Former Workingman's Cottage In Brooklyn Now Rents for $5K

In a textbook example of look-how-expensive-NYC-keeps-getting, a former workingman’s cottage is now renting for $5,000 per month. A similar unit sold last year for $1.45 million.

The two-bedroom cottage is part of the Warren Place Mews, a block of 34 small homes threaded together in Cobble Hill. They were originally established as workingman’s homes, or the equivalent of today’s affordable housing. But unlike today’s affordable housing, these were built in the late 1800s by businessman Alfred Tredway White, so these beautiful gothic homes have a little style.

White was also a philanthropist and pioneer in housing reform who fought for better low-income housing for Brooklyn’s working class. As a developer, he advocated for the “philanthropy plus 5 percent model,” accepting comparatively modest 5 percent returns on his housing projects in order to make them affordable.

Nowadays the little cottages aren’t exactly affordable. This 1,100-square-foot unit is renting for $4,900 per month. But with its charming interiors, brick walls and exposed wood beams, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, backyard garden and front facing an English courtyard, it’s hard to say the place should go for any less. Especially in Brooklyn.

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h/t 6sqft