145 Hicks Street (The Mansion House)
145 Hicks Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
BBL 3002360088 · BIN 3001852
- Year built
- 1935
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 107
- Floors
- 6
- Landmark
- Designated
- Flip tax
- Not documented in the materials reviewed; confirm at offer stage
- Subletting
- Board approval required; proprietary lease provides alternate approval by written consent of tenant-shareholders holding 65% of outstanding shares if board refuses
- Pets
- Only with express written permission of the corporation, revocable; dogs carried or leashed in public areas (1980-vintage house rules; confirm current practice)
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 1980). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
The Mansion House carries one of the longest continuous addresses in Brooklyn Heights hospitality and housing. The site's first structure was a summer villa of 1803; it later housed the Brooklyn Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies, and by the mid-nineteenth century had become the Mansion House hotel — one of the Heights' best-known establishments, expanded in 1875 with flanking wings and stables on College Place, the little mews street the property still wraps today. After fire ended the hotel era in the early 1930s, the present building rose in 1935–1936: a six-story Georgian-mode Colonial Revival design attributed in the LPC's district records to architect Arthur Weiser, developed by the Yeoman Building Company, and marketed under the hotel's old name — the cooperative itself is Mansion House Owners Corp.
The 1935 building is a textbook of its moment. It holds to six stories and a domestic red-brick Georgian vocabulary rather than the apartment-hotel massing of the 1920s Heights, organized as an "I"-shaped plan on its irregular 163-by-150-foot lot with two residential wings — each with its own elevator and stair core — and frontage on both Hicks Street and College Place. The original marketing promised suites of two to four and a half rooms with dropped (sunken) living rooms, dining balconies with iron railings, shower stalls with chromium-framed glass doors, and 24-hour doorman service — Depression-era modern luxury at row-house scale. The sunken living rooms and dining balconies survive in many apartments and remain the building's signature interior feature. Thirty years after completion, the building was folded into the Brooklyn Heights Historic District at its November 23, 1965 designation — the first historic district in New York City.
The cooperative conversion came early in the neighborhood's cycle. Sponsor 145 Hicks Street Corporation presented the plan on August 8, 1980 — 16,670 shares, 105 apartments offered, with the superintendent's apartment held back — under the tenant-protective framework of the era. The proprietary lease carries a structural curiosity worth knowing: sales and sublets require board approval, but a refused applicant may alternatively be approved by written consent of tenant-shareholders owning 65 percent of the outstanding shares — a check on board discretion rarely seen in co-op documents.
Four decades on, The Mansion House trades as one of the historic district's dependable mid-scale prewar co-ops: large enough to support a full door staff, small enough to keep the wings quiet, with Clark Street's 2/3 station three minutes away and the Promenade three blocks west.
Architecture and unit composition
The building's two wings hold nine apartments per floor apiece on the upper stories and eight each at the lobby level — 107 units in all under the current count, from studios and one-bedrooms through combined spreads assembled over decades. The "I"-plan produces an unusual share of corner and courtyard-facing exposures for the footprint, and the College Place frontage gives rear apartments a mews outlook that is one of the quieter addresses in the Heights. The 1936 signature features — sunken living rooms a few steps below entry level, dining balconies overlooking them — persist in original-condition and sympathetically renovated units, and drive real pricing differentiation when present.
Construction is non-fireproof Class A multiple dwelling of its period, with a shared service elevator handling deliveries and moves. Renovation work runs through board consent under the proprietary lease, with the standard 80 percent carpet rule; inside the historic district, window and facade work adds an LPC layer.
Building operations
The Mansion House has operated as a doorman building since its hotel-successor beginnings — 24-hour door service was part of the original 1936 marketing, and the staffing model documented at conversion (superintendent, handyman, porter, and three doormen with relief coverage) preserved it. The superintendent resides in the building; laundry is central; deliveries and trades route through the service entrance and service elevator under the house rules. A professional (doctor's-office) tenancy at the base is documented in the plan era.
Governance runs through Mansion House Owners Corp. The 1980-vintage house rules are of their generation — pet permission at the corporation's revocable discretion, quiet hours, no group tours without consent — and the board's current policy set should be obtained through the managing agent early in any transaction. The conversion-era escape clause in the proprietary lease — permitting surrender of shares on any September 30 after the plan's third anniversary — is a historical artifact rather than a live consideration, but attorneys reviewing the lease will encounter it.
Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent transfers at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 15, 2026 | B40 | $1,150,000 |
| Oct 3, 2025 | A55 | $620,000 |
| Aug 7, 2025 | B6061 | $3,250,000 |
| Jun 13, 2025 | B35 | $630,000 |
| Jan 13, 2025 | A12 | $855,000 |
| Oct 16, 2024 | A3646 | $1,415,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00236-0088) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price.
What to know if you’re buying
The period interiors are the prize. Sunken living rooms and dining balconies are the building's signature and are irreplaceable; a unit that retains them well is worth pursuing over a larger flattened one at similar money.
This is a fully governed prewar co-op — get the current package early. The documented 1980 rules give the corporation broad discretion (notably on pets), and current board policy on financing, fees, and alterations is not in the public record. Have your agent obtain the application package before you structure an offer.
The wings live like small buildings. Nine apartments per floor with a dedicated elevator and stair per wing means low corridor traffic; ask which wing and which exposure — Hicks-front, courtyard, or College Place — you are actually buying. Rear exposures over the College Place mews are among the calmest in the district core and trade differently from the Hicks Street front.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the history and the name. An 1803 villa site, the famous Mansion House hotel, and a 1935 Colonial Revival successor inside NYC's first historic district — the provenance is documented and differentiates the building from every generic prewar comparable.
Photograph the period features properly. Sunken living rooms and dining balconies are the marketing; flatten them in photos and you flatten the price. Anchor pricing to configuration first, then wing and exposure — per-room averages blur the spread between original-detail units, flat renovations, and combinations.
Prepare buyers for a discretionary board process. The corporation's documented approval powers are broad; complete board packages with early attorney review keep timelines predictable.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Mansion House, also evaluate:
- 135 Willow Street — the postwar services alternative two blocks south, with garage
- 70 Clark Street — prewar elevator co-op around the corner
- 130 Hicks Street — boutique prewar co-op neighbor on Hicks
- 57 Montague Street (The Breukelen) — larger prewar doorman co-op on Montague Street
- 60 Remsen Street — distinguished prewar co-op south of Montague
- 68 Remsen Street — prewar co-op peer in the district's southern blocks
- 44 Pineapple Street — large north-Heights co-op with services
- 45 Pineapple Street (Hamilton House) — named prewar co-op comparable in the north Heights
- 2 Montague Terrace — the trophy-tier prewar comparison at the Promenade
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
Considering a move at The Mansion House?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Mansion House would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.