A long-abandoned 1860s Italianate brownstone on one of Brooklyn’s most coveted streets has hit the market for $15 million.<\/p>\n
“This is one of the most beautiful streets in all of New York<\/a>,” listing agent Vicki V. Negron<\/a> of Corcoran tells Realtor.com\u00ae<\/a> of the home at 194 Columbia Heights<\/a>. “The views are absolutely incomparable.”<\/p>\n Snuggled in a row of 22 Civil War-era brownstones overlooking the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, the address boasts breathtaking, unobstructed views of the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and One World Trade Center.<\/p>\n The elegant brownstone-flanked street, once home to writers Walt Whitman and Norman Mailer, eventually lured movie stars like Matt Damon, Jennifer Connelly, and Michelle Williams.<\/p>\n But for such rare and valuable property, the home has been a gloomy enigma for decades, fascinating\u2014and infuriating\u2014well-heeled locals with its boarded up windows, padlocked doors, broken gas lamps, and general blight. <\/p>\n A Brooklyn Heights brownstone dating back to 1860 has hit the market for $15 million.Corcoran <\/p>\n The home sat neglected for decades, racking up fines, violations, and theories about why the owner\u2014a man named Austin Moore\u2014let such prime real estate deteriorate.<\/p>\n The listing agent Negron, who lives nearby, says she walked by the boarded-up brownstone every day for 25 years, and “prayed to get that listing\u2014literally and figuratively.”<\/p>\n One day, her prayers were answered when it turned out a friend knew the absentee owner and was willing to make a connection for her.<\/p>\n The brownstone’s curious history<\/p>\n While a small plaque on the exterior dates the house to 1858, the brownstone probably was built in 1860, according to the Brownstoner<\/a>.<\/p>\n The home was likely constructed by a wool trader named Henry Dike, who then sold it to his brother, Camden Dike, and his sister-in-law, Jeannie Dike, in 1862, for a mere $23,000.<\/p>\n Then in 1969, local psychiatrist Austin Moore bought it for $140,000, or about $1.27 million in today’s dollars, according to Brooklyn Magazine<\/a>. Negron confirms that Moore, now in his 90s, is still the owner.<\/p>\n It’s unclear when the brownstone was abandoned. In 2024, a neighbor told Curbed<\/a> that it had been empty since 1968, when he moved into the neighborhood. But city records put the date around 1983.<\/p>\n What is clear is that the home was an eyesore on its leafy block of meticulously maintained multimillion-dollar historical homes.<\/p>\n “Sometimes, we look away from things,” Negron says of the owner’s puzzling abandonment. “It wasn’t a priority [for him].”<\/p>\n Over the decades, the deteriorating brownstone was issued dozens of violations by the Department of Housing Preservation and the Department of Buildings. The Brooklyn Heights Association\u00a0was in a permanent tizzy about the blemish on the otherwise postcard-worthy street.<\/p>\n Moore owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes, but kept ahead of them enough that he was never forced into foreclosure.<\/p>\n