In 1874, Charles Pratt’s Astral Oil Works was acquired by John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, making Pratt a very rich man. That same year, he broke ground on a trendsetting mansion on Clinton Avenue, soon to be the most sought-after address for Brooklyn’s burgeoning industrialist class.

The first of the Clinton Avenue mansions, Pratt’s home was designed by architect Ebenezer Roberts in a transitional Italianate/Neo-Grec style. The home originally included gardens, stables, and a greenhouse on the property’s Vanderbilt Avenue frontage, but these outbuildings have been lost. Today, the mansion is part of St. Joseph’s College, under whose care many original features have been preserved.