What’s inside these fake row houses that blend into the New York City streetscape?

You’re forgiven if you assumed 58 Joralemon Street was just another beautifully restored Greek Revival row house in Brooklyn Heights. Built in 1847, it resembles many of the elegant single-family houses on the block, with its red brick facade, long windows, and brownstone trim around the entryway. But take a closer look, and you’ll notice some oddities. For starters, the windows are black, and no curtains or blinds hang behind them. No personal effects sitin the windows or on the stoop, like a planter or a mat for muddy shoes. And the garden level is blocked off by an industrial-style cover with a red FDNY-labeled pipe by the sidewalk. So what’s with this impersonal, almost creepily empty house—which looks similarly empty in this 1940 photo? It’s not a house at all but a deftly designed subway ventilation shaft. And it’s one of several fake row houses hiding in New York’s residential streetscape, tasked with a secret purpose. The story of 58 Joralemon’s conversion from dwelling to…