Broken Angel or the Broken Angel house was a building located at 4/6 Downing Street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of 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 ''Dave Chappelle's Block Party'', also known as ''Block Party'', is a 2005 American documentary film hosted and written by comedian Dave Chappelle, and directed by Michel Gondry. The film and its soundtrack are dedicated to the memory of music pro ...

'' and was demolished in 2014.

Design

Artists Arthur and Cynthia Wood built the top part of the structure in the 27 years that they were owners of the building. Arthur had a camera obscura on the top area and a room that looked like it floated in the air. The inside was like a huge cathedral with arches and colorful "stained glass windows" that were made from the remains of bottles and glass.

History

Brooklyn artist Arthur Wood purchased the 4-story brick tenement building in 1979 for $2,000. He lived in the house with his wife Cynthia, his son Christopher, who is now a stone carver, and his daughter Elizabeth. The artist explored ideas about design and

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...

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 stories above the sidewalk. The site has been compared to

Watts Towers The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or ''Nuestro Pueblo'' ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artis ...

in Los Angeles for the

ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...

construction and is acknowledged for its value as

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

and as part of the

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

. As a result of a fire on October 10, 2006, the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Department of Buildings declared the building dangerous, telling Arthur and Cynthia that they had to go. A couple of days later police arrived, cordoned off Downing Street and had battering rams ready to strike down the door. When Arthur defied the vacate order by staying in the building, he was arrested. The police also arrested Cynthia who was outside with their dog Jack. Arthur and Cynthia were taken away in handcuffs and kept at the precinct for many hours. Arthur and his wife and pets lived in a car outside their own building during the cold winter months that followed. On January 11, 2007 it was announced that Arthur Wood had partnered with local real estate developer Shahn Christian Andersen to renovate Broken Angel, build a new addition to its side, and convert the building to residential condominiums and artist space. Despite the Woods' efforts the house was a square box, and the plans to renovate it under the direction of Shahn Christian Andersen were never completed. Faced with a foreclosure from Madison Realty Bank, and Cynthia being diagnosed with cancer, the Woods struggled to fight the foreclosure and get their house back. Cynthia Wood died at the age of 72.

Demolition

In January 2009, the house was put on the market by owner Arthur Wood for $4 million and banks filed for foreclosure on the development loans. The site (including the house), was bought by developer Alex Barrett in January 2014 who paid $4.1 million for the structure; he plans to convert the site into an eight-unit condominium building, with a brand new two-unit building next door at 8 Downing Street. Demolition of the house began in April, 2014. By May, 2014 the structure was completely demolished.

Featured in movies

The Broken Angel House has a small story segment in the movie ''Dave Chapelle's Block Party''.

References

{{coord, 40, 41, 08.3, N, 73, 57, 41.3, W , display=title Folly buildings in the United States Buildings and structures in Brooklyn Buildings and structures in New York (state) Buildings and structures demolished in 2014 2014 disestablishments in New York (state)