Financial lifeline for owners of historic homes

New York

YOU never know what you might find when you start peeling away layers. For Attila Piros, that is more than an aphorism. It is an explanation of why his row house in a historic district in the Crown Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn, in New York City, was not what everyone thought it was.

"We thought it was a brownstone," said Blaire Walsh of the nonprofit New York Landmarks Conservancy, which played a part in peeling away the aluminium siding that used to face Dean Street. "The Landmarks Preservation Commission thought it was a brownstone." (The commission is the city agency that designates landmarks and historic districts like the one in Crown Heights, while the private conservancy's mission …