Astral Apartments

The Astral Apartments on Franklin Street were commissioned in eighteen eighty-five by Charles Pratt, an oil tycoon who became one of Brooklyn's wealthiest residents. Pratt built this massive, block-long structure specifically for his employees at the nearby Astral Oil Works. He wanted to provide a dignified alternative to the squalid, overcrowded tenements that dominated the lives of most nineteenth-century industrial workers. The building was designed by the firm Lamb and Rich to emulate the social housing models pioneered by George Peabody in London, prioritizing access to fresh air and natural light for every single resident.