Remsen Street Architecture

1800's Ship Bell on Willow Street

College Place off Love Lane - "A Jewel!"

With a five minute commute to the Stock Exchange via subway, many of today's residents are Wall Street workers looking for more space and neighborhoods with old New York character, something in abundance in the Heights.

The Brooklyn Heights Promenade will take your breath away. The unique park built atop the double decker Brooklyn-Queens Expressway draws tourist worldwide for its spectacular views of the East River bridges and the skyscrapers of Manhattan. As you walk the length, small memorials for the World Trade Center still adorn its space. Many residents watched the tragedy unfold less than two miles away.

As usual, Brooklyn rebounded. The tragedy at the World Trade Center brought many new residents. The housing boom brought new life to many brownstones as renovations skyrocketed. New construction has appeared on nearly every empty lot. And now, with movement increasing in the plans for the massive Brooklyn Bridge Park, the waterfront is set to become a new playground within Brooklyn Heights.

The 85-acre park gained unanimous approval from the Empire State Development Corporation in January, 2006, with new park construction to begin in 2007. Stretching over a mile on the shore of the East River, the new park will include today's existing parkland under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges (click here for QTVR of the park and its view.) and replace Piers 1 to 6 with floating pathways, fishing piers, beaches, playgrounds and restored habitats.

Today's Brooklyn Heights is also a monument to the history of New York and the United States. Europeans first appeared in 1645, forming the settlement of "Breuckelen" near the site of today's Borough Hall. Breuckelen, meaning marsh land, is thought to come from the areas resemblance to Breuckelen, Holland, where the settlers originated. The bluffs of Brooklyn Heights gained fame as many of Manhattan's early merchants built mansions to gain the first views of "the city."

It was from one of these mansions in 1776, that George Washington made his fateful decision to retreat from Brooklyn. Using the Cornell Mansion as his headquarters, Washington watched the Battle of Brooklyn unfold into a horrific defeat for his army. As his men battled the British in Battle Pass (now located within Prospect Park in Park Slope), he is quoted as saying: "Good God, what brave men must I lose this day!"

Under the cover of darkness on August 29th, Washington's army crossed the East River from Fulton Ferry to Manhattan, leaving Brooklyn to the British. The British Empire ended its occupation of New York on November 25, 1783. November 25 was celebrated as a holiday in New York for more than a century as Evacuation Day.

The 1800's saw unparralled growth in Brooklyn. As New York and Brooklyn blossomed into the heart of the new United States, Brooklyn Heights became the playground for many of New York's wealthiest investors. In 1807, Robert Fulton captained his steamboat, The Clermont, from the Brooklyn Ferry on its maiden voyage up the Hudson River. In 1814, Fulton gained a franchise to operate ferry service via steamboat from Brooklyn to Manhattan. As the population boomed, Brooklyn became a city in 1833.

Early on, Brooklyn Heights became an enclave to literary aspirations. In 1855, Walt Whitman printed the first ten pages of his well-known book of poetry, Leaves of Grass, on a press borrowed from some friends. Following in his footprints, Truman Capote wrote his masterpieces, "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," in a basement apartment on Willow Street. And today, Norman Mailer still lives and writes at his home along the Promenade.

Montague Street, the heart of Brooklyn Heights, is four blocks long, ending at The Promenade. Named in honor of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, born in 1689 to Evelyn and Mary Pierrepont, she gained notoriety for bringing the practice of inoculations to prevent smallpox to England after witnessing its use in Turkey while her husband served as ambassador for King George I.

For the tourist or history buff, Brooklyn Heights has an abundance of "not to be missed" landmarks:

St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church on Montague and Clinton Streets, was designed by Minard Lafever and constructed between 1844 and 1847. Containing 7,000 square feet of stained glass windows designed in the 1840s by William and John Bolton, they are renowned as the FIRST American made stained glass.

Our Lady of Lebanon Church on Henry and Remsen Streets, features placques on its massive Bronze doors from the Normandie, and inside the church, a bronze railing, a cloisonne enamel bas-relief of a Norman knight, and a bronze statue entitled "La Paix" (Peace).

The Brooklyn Historical Society on Pierrepont and Clinton Streets, is a four-story Queen Anne style building that was completed in 1881 and designed by architect George B. Post. BHS provides a look into Brooklyn's past with changing exhibits and walking tours of the neighborhood.

Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims on Orange and Hicks Streets, first gathered in 1847, led by Henry Ward Beecher, the famed clergyman and antislavery advocate. From its beginnings, the Church served as a vital philosophical and geographical link in the Underground Railroad.