The Real Deal New York

From the January issue: In the early 1900s, a stretch of land in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, near the waterfront was lined with mansions. While the neighborhood is now known for its collection of single-family homes, at least two of those mansions survived and still exist today as reminders of a bygone time when Bay Ridge served as a vacation destination for wealthy New Yorkers, including merchants, businessmen, politicians and celebrities. One is a large old stone home that sits on Narrows Avenue between 82nd and 83rd streets. Locals affectionately call it “the gingerbread house,” but its official name is the Howard E. and Jessie Jones House; it was named after its original owners, who were wealthy shipping merchants.