Rat-Squirrel House Today, Rat-Squirrel House Forever

If been more than five years since I spotted, and blogged about, what I thought was a rat (and turned out to be a squirrel) lounging on the upper windowsill of the tumbledown mess that was the landmarked Cobble Hill building at 149 Kane Street. After many a drama, and a few media circuses, the building's on the road to better health. But, to my amusement and, I must admit, delight, the rapidly improving brick house is still referred to as the Rat-Squirrel House.

Is it time to stop using that name, in light of recent renovations? A commenter over at Brownstoner wonders:

At a certain point, are we going to stop referring to this place as "Rat Squirrel House"? Probably not. I almost feel bad for the person who eventually pays a gazillion dollars for this house and everyone still points to it and declares: "Can you believe so-and-so paid that much for the Rat Squirrel House?" Of course, Grey Gardens was just as bad and no one calls it the "Crazy Cat Pee Raccoon House," today. Too bad Jackie O. didn't have another crazy cousin or aunt in Cobble Hill.

This made me smile. However, since I do not feel bad for people who spend a "gazillion dollars" on houses in Brownstone Brooklyn and drive up housing prices, making it harder for folks like me to live in this City, I say: tough. It's Rat-Squirrel House and it will stay Rat-Squirrel House. Anyway, it's famous as such. The new owners should be proud they own such a landmark!

Rat-Squirrel House Gets Windows

The once infamous Rat-Squirrel House of Cobble Hill is close to looking like a structural citizen. The plywood that has covered the windows for a couple years has been replace by actual windows—sure the first set of new windows that once-scandalous building has received since it was built more than a century ago. Now it just needs a new door and a paint job on the first level, and its like its former life as a squatter's, trash-strewn haunted house never happened.

And Now, a Brief Rat-Squirrel Update

Half of the window lintels are complete on the slowly-but-surely back-from-the-dead Rat-Squirrel House in Cobble Hill. The one-time haunted house now has some sharp new lintels to match its new cornice. Still no glass in those windows, though. And, ironically, the renovation of the house next door—which is considerably less in need of a redo—is speeding along at a far more rapid pace.