58 Remsen Street

The house is brick and masonry with brick foundations on rock or hardpan and wood floor framing. The Hicks Street flank and the front areaway are enclosed with period iron fencing, the areaway paved in bluestone, with brick steps down to the garden apartment. The single public stair retains its original handrail and balusters; there are no fire escapes, the halls and kitchens being sprinklered instead. No elevator, no laundry room, no garage — this is a house, run as a corporation.

The ten apartments read front and rear across five levels. Share allocations at conversion make the hierarchy legible — 270 shares each to the parlor-floor apartments against 170 to 176 for the top-floor rear — and the parlor floor rear carried the garden. The fourth-floor rooms sit under the mansard. The rear yard is bluestone and brick, walled in brick coped with concrete and terra cotta, and the garden beyond it is single-level with southern exposure, reached by french doors and steps from the first floor rear.

58 Housing Corporation has run the building since 1975. It is a ten-share house without staff, and its documents show a shareholder body that governs directly rather than delegating: purchase and rental approvals go to a shareholder vote (voting weight set by the by-laws and share allocation) with paperwork distributed a week beforehand, basement storage is allocated by resolution, and roof and garden rights were fixed in writing rather than left to custom. Heat is a single gas-fired steam boiler; apartments are wired for wall and window air conditioning.

For an 1844 masonry house carrying a slate mansard, the capital list is specific: slate and dormers, the cornice, three chimney lines serving ten working fireplaces, the brownstone stoop and entrance surround, the sprinkler system, and the boiler. Every exterior item runs through the LPC. The corporation's financial statements in The Roebling Research Library run from the mid-1990s forward; current condition of these items needs recent reports and board minutes.

Subletting: The cooperative's rules prohibit subletting. Board and shareholders may consider a case-by-case exception under written procedures adopted November 13, 2001 and amended January 6, 2003: a term not exceeding 12 months with extensions of up to six; only one apartment in the building may be rented at any given time; the renter interviewed and approved under the same voting procedures as a purchaser, with every intended occupant present and references including a current next-door neighbor; a 50 percent maintenance surcharge for the term; $500 refundable move-in and move-out deposits; the shareholder's insurance amended to cover the renter; and an "unauthorized habitation" fee of three times the monthly maintenance for every month a tenant stays past the term.

Purchase approval: Shareholder-level review, not board-only. Expect a full package and an interview with everyone who will live in the apartment.

Roof and garden rights: The roof is held exclusively by apartment 9 (fourth floor front), subject to a 50/50 split of roof maintenance, DOB and LPC approval of any deck, dedicated liability insurance, and indemnification of every other shareholder. The garden is held exclusively by the parlor floor rear, the line beginning at the yews, fence height capped at three feet.

Pets, flip tax, financing minimum, washer-dryer: Not documented in the file; confirm each in writing during diligence.

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 (2010): a median $1,091/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2024. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00251-0034). 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.

Read the sublet rules before anything else. Renting out is prohibited except by exception, one apartment at a time in the whole building, at a 50 percent maintenance surcharge and a three-times-maintenance penalty for overstay. If you need optionality, this is not the building.

Confirm which rights attach to your apartment. The garden belongs to the parlor floor rear and the roof to apartment 9, both by written instrument. Do not assume access.

The approval is a shareholder vote. Everyone who will live in the apartment attends the interview, and references include a current neighbor.

Price the mansard. Slate, dormers, and Victorian ironwork are beautiful and expensive, and exterior alterations generally need LPC permits; eligible work may receive staff approval and ordinary maintenance may be exempt. Ask about the roof's history since 1969 and about reserves.

Lead with the name and the corner. The William G. Law house, 1844, Samuel Morgan, at Remsen and Hicks with a garden to Grace Court — a headline no other apartment on the street can write.

Document the fireplace. Ten fireplaces, relined at conversion, with mantels that differ apartment to apartment. Confirm yours is in working order, photograph it and say what it is.

Be direct about the sublet rule. It filters the pool to owner-occupants; saying so early attracts the right buyer instead of losing the wrong one at the approval stage.

Comp by attribute. Garden, parlor-floor, and roof-rights apartments belong with Heights townhouse-floor product; upper rear apartments belong with the walk-up co-op tier.

If you're considering 58 Remsen Street, also evaluate:

• 44 Remsen Street — the other 1844 Greek Revival house on this block, also ten apartments
• 73 Remsen Street — three-apartment rowhouse co-op across the street, with its own garden and roof rights
• 10 Montague Terrace — a nineteenth-century mansion converted to apartments
• 1 Grace Court — cooperative on the cul-de-sac immediately behind the garden
• 19 Grace Court — smaller Grace Court co-op alternative
• 2 Grace Court — the large full-service prewar cooperative around the corner, for contrast
• 60 Remsen Street — the postwar doorman building directly across Hicks Street
• 87 Hicks Street — small nineteenth-century walk-up co-op nearby