159 Lafayette Avenue
159 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
BBL 3021030062 · BIN 3326231
- Year built
- 1897
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 20
- Floors
- 5
- Landmark
- Designated
In 1897 a developer named G. R. Barteaux tore down a twelve-year-old mansion on Lafayette Avenue and put up two apartment houses in its place. He hired an architect named Frank Bosworth, who appears to have left almost nothing else behind. These two buildings are the record of him.
They are flats buildings, which in 1890s Brooklyn was a term of art with money behind it. The flats house of that decade was built for well-off tenants — larger rooms, ceremonial entrances, a resident's expectation of light — at a moment when Brooklyn's professional class was starting to accept that an apartment was an acceptable place for a respectable household to live. Bosworth designed accordingly. The pair carries Ionic columns supporting the entry porticos, Greek key friezes, Palladian windows at the second floor, three-sided central bays running the full height, a heavy bracketed cornice, and a continuous stone band at the ground floor that reads the two buildings as one. They rise five stories where their neighbors rise three or four, so from the sidewalk the pair breaks the block's roofline deliberately.
Brownstoner's architectural history of the buildings is candid about the result — it calls the design a bit of a mess — and that assessment is worth passing along rather than sanding down, because it is also accurate about what redeems them: the materials and proportions are complementary, and the apartments inside are airy and generously scaled. Buyers who care about a disciplined façade will notice the pile-up of motifs. Buyers who care about room size and light will notice what a purpose-built 1890s flat gives them that a subdivided brownstone cannot.
The two buildings operate as one cooperative, 155-159 Lafayette Owners Corp., on one tax lot, with 20 apartments between them. That structure has a practical consequence worth stating early: apartments in this corporation are recorded and marketed under both street numbers, so a buyer looking at "155 Lafayette" and a buyer looking at "159 Lafayette" are looking at the same building, the same board and the same maintenance structure.
The buildings sit inside the Fort Greene Historic District, designated in September 1978, and they are among the more elaborate façades the designation protects on this stretch of Lafayette. That cuts both ways. It is the reason the block looks the way it does and a durable component of value; it is also the reason that any exterior repair — cornice, portico, column, bay, window — begins with a Landmarks application.
Architecture and unit composition
Two buildings, five stories each, roughly 17,600 square feet of building on a 4,950-square-foot lot, 20 apartments in total. The arithmetic implies apartments of real size, which matches the period and matches the description of the interiors as generously proportioned.
The three-sided central bays are the feature that governs how the apartments live. A full-height bay on a five-story flats building means the front rooms in the center lines get light on three planes rather than one, and it means the front of each floor is materially different from the rear. Combine that with the entry porticos and the raised ground floor, and the exposure hierarchy inside the corporation is legible from the street before anyone opens a floor plan: front-and-bay, front-and-flat, rear.
The unit count deserves the honesty the numbers require. Department of Finance carries 20 residential units across the pair. Brownstoner's account gives 19 one- and two-bedroom apartments and notes sources citing 35. A 35-apartment configuration in 17,600 square feet would mean flats of roughly 500 square feet, which is inconsistent with everything else known about the buildings; the likeliest reading is that 35 reflects an older subdivision, and that the 19-to-20 range describes the building as it stands. Recorded transfers in the corporation include a combined 1AB apartment, so combinations have happened here, which is itself an explanation for how a higher historical count could have compressed.
Exterior work runs through Landmarks. On a façade with this much modeling, that is not a formality — cornice repair, portico and column work, bay flashing and window replacement are all review items, and the cost of doing them to district standard is a real component of the building's long-run capital plan.
Building operations
A 20-unit walk-up cooperative in two adjoining 1897 buildings, self-directed, with no elevator and no staffed lobby. Finance's C6 classification is the operating summary: five flights, a superintendent rather than a staff, and a maintenance charge that reflects the absence of both.
The capital profile is the one an 1890s masonry pair produces. Two buildings under one corporation means two roofs, two boiler and riser systems unless they were combined at some point, a shared party condition between the pair, and a Lafayette Avenue façade with cornice, porticos, columns and bays that all age at different rates. FISP cycles apply. Landmarks review applies before the scaffold goes up. Twenty shareholders carry all of it.
The diligence list follows directly. Ask whether the two buildings share mechanical systems or run independently, because that determines how a boiler replacement is scoped and priced. Ask for several consecutive years of financial statements and the reserve position. Ask about the cornice and the porticos specifically — they are the expensive parts of this façade — and about the building's Landmarks permit history. Ask about the underlying mortgage, because in a corporation this size the loan is a large share of the monthly.
None of this cooperative's governing documents are public. There is no offering plan for 155-159 Lafayette in The Roebling Research Library, and the house rules, sublet policy, pet policy, transfer fee and financing minimum are undocumented in the records reviewed for this page. A buyer should request the proprietary lease, by-laws, current house rules, purchase application and financials as a package rather than assume any of 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 24, 2025 | 1AB | $2,250,000 |
| Jan 7, 2025 | 5C | $1,250,000 |
| May 5, 2022 | 3D | $800,000 |
| Oct 12, 2021 | 2C | $950,155 |
| Jun 5, 2021 | 5B | $865,000 |
| Aug 23, 2019 | 4A | $690,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-02103-0062) 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
155 and 159 are one cooperative. One tax lot, two buildings, twenty apartments, one board. Apartments are recorded under both numbers, so do not treat a listing at the other address as a different building.
Get the unit count straight before you compare. Finance says 20; the published architectural history says 19 and notes sources citing 35. The 35 figure does not describe the building today.
Ask which line you are in. The three-sided bays define the front-center apartments, and they are a different product from the flat-fronted and rear units at the same room count.
Underwrite the façade. Porticos with Ionic columns, Greek key friezes, a bracketed cornice and full-height bays, all inside a historic district. Ask for the Landmarks permit history and the board's account of upcoming envelope work.
Request the entire governing package. Nothing about this corporation's rules is public. Lease, by-laws, current house rules, purchase application and several years of financials, before you rely on any assumption about pets, sublets or transfer fees.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with Bosworth and Barteaux. An 1897 pair of flats buildings by an architect with no other documented work, built for a named developer, on the site of an 1885 mansion, inside the Fort Greene Historic District. That is a listing story with the LPC's records and a published architectural history behind it.
State the district and the date plainly. Fort Greene Historic District, designated September 26, 1978.
Sell the apartment's proportions. What a purpose-built 1890s flat offers over a subdivided brownstone is room size and light. If your apartment sits in a bay line, that is the photograph and the first line of the description.
Handle the walk-up honestly and price it in. Five stories, no elevator. Say it early and comp accordingly — it is a known quantity to this buyer pool and a surprise only when it is buried.
Have the diligence package ready on day one. With no public offering plan, a seller who can produce the lease, by-laws, current rules and financials immediately converts interest into offers faster than one who cannot.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 159 Lafayette Avenue, also evaluate:
- 147 Lafayette Avenue — the Lafayette Court group a block west; six 1860s houses remodeled into apartments in 1934, at nearly identical unit count
- 149 Lafayette Avenue — ten-unit Colonial Revival co-op on the Carlton Avenue corner; the same corridor at smaller scale
- 60 South Oxford Street — ten-unit row-house co-op on a signature district block; the single-house alternative
- 147 South Oxford Street — 21-apartment elevator co-op south of Fulton; the trade of district address for elevator access
- 264 Cumberland Street (The Sanctuary) — the district's boutique condominium, for buyers weighing ownership form
- 360 Clinton Avenue — Clinton Hill co-op on the mansion row; a useful cross-neighborhood check
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 159 Lafayette Avenue?
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