and 3rd Avenue in the old NY & LI Coignet Stone Company building which still stands today by Whole Foods. The first thing they would do would be creating private docks and warehouses along the waterfront, for goods to be transported using the creek to access the East River and Manhattan. A few days later however, the New York State Legislature would create the Gowanus Canal Improvement Commission, which was set to turn the Gowanus Creek into a shipping canal. While this may have seemed like competition to the BIC, the two organizations actually worked in tandem to create a bustling shipping canal and warehouse district that would bring a lot of business (and pollution) to the area.
Coming next in Part II: the making of Prospect Park - and how it changed everything…
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Coignet is at 3rd and 3rd ave not 4th ave