147 Lafayette Avenue

Four stories, six buildings, one lot, roughly 19,200 square feet of building above it, and 21 apartments distributed across the row. What you see from Lafayette Avenue is Mann's 1930s brick — flat-fronted where the stoops used to be, with casement windows and the arched opening that leads to the gardens.

The unit stock reflects what Mann built for. The remodeling produced two-and-a-half-room and four-room apartments, whose original room counts do not establish current bedroom counts or layouts, and the Department of Finance count of 21 apartments across six houses puts roughly three or four to a building. Review current floor plans to establish the actual apartment configuration and inspect the party-wall condition: apartments sit against neighbors on both sides across six structures that were joined by alteration rather than built as one.

The rear garden is the feature to see rather than read about. Mann's model was Sutton Place, which is to say a single shared landscape behind a row of buildings rather than individual fenced yards, and whether a given apartment has access to it, looks onto it, or faces Lafayette Avenue instead is the largest exposure variable in the building.

Exterior alterations generally require LPC approval; specified routine maintenance is exempt. That deserves a specific note here because the protected fabric is unusual: the district recognizes Mann's 1930s intervention, not the 1860s brownstone beneath it, so window replacement is a review item and the casements are part of the character. Any seller with a clean Landmarks file on window or façade work should put it in the deal room.

This is a small cooperative in six joined nineteenth-century structures, and it should be underwritten as one. Finance's building-class assignment is C6 — a walk-up cooperative — so there is no elevator; confirm staffing and management arrangements with the building.

The capital picture follows from the construction history. Six adjoining party-wall buildings under a single corporation means six roofs or one continuous roof plane depending on how the remodeling handled it, six sets of party walls, a masonry envelope refaced in the 1930s over structure from 1860, and a shared rear garden with its own drainage and maintenance obligations. FISP applies to buildings higher than six stories, so the reported four-story structures do not meet that threshold; exterior maintenance obligations still apply, and façade alterations generally need LPC approval, subject to the actual scope and maintenance exemptions. In a corporation this size, review the reserve, budget, debt and any planned assessments to see how that work would be funded.

Ask for several consecutive years of financial statements, the reserve position, the underlying mortgage terms, and the board's own account of the roof, the envelope and the garden. Ask specifically whether the six buildings share mechanical systems or run separately, because the answer determines how a boiler replacement is scoped and funded.

The governing documents available for this review were limited. There is no offering plan for Lafayette Court in The Roebling Research Library, and the house rules, sublet policy, pet policy, transfer fee and financing minimum are not documented anywhere reviewed for this page. The library gap does not establish whether documents can be obtained elsewhere. It does mean a buyer should request the full package — proprietary lease, by-laws, current house rules, purchase application, and two or three years of financials — before making assumptions about how the building operates.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2021): a median $1,313/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2024. Median listing discount 0.1% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-02102-0062). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

You are buying one apartment in a six-building corporation. The tax lot runs 137 through 147 Lafayette Avenue and the shares, board and maintenance are shared across all of it. Read the building as a group, not as an address.

Keep the dates attributed. LPC describes the original Italianate houses as c. 1860 and Mann’s redesign as 1938; a published architectural history reports work underway in 1934. Finance’s property file says 1860 and its transfer records say 1931. The basis of 1931 and the distinct remodeling milestones need original-record reconciliation.

Ask about the garden. Mann laid it out on a Sutton Place model and it is the building's only real amenity. Establish whether your apartment has access, a view, or neither.

Request the entire governing package. We did not locate an offering plan in the research library, and the reviewed materials do not establish current pet, sublet, transfer-fee or financing rules. Get the proprietary lease, by-laws, current house rules and purchase application in writing.

Review capital funding across six buildings. Twenty-one shareholders, a landmark masonry envelope refaced in the 1930s over 1860s structure, and a shared garden. Review the current budget, audited statements, reserve, debt and any assessments to see how capital work is funded.

Lead with the Mann story and document it. Four 1860s rowhouses combined and remodeled in the 1930s by Horace B. Mann of Mann & MacNeille for Robert Alfred Shaw, alongside the smaller house at 147, refaced in brick with casement windows and a Georgian arched entry, with a communal garden modeled on Sutton Place. That is a listing narrative with a published architectural history behind it.

Name the district and the date. Fort Greene Historic District, designated September 26, 1978. It is the shortest strong sentence available.

Say which house and which exposure, early. Buyers self-select between garden-facing and Lafayette-facing apartments. Making them work it out during a showing costs offers.

Have the diligence package ready before you list. Provide the proprietary lease, by-laws, current rules and three years of financial statements early so buyers can review the corporation’s actual requirements and finances.

Comp inside the district, at the right scale. Fort Greene and Clinton Hill co-ops of ten to forty units in landmarked buildings, adjusted for the walk-up and for the garden.

If you're considering 147 Lafayette Avenue, also evaluate:

• 149 Lafayette Avenue — the corner building Mann built new alongside this row; ten units, same architect, same year, separate corporation
• 159 Lafayette Avenue — twin 1897 flats buildings run as one co-op a block east; the closest peer for scale and street
• 60 South Oxford Street — ten-unit row-house co-op on a signature district block; the single-building alternative
• 147 South Oxford Street — 21-apartment elevator co-op south of Fulton; same unit count, no district address, elevator access
• 264 Cumberland Street (The Sanctuary) — the district's boutique condominium, for buyers weighing ownership form
• 372 DeKalb Avenue (Clinton Mews) — Clinton Hill's low-rise cooperative alternative