A Good Imitation

From a recent stroll down Fulton Street in Brooklyn, an odd survivor:

My first thought was that it was a cast iron facade. My second was that it used to be taller. My third was that the art on the west wall (on the left) was quite impressive.

After a little more examination, it looks my first thought was probably right, my second was wrong, and my third was right. First up, an 1887 fire map:

So it’s been two stories for at least that long, and I can’t imagine why anyone would have removed additional stories that early in the building’s life. Also note that the building is simply colored pink for masonry exterior walls, with no special indication at the front facade. A different map company calls out the front facade as cast iron in 1904, with the added je ne sais quoi that it was now a photography studio above a bowling alley:

The iron facade wasn’t added in the intervening 17 years, so either the first map missed that fact (whoever was addressing this building thought it was a stone facade) or the difference between iron and stone (both non-flammable) didn’t matter to this map-maker.

I guess the second floor looked less odd when (a) it still had its cornice and (b) the first floor hadn’t been so heavily modernized.