Bob at Gowanus Lounge has a story that’s near and dear to many a long-time Park Sloper’s heart, the Lincoln Place Bordello.
That’s right. There’s a big, gorgeous building on Lincoln Place next door to the backyard of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music that used to be called The Lincoln Hotel or the The Park Slope Hotel—does anyone remember?
To quote from the Kander and Ebb song, "Cabaret": "She wasn’t what you’d call a blushing flower. As a matter of fact, she rented by the hour."
Yes, the Lincoln Hotel was the real deal. Rooms by the hour. Limousines and cabs out front all night. My mother and a friend once went in years ago because her friend was curious about this "hotel" in her neighborhood.
They said the person at the front desk acted pretty funny when they asked for room rates.
A few years back the hotel was sold and it’s been in construction hell ever since. Yesterday Gowanus Lounge’s story included this tip from a reader.
My companion noted that
there was a worker perched on the chimney way up on the roof. No harness.A few hours
later, I walked by again. There was an unharnessed worker (couldn’t
tell if it was the same one) in the same place. I called through the
gate to ask if there was a supervisor I could speak to. A worker told
me that he was "inside." As I had a child with me this time, I didn’t
pursue the boss further, but said to the worker that the other man
didn’t have a harness–which was dangerous. He replied, "It’s only 20 minutes work."
Clearly, the brothel condo isn’t the safest construction site around. Seriously, though. Why has it taken so long to convert that place into condos? I mean, it’s not the Sistine Chapel.
When we lived in Clinton Hill in the 90s, there was a reputed bordello, the Graham Home, on Washington Avenue. Now converted to condos, it was previously (according to the Condo website) The “Brooklyn Society For The Relief Of Respectable Aged Indigent Females” was founded in 1851 by John Graham, Esq. He then donated a beautiful plot of ground upon which was built a noble 5 story brick building in the Greek Revival / Italianate style. Familiarly known as “The Graham Home For Old Ladies” ..the home was still in use in 1951 when it commemorated
its’ One Hundredth Anniversary.”
The building’s latter day rep was that it offered comfort of a different sort, and not to old ladies, but whether that tale is apocryphal or not, who knows?
I remember seeing the Lincoln Place hotel as a fixture in the nabe for years and years. As I recall, there always seemed to be cabs and car services either dropping someone off or picking them up….I wonder what it was like to live across the street from “that kind” of hotel?