Yes, frumpy, derided, faulty old brownstone. Find some real, untampered blocks of this wonderful sedimentary rock: when planed flat, it can be translucent, with whorls of layers and bits of mica. When decayed - long live decay! - it is rugged and cratered and complex, as dramatic as the Grand Canyon. Preservationists, who insist on patching limestone, marble and other materials like-for-like, somehow give a pass to someone who wants to slather their house with that awful opaque stucco, which has all the nuance of scrap metal. But then, when you pay $5 million and up for what was originally a modest house, it is hard to resist the temptation to make it look “like new”. Hey, let’s make the Grand Canyon “like new”! The places the “preservationists” have missed are diminishing. Find one, especially right next to the “restored” version, and you will see what I mean.