Why these quirky Gothic houses built in 1855 in Brooklyn Heights were nicknamed “honeymoon row”

First there were five houses. Completed in 1855, this unbroken row of Gothic-style loveliness stood out like an idiosyncratic interruption in a Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of refined Greek Revival brownstones. The striking three-story houses, with their arched roofs, tall windows, and cast-iron lintels, were also distinctive because of their slender measurements. They were built by William Evans, a tailor with a shop on Atlantic Avenue who also traded in real estate. In 1854, Evans bought four lots on Clinton Street from landowner and developer Henry Evelyn Pierrepont with the idea that they would be used to create four 25-foot attached houses, according to oldbrooklynheights.com. Evans chose to maximize his investment by putting up five smaller 20-foot houses instead. Why Evans built the row, and why he chose the unusual Gothic style, isn’t known. But because of their narrow width and lack of a garden level or fourth floor, each house might have been the 19th century equivalent of…