Young Landmarks Enjoy Exclusive Tour of Brooklyn Heights
Young Landmarks joined Technical Services Director Alex Herrera on an exclusive tour of Brooklyn’s first and still premier residential neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights.
Beginning with Borough Hall Park on a picture-perfect summer evening, Herrera guided the more than a dozen Young Landmarks along the beautifully preserved and restored streets that make the Heights one of the City’s most desirable neighborhoods.
Designated in 1965, Brooklyn Heights was the Borough’s first Historic District. It is a special neighborhood where one can trace practically the entire history of urban residential design in New York City beginning in the 1820s.
Following the establishment of the steam-powered Fulton Ferry in 1814, the Heights became the first part of Brooklyn to be urbanized. Herrera pointed out many of the houses and churches that line the streets date to the half-century after the ferry started regular service.
In the 1820s and 1830s elegant wood and later brick houses were built in the Federal Style. Later came the more substantial Greek Revivals followed by the Italianate brownstone-fronted houses, the neo-Gothic style, the Queen Anne style, Richardsonian romanesque, and finally colonial revival.
One Young Landmark was interested in learning about the historic courthouse her grandfather once sat as judge.
Others wanted to know what families built some of the historic houses along Peirrepont Street. Herrera pointed out the Alexander M. White and Abiel Abbot Low Houses on Montague Terrace: White was a noted philanthropist and Abiel Low’s son, Seth Low, was mayor of Brooklyn at the time the Brooklyn Bridge opened, then president of Columbia University before becoming mayor of the consolidated New York City.
Young Landmarks also viewed some of the neighborhood’s extraordinary collection of churches, most of which were built in the 1840s and 1850s and were designed by the most prominent architects of their day including Minard Lafever, Richard Upjohn, and James Renwick.
After touring some of the historic streets, tour-goers visited the world-famous Brooklyn Heights Esplanade, also known as the Promenade, to take in the views of the bay, the Manhattan skyline, and the brand-new “Brooklyn Bridge Park.”
Some asked about the history of the area and if planned improvements to the expressway could threaten some of the historic homes along the promenade.
Herrera said that in 1942 the plan was to run the expressway through the heart of Brooklyn Heights thereby destroying the neighborhood. But thanks to political pressure from residents and the Brooklyn Heights Association, the highway was detoured around the neighborhood and a landscaped promenade was built above the traffic. Below the esplanade, where the new Brooklyn Bridge Park is being built, pre-civil war warehouses once stood. Herrera also said it is unlikely any improvements to the expressway would be a threat to the area’s historic houses.
The tour ended at sunset with cocktails at a neighborhood tavern on Hicks Street.
Tour route:
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