Fodor's Expert Review Bay Ridge Architecture Tour

Bay Ridge has no shortage of eclectic architecture. Wandering the neighborhood, you'll see everything from one of the oldest freestanding Greek Revival homes in Brooklyn (99th Street and Shore Road) to circa-1880 Shingle-style Victorians with conical towers (81st and 82nd streets, between 3rd and Colonial avenues); rows of limestone houses on Bay Ridge Parkway (lit by working gas lamps); and charming cul-de-sacs lined with redbrick, slate-roof homes (68th Street between Ridge Boulevard and 3rd Avenue). The most popular architectural attraction in the neighborhood, though, is the fanciful Arts and Crafts home known to locals as the Gingerbread House. Built for shipping magnate Howard E. Jones in 1917, the 6,000-square-foot private home at 8220 Narrows Avenue has a thatched-style shingle roof, rustic stonework, and abundant landscaped greenery that make it look like it came straight out of a Hans Christian Andersen story.