The Rat-Squirrel House Was Always Weird and Creepy

I've always assumed that the Rat-Squirrel House—aka 149 Kane Street in Cobble Hill (seen today, above, and in olden times, below), Brooklyn, a structure whose creepy and bizarre decline and resurrection I've chronicled for five years—was once a normal, upstanding structure, occupied by normal, upstanding citizens—not the reclusive, Collyer-Brothers-like lady who let the landmarked building fall to wrack and ruin during the '90s and early 2000s.

I was wrong.

A few weeks ago, I received this message from a reader. It's the first time I've ever been contacted by anyone with intimate, direct known of 149 Kane Street. Read and wonder:

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Rat-Squirrel House Today, Rat-Squirrel House Forever

If been more than five years since I spotted, and blogged about, what I thought was a rat (and turned out to be a squirrel) lounging on the upper windowsill of the tumbledown mess that was the landmarked Cobble Hill building at 149 Kane Street. After many a drama, and a few media circuses, the building's on the road to better health. But, to my amusement and, I must admit, delight, the rapidly improving brick house is still referred to as the Rat-Squirrel House.

Is it time to stop using that name, in light of recent renovations? A commenter over at Brownstoner wonders:

At a certain point, are we going to stop referring to this place as "Rat Squirrel House"? Probably not. I almost feel bad for the person who eventually pays a gazillion dollars for this house and everyone still points to it and declares: "Can you believe so-and-so paid that much for the Rat Squirrel House?" Of course, Grey Gardens was just as bad and no one calls it the "Crazy Cat Pee Raccoon House," today. Too bad Jackie O. didn't have another crazy cousin or aunt in Cobble Hill.

This made me smile. However, since I do not feel bad for people who spend a "gazillion dollars" on houses in Brownstone Brooklyn and drive up housing prices, making it harder for folks like me to live in this City, I say: tough. It's Rat-Squirrel House and it will stay Rat-Squirrel House. Anyway, it's famous as such. The new owners should be proud they own such a landmark!

Rat-Squirrel House Gets Windows

The once infamous Rat-Squirrel House of Cobble Hill is close to looking like a structural citizen. The plywood that has covered the windows for a couple years has been replace by actual windows—sure the first set of new windows that once-scandalous building has received since it was built more than a century ago. Now it just needs a new door and a paint job on the first level, and its like its former life as a squatter's, trash-strewn haunted house never happened.

And Now, a Brief Rat-Squirrel Update

Half of the window lintels are complete on the slowly-but-surely back-from-the-dead Rat-Squirrel House in Cobble Hill. The one-time haunted house now has some sharp new lintels to match its new cornice. Still no glass in those windows, though. And, ironically, the renovation of the house next door—which is considerably less in need of a redo—is speeding along at a far more rapid pace.

Scaffolding Off Rat-Squirrel House

For the first time in nearly three years—since the infamously derelict Cobble Hill building was declared a menace by the City, boarded up and surrounded by scaffolding—the Rat-Squirrel house can be seen.

The scaffold was taken down recently. And the facade, which has been worked on steadily over the past six months, doesn't look bad at all. Still needs a door and glass in the windows, but the cornice work looks pretty decent.

Rat-Squirrel House Gets New Cornice

Last we checked in on the slowly improving, former horror show know as the Rat-Squirrel House, it had lost its cornice and gains a new roof. Now the long-delapidated Cobble Hill residence has a new cornice. It's a crappy one, of course, because cheap is the way to go in these dark days of Gotham development. Looks to be fiberglass. But it's the same shape as the old one. And maybe they will paint it brown or something.

Rat-Squirrel House Gets a New Roof

Last week I noticed that some workman chipped away the ancient cornice from the Cobble Hill public hazard known as the Rat-Squirrel House. It was the first work done on the poor, bedraggled, landmark building in months and months, ever since the old brick building was girdled in scaffolding and netting more than a year ago.

This weekend, I noticed that old 149 Kane Street had been given a new roof. The building had been letting in the rain for years, its old roof sad and sagging. I saw a few rolls of new tar on Friday. By Sunday, it has been unfurled and attached to the top of the four-story structure.

Last week, Curbed wondered who was doing this work, since there was a stop work notice in effect for this address. Perhaps the construction firm read this, because by Sunday the door was pasted with six Department of Building Work Permits, all giving the green light to all sorts of activity. What sort of activity? Well, let me tell you. Lead removal, renovation of interior walls and ceilings, replacement of the roof, facade renovation, new plumbing, general wiring, etc.

The Rat-Squirrel House is getting a new lease of life.

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Rat-Squirrel House Loses Its Cornice

The Rat-Squirrel House—once the decrepit, derelict, haunted wonder of Cobble Hill, now just another fixer-upper—is getting some work done.

The landmarked, but distressed, red brick home has been covered in scaffolding and netting for more than a year now. Every now and then the newly installed metal door (which replaced the old wooden one after the joint was raided by official like a crack den in 2009 and the crazy owner sent packing) is opened and some workers could be seen bustling about. But other than gutting the rotted interior, the building's look didn't change much. It looked, as it always has, like it was about to fall down.

But this week, workers have been up to serious business. Bit by bit, they removed the ancient cornice. In past posts, I've wondered aloud when the dropping wooden cornice would finally fall and kill someone. It never did, though it hung lower and lower with each passing season. Now its gone. Will the workers continue on down, brightening and sprucing up the facade? Wait and watch.

Rat-Squirrel House Has a Door Once More

Looks likes the inspectors that spelunked through the infamous, sealed-up Rat-Squirrel House in Cobble Hill came back with a slightly hopeful report as to the derelict landmark's potential rebirth. Why do I assume this? Because everyone's favorite urban disaster now has a new door! You can walk in. You can walk out.

When the DOB swooped in on 149 Kane Street last year, they sealed up every window and door and opening with cinder blocks—after emptying the house of garbage and such, that is. The owner, who continued to live in the heap well after the place wasn't livable, was finally forced to vacate. It seemed that that was the end of the story for the neglected, century-old edifice. But it seems some soul out there wants to save the thing, rather than tear it down. Is it possible? We shall see.

Hopeful Fixers Bust Into Rat-Squirrel House

Last we heard from Cobble Hill's notorious Rat-Squirrel House, the sealed-up ruin was being newly draped in netting and scaffolding, with the hope put out that the 109-year-old landmark townhouse—until recently the home of a woman who willingly let it go to rack and ruin and termites and garbage—might actually be saved.

Today, there was a lot of activity around 149 Kane Street. A small army of hard-hatted workers showed up in a van from a brownstone restoration firm (Captain Waterproofing and Contracting).

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What? Only No. 10?

No, but really, I was thrilled to see that the old Rat-Squirrel House, the abandoned Cobble Hill brownstone long chronicled in Lost City, made Curbed's 2009 Halloween list of "NYC's Top 11 Frightening Buildings."

Reads the intro:

We tried to stop it, but alas, we've got Halloween fever! An office discussion got us kicking around ideas on New York's most haunted buildings. Not the obvious ones, like Roosevelt Island's Smallpox Hospital ruins or the old Bellevue nuthouse—we're pretty sure ghosts actually inhabit those. We're talking more about the buildings that might just look scary, or mysterious, or mysteriously scary, or scarily mysterious. The ones people point out to each other as they pass by and say, "What the heck is going on in there?" We ended up with 11 and didn't have the heart—or guts—to cut one off the list, lest we risk an eternal curse.

Other fine choices on the list: the boho mansion 190 Bowery; Gowanus' old, neglected Coignet Stone Company building; Admiral's Row; and the Deutsche Bank Building

Rat-Squirrel House's Secrets Sealed Up for All Time

Nothing goes in. And nothing comes out.

That's the story of the Rat-Squirrel House of Cobble Hill after last week's Kick-out-the-squatter-and-seal-up-the-building, city-sponsored commando raid of last week.

Any rats or squirrels or squatters or crazy old ladies left inside 149 Kane Street are in there for life! Cinder blocks fill every garden and ground-floor cavity now, the windows, the doors, even the hatch leading to the cellar.

All that remains is for the thing to be torn down, or fall down.

Rat-Squirrel Update: Plywood and Cinder Blocks

Squirrels, you'll have to find another flophouse.

149 Kane Street, the infamous wreck of a landmark that was raided two days ago by city officials, is being sealed up like a drum today. And not just the door, which was smashed down by the authorities, but every single window. By the end of the day, every opening will be covered with new plywood. Additionally, workman were handing cinder blocks through the first floor window. I assume this means the plywood with the fortified by a wall of cement, ensuring no more squatters ever find their way inside again.

I approached the head workman and asked if I might take a quick look inside. He said there was nothing to see, "just garbage." (I seriously doubted that.) I took a good gander through the wide open window closest to the door, however, and spotted a battered old wardrobe, and a chandelier hanging from a tin ceiling. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they found a lost original copy of the Declaration of Independence in there.

Rat-Squirrel House Excitement: Squatter, Ambulance, Kicked-Down Door!

It was the busiest day in the life of the Rat-Squirrel House since Feb. 27, 2008, when the DOB slapped a sidewalk shed and a vacate notice on the sad, dilapidated, falling-down, seriously, ridiculously run-down landmark Cobble Hill red-brick residence.

On Wednesday, July 29, the authorities smashed down the old front door of the 1901 building at 149 Kane Street, which has been an eyesore and a menace to neighbors for years now, home to squirrels, pigeons, (maybe rats) and one old woman who would not leave and would not fix the place up.

According to reports gathered by Lost City, inside they found a squatter and mounds upon mounds of garbage. Whether the garbage was accumulated by the squatter or by longtime owner Arlene Karlsen—who lived in the crazy, crumbling structure until recently—is unclear. Karlson, who apparently lived around the corner now, in another building she owns (not as badly kept up) was, accordingly to a witness, given the choice of being arrested or taken to the hospital. She left in an ambulance. Sad.

A DOB complaint filed that day noted "FAILURE TO MAINTAIN INTERIOR. BLDG OVERLOADED WITH DEBRIS." Past notices have only commented on the exterior. Another complaint, filed July 30, noted that the permit for the sidewalk shed had expired, and that it didn't meet safety code standards.

Today, July 30, a van and some workman were on the scene to re-seal the door. They had little information as to future of the four-story building, but speculated that its status as part of the Cobble Hill landmark district would make tearing it down a bit problematic. While I would love to see it restored, I am doubtful that can be accomplished at this point.

Snow's Too Much for Rat-Squirrel House

The Rat-Squirrel House—everyone's favorite Cobble Hill eyesore—has been sitting pretty much intact since being slapped with a Vacate notice by the DOB and belted by a protective shed nearly a year ago. Not much has happened. The lawless owner has continued to live there. (How she gets heat, water and electricity, I don't know. I've never seen a light shine inside the decaying building.)

But there's been a lot of snow this winter, and gravity had its way during the most recent storm. The middle section of the long-sagging cornice gave way, spewing out a log of caked soil and debris (no doubt gathered over the course of the last few decades), which now points perilously earthward, icicles and all.

I expected something like this to happen. I just expected it to happen a lot sooner. Strong building.

Merry Christmas, Rat Squirrel House!

Your bricks are red. Your shed is green. You aren't what you used to be.

You're just like Christmas!

Will Santa bring Rat-Squirrel-House Lady (I know you're in there, Arlene!) what she's asked for—a new roof, a third-story window that closes, rat traps, for the DOB to get off her back? Will he brave that chimney, the most unstable flue this side of Chumley's? Or is she on his naughty list?

A new spate of complaints were issued against the address and Dec. 5, but, still, not much has changed at 149 Kane Street in Brooklyn since last winter, when a flurry of activity and news stories resulted in several visits from the DOB and the installation of a protective shed. Nothing's been fixed or mended on the landmarked building. And the owner, while obeying a vacate order for a short bit, moved back into the haunted wreck shortly after. The vacate notice on the front door was ripped down months ago. Rat, squirrels and pigeons, meanwhile, have made themselves pretty scarce. Maybe the dump is even too run down for them.

I'm almost tempted to hang a wreath on her door.

Rat-Squirrel House Lady Doesn't Recognize No Stinkin' Badges

It's been months since the City erected a shed around the crumbling Rat-Squirrel house at 149 Kane Street in Cobble Hill, but the tumbledown address is still standing firm, despite an exceptionally rainy spring.

Also standing firm is the Lady of the Rat-Squirrel House, Arlene Karlsen. Lost City has reported in the past on local scuttlebutt that Karlsen has openly floated the DOB's order to vacate the building and still lives there. But here's official confirmation in the form of an April inspection of the place, which noted a "FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH COMMISSIONERS ORDER TO VACATE." No news on whether they finally go Arlene to go.

Rat Squirrel Lady's Home Away From Hovel

This address, 451 Henry Street, is the other Cobble Hill building owned by Arlene Karlsen, the keeper of the infamous Rat Squirrel House at 149 Kane Street, lately in the news for being a future heap-of-bricks and general eyesore and menace to society.

I'd been told Karlsen had another building in the area for some time, but only located it yesterday. In marked different to the Rat Squirrel House (below), it looks to be in fairly good repair. There are some worrisome hairline cracks in the facade, but nothing like the decay at 149 Kane. There are also no serious DOB violations against the place. There is, however, a Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker in the window that really needs to come down.

Shocking Rat-Squirrel House News: Backyard Is Even Worse!

In my months of observing the Rat-Squirrel House on Kane Street in Cobble Hill, I've never once met or seen its slippery mysterious owner, let alone gained access to the interior. But the blogger at Musing on 'Point—a Greenpoint-based blog—has succeeded where I haven't. Not in photos of the inside, no, but with pictures of the backyard of 149 Kane Street, which—God help us all!—is possibly in worse shape than the front.

Musing on 'Point won the above and below photos from 149's neighbor, after buying a couple toy chests from her. I imagine she took them to show to the DOB or something. Holy moly. What a wilderness of brush and debris. (I take some issue with Musing's contention that the owner "is the king of her castle and unless she poses a hazard to the public or adjoining structures, then she's well within her rights to let it fall into disrepair." Her neglect has posed a hazard. She's given her neighbors serious cases of termites, and people believe that, when 149 comes down, which is eventually will, it will take other buildings with it. No homeowner's an island in this City. Moreover, the house is in a landmark district and thus she has a moral responsibility to keep the place up.)

Meanwhile, I'd like to report that the pigeon that was previously making himself at home on the stoop, under the scaffolding, has successfully moved in, using the same upstairs window (still open after all these months) the rats and squirrels do.

Rat-Squirrel House Good for Pigeons, Too

There's not been much to report about the old Rat-Squirrel House in Cobble Hill lately. It just sits there, closed down and scaffolded up by the Department of Building, but otherwise ignored by the City. It's just an ongoing eyesore, drooping and decaying before our eyes, with no signs of either renewed life or imminent death hovering on the horizon. I heard one report that the loony owner still sneaks inside some nights, despite express dictates to stay clear of the firetrap.

The building, however, remains attractive to animals. And not just rats and squirrels and termites. The other day, during one of the downpours May has offered New York, a sad, bedraggled pigeon took refuge at the top of the stoop. Wet and cold, it huddled there by the door and showed no signs of budging no matter how close I got. A neighbor told me it had been huddling there most of the week. So the heap of bricks serves some purpose, I guess.