Broken Angel House

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Broken Angel or the Broken Angel house is a building located at 4 Downing Street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, at the intersection of Downing and Quincy street. The house was featured prominently as a backdrop in the film Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and has been in the local news as a result of a fire on October 10, 2006 and citations for building code violations.

[edit] History

Brooklyn artist Arthur Wood originally purchased the 4-story brick tenement building in 1972 for $2,000. ^[1] He lived in the house with his wife Cynthia and raised their son Christopher who is now a stone carver. The artist explored ideas about design and vernacular architecture with improvised construction to add new floors and rooms to the original building, to the point where the structure reaches 104 feet, or about 9 storys above the sidewalk. The site has been compared to Watts Towers in Los Angeles for the ad hoc construction and is acknowledged for its value as folk art and as part of the cultural heritage. ^[2]