8. The Bed and Breakfast, 317 Rugby Road
This colorful Queen Anne in Beverley Square West was part of a development created by Thomas Benton Ackerson, a real estate salesman and architect who wanted to create a neighborhood where every home was different from the next. He purchased 10 acres of land in Flatbush and got to work building his dream development. Ackerson hired many of the same architects who were designing houses for other developments in the area. He also worked with other developers to change the street names from plain and simple numbers to more elegant names such as Stratford, Westminster, and Argyle, which are used today.
317 Rugby Road was built in 1902 and is one of more than 40 homes that Ackerson had built in Beverly Square West. The home has been painted in various colors to highlight its many architectural details, such as the portico’s wide, rounded arch. It was run as a bed and breakfast called Rugby Gardens.
