Astral Apartments

{{Short description|Apartment building in New York City}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = The Astral Apartments | nrhp_type = | image = Astral Apartments jeh.JPG | caption = Astral Apartments, August 2008 | location = 184 Franklin St., Brooklyn, New York | coordinates = {{coord|40|43|54|N|73|57|28|W|region:US-NY_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = New York City#New York#USA | built = 1885 | architect = Lamb & Rich | architecture = | added = October 29, 1982 | area = less than one acre | refnum = 82001178 <ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2009a}}</ref> | designated_other2 = New York City Landmark | designated_other2_date = June 28, 1983 | designated_other2_number = 1194 }} The '''Astral Apartments''' is an apartment building located at 184 Franklin Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York City. The Astral was built in 1885–1886 as affordable housing for employees of Charles Pratt's Astral Oil Works. It is a block-long brick and terra cotta building in the Queen Anne style.<ref name=aia>{{cite web|url=http://nyc-architecture.com/GPT/gpt011.htm|title=New York Architecture: The Astral Apartments|accessdate=2011-07-01|publisher=nyc-architecture.com|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708080201/http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GPT/gpt011.htm|archivedate=8 July 2011 |url-status=usurped}}</ref> It features a central projecting section with a deep, three-story-high round arch recess.<ref name=nrhpdoc>{{cite report|type=none|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318309 |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: New York SP Astral Apartments|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |author= James T. Dillon and Anne B. Covell|date= July 1981| access-date=November 1, 2025 }} ({{NationalArchivesNote}})</ref> The roof features inward-looking decorative grotesques. Original amenities of the building included a settlement house, library, and kindergarten.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of New York City|last=Jackson|first=Kenneth|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-300-11465-2|location=New Haven|pages=73–74}}</ref>

Originally, a branch of the Pratt Institute Free Library operated from the ground floor of the Astral.<ref>Ostrander, Stephen M. (1894). [https://books.google.com/books?id=HHUmAQAAIAAJ&pg=PP1 ''A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County'', Volume II]. Brooklyn, NY: Subscription.</ref>

The building was designed to echo red-brick apartments built for workers by George Peabody in London.<ref name=aia/> It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982<ref name="nris"/> and designated a New York City landmark in 1983.

==In popular culture== The building is the fictional setting for Kate Christensen's 2011 novel ''The Astral: A Novel''.

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City Category:Residential buildings in Brooklyn Category:Apartment buildings in New York City Category:Residential buildings completed in 1886 Category:Queen Anne architecture in New York City Category:Greenpoint, Brooklyn Category:National Register of Historic Places in Brooklyn Category:Apartment buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Category:1886 establishments in New York (state) Category:New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn