Is it time for dinner yet?
For all us “Blue Bloods” fans, 82nd Street in Bay Ridge will first, foremost and forever be the place where New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan lives. The high-profile Gingerbread House, which is right down the block, is pretty great, too.
But the 1920s Colonial-style brick house on the corner of 82nd Street and Harbor View Terrace is the fictional home of the head of the “Blue Bloods” clan, played by Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winner Tom Selleck.
As the CBS TV series’ 9 million viewers know, the exterior of 8070 Harbor View Terrace serves as an establishing shot for a scene where the Reagans sit down for Sunday dinner.
Commissioner Reagan’s adult children, played by Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan and Will Estes, and their kids join him and his dad for dinner. Every episode of the show has a fresh version of the dinner scene.
CBS recently renewed “Blue Bloods” for a ninth season, so it will be part of the network’s fall lineup.
A variety of housing stock
For “Blue Bloods” fans who feel that Autumn is a looong ways away, we suggest a stroll along Bay Ridge’s scenic, tree-lined 82nd Street. It’s an excellent place for a late-spring walk.
As the street progresses from Shore Road to Seventh Avenue, there’s a representative sampling of the different types of housing stock that can be found in the waterfront southwest Brooklyn neighborhood.
Near Tom Selleck’s TV home there are mansions, some nearly a century old, others built in recent years. As you keep walking, there are somewhat smaller Victorian houses with porches, then smaller detached homes with driveways — and garages on the back of their lots.
Several blocks away from the “Blue Bloods” house, there are semi-detached houses that are typical in many neighborhoods outside Brooklyn’s patrician Brownstone Belt. Some have nifty second-floor porches.
The Bay Ridge stretch of 82nd Street ends at the fenced-in trench where the Gowanus Expressway runs.
It’s really a bishop’s house
Here’s a final word about Tom Selleck’s TV house.
As “Blue Bloods” fans know, the house interior shown in the Sunday dinner scenes is actually a film-studio set.
But the notion that Police Commissioner Reagan hosts Sunday dinner on 82nd Street and Harbor View Terrace seems so real to us that we tried to wangle an invite to see the inside of the house.
According to city Finance Department records, it has belonged to the Diocese of Saint Maron-USA since 1978.
The cathedral for the Eparchy — that’s a synonym for “diocese” — of Saint Maron of Brooklyn is Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Brooklyn Heights. Its bishop lives in the Bay Ridge house.
We left a message for the bishop. He didn’t return our call by deadline. If he does reach out to us, we’ll post a follow-up story ASAP.
What’s up with the modern house across the street?
Across 82nd Street from Tom Selleck’s TV home, there’s a walled-in modern house made of stone. It’s half-hidden by exuberantly overgrown foliage, which gives it an air of mystery.
Finance Department records show that John and Helen Psaras bought the single-story house at 8205 Shore Road for $4.4 million in 2015 from co-executors of the late Josephine Calcagno’s last will and testament.
Renovation might be getting underway soon. In early May, the city Buildings Department approved SHV Designs’ plans for minor interior, exterior and plumbing work and fix-ups to address past city Environmental Control Board violations at 8205 Shore Road.
The Gingerbread House and other eye-catching mansions
In the opposite direction, there’s a stately brick house with a perimeter wall on the corner of 82nd Street and Narrows Avenue. Robert Palmese recently finished building it.
Buildings Department and Finance Department filings describe 8070 Narrows Ave. as a 4,994-square-foot single-family home on a 100-foot-wide by 100-foot-long site.
The Gingerbread House, a century-old Arts and Crafts-style city landmark, is on another corner of 82nd Street and Narrows Avenue. It’s built of uncut stone and looks like a gigantic fairy-tale cottage — on a 20,000-square-foot parcel of land that’s one of the largest residential lots in the entire city.
Jerry and Diane Fishman, who’ve owned the eye-catching mansion at 8220 Narrows Ave. since 1985, have put it onto the sale market several times since 2009. Asking prices have ranged from $12 million to $9 million.
As far as we can tell, it’s not currently for sale. We phoned the Fishmans but haven’t heard back from them.
The next block of 82nd Street, which is between Narrows Avenue and Colonial Road, is lined with charming mansions and big single-family houses. Tall trees form a lush canopy in many spots.
On the north side of the street, front lawns slope upwards so the houses sit on miniature hilltops. One of the especially lovely houses on this side of the block is 73 82nd St., a stucco home with green awnings and a barrel-tile roof.
One of the many stellar houses on the south side of the block is 96 82nd St., which has a fountain with lovely statues on its front lawn.
We miss you, Kleinfeld Bridal
Houses on 82nd Street between Colonial Road and Third Avenue are an eye-pleasing mixture of sizes and architectural styles.
One standout is 149 82nd St., which is a shingle house with a front porch. Mammoth 247 82nd St. has a curved front porch and looks like a beach house in Maine.
On the 82nd Street block between Third and Fourth avenues, which is lined with small homes, you can hear bells at nearby St. Anselm Roman Catholic Church chiming at 6 p.m.
The 82nd Street block between Fourth and Fifth avenues is where you find semi-detached houses with picturesque porches on their second floors.
And on a corner of 82nd Street and Fifth Avenue, you’ll notice a TD Bank branch in an old-fashioned stone building. Until 2005, 8206 Fifth Ave. was the home of Kleinfeld Bridal — which moved to Manhattan, where it became the subject of the popular reality-TV show called “Say Yes to the Dress.”
Carlo Scissura’s renovation project
You’ll notice renovation projects here and there along 82nd Street.
* Sergey Sharabura is doing an interior renovation of 102 82nd St. near the corner of Colonial Road and cladding the exterior with brick veneer, Buildings Department records indicate. He bought the house for $1.35 million in a 2015 estate sale, Finance Department records indicate.
* On a nearby corner of 82nd Street and Colonial Road, renovation is underway on a house George Arsoff and Chyrine Haggear bought for $2.15 million in 2015.
According to a restrictive declaration in Finance Department records, the couple is allowed to construct what’s called a “three-fixture bathroom” in the cellar of 8120 Colonial Road. But nobody can cook, sleep or live in the cellar. And it can’t be rented out separately from the rest of the house.
This document defines a three-fixture bathroom as “a full bathroom with lavatory, a water closet and a shower or bathtub.”
* Carlo Scissura is renovating a house at 242 82nd St., on the block between Ridge Boulevard and Third Avenue. He was president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce before he became the president and CEO of the New York Building Congress in 2017.
The Real Deal was the first to report Scissura’s $2.2 million home purchase. The deal closed in January, Finance Department records indicate.
DOT ALERT: CLINTON ST. BLOCK CLOSED OFF THIS WEEKEND: A portion of Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights will be closed to traffic this weekend, including possibly during the time that the Montague Open Street fair takes place on August 20.
DOT ALERT: MONTAGUE ST. CLOSED OFF FOR CONSTRUCTION AND STREET FAIR: The DOT today announced also that Montague Street between Clinton and Court streets will be closed Saturday, August 20 at 12:01am to Sunday, August 21 at 3:01 p.m. to facilitate crane operation.
LORIMER ST. CLOSED THROUGH 9/17 FOR SUBWAY UPGRADES: More traffic headaches are in store for commuters in Williamsburg, as Lorimer Street between Metropolitan Avenue and Conselyea Street will also be closed around-the-clock through September 17 to facilitate MTA station upgrade operation.
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https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2018/05/30/stroll-bay-ridges-blue-bloods-street-where-tom-selleck-lives/
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and brooklyneagle.com cover Brooklyn 24/7 online and five days a week in print with the motto, “All Brooklyn All the Time.” With a history dating back to 1841, the Eagle is New York City’s only daily devoted exclusively to Brooklyn.
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