Search Results for: brooklyn history

Pre-Civil War Village row house with NYC theater and Black history ties may be landmarked

The 13th Street Repertory Company. Photo (left): Courtesy of Village Preservation. Current view of the building (right): Courtesy of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

June 18, 2024

Pre-Civil War Village row house with NYC theater and Black history ties may be landmarked

By Aaron Ginsburg

A nearly 180-year-old rowhouse in Greenwich Village that has been home to one of the city's first "Off-Off-Broadway" theaters and has significant ties to Black history may be saved from demolition. The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday voted to calendar the Jacob Day Residence at 50 West 13th Street, an 1845 rowhouse once home to one of NYC's most successful African American businessmen, a famous suffragist and Civil Rights leader, and most recently, to the 13th Street Repertory Company. Although preservationists were first told by the LPC the structure was not distinguished enough to warrant designation, further research proved the building's immense cultural and historical significance and now the rowhouse is one step closer to becoming a landmark.
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Policy

All photos courtesy of Veselka

June 10, 2024

Veselka opens first Brooklyn location

By Aaron Ginsburg

Brooklyn residents no longer need to trek to the East Village for their pierogi fix. Veselka, the beloved Ukrainian diner serving New Yorkers for seven decades, opened its highly-anticipated Williamsburg location last week. Veselka's first location in the borough, the 4,000-square-foot restaurant is located at 646 Lorimer Street. In addition to its famous Ukrainian soul food, the business will sell Veselka-branded merchandise.
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Food & Dining

Photo credit: Russ Ross Photography

May 21, 2024

Spend summer on the terrace of this $2.6M Brooklyn Heights co-op

By Michelle Cohen

This three-bedroom co-op on a historic Brooklyn Heights block at 167 Clinton Street has a townhouse vibe that reflects the 1800s building it occupies. The full-floor home, asking $2,595,000, offers a gracious layout and easy-on-the-eyes interiors. Though sunlight fills the rooms of the pretty corner flat, the best part may be its impressive outdoor space in the form of a landscaped terrace overlooking neighborhood greenery.
step outside on the terrace

Distinctive Homes

Downtown Brooklyn’s Abolitionist Place park is now open

All photos courtesy of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

May 8, 2024

Downtown Brooklyn’s Abolitionist Place park is now open

By Aaron Ginsburg

First promised 20 years ago, a Downtown Brooklyn park commemorating the borough's abolitionist history is finally open. City officials on Wednesday cut the ribbon on the 1.15-acre Abolitionist Place, located at 225 Duffield Street. Designed by landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Jones, the park offers a playground, a water play feature, a central lawn, a paved area with boulders, seating, and a dog run. The green space was part of the 2004 upzoning of Downtown Brooklyn and planning officially began in 2010. Financial issues and design changes delayed the project several times.
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Architecture And Design

Asking $2.75M, this pale pink Greenpoint townhouse has gardens, terraces, history, and charm

All photos courtesy of Kate Glicksberg

May 3, 2024

Asking $2.75M, this pale pink Greenpoint townhouse has gardens, terraces, history, and charm

By Michelle Cohen

Among the most sought-after in Brooklyn real estate, the historic Greenpoint townhouse is a dream for many, but the good ones are few and far between. This charming rose-colored wood-frame home at 61 Norman Avenue is a neighborhood gem, just a block from McCarren Park. Asking $2,750,000, the home is currently configured as a single-family residence, but it's a legal three-family dwelling, so income potential exists. As for charm, the townhouse is blessed with a shaded front porch, a walled private patio, a bedroom terrace, and a sunroom.
explore this brooklyn beauty

Distinctive Homes

Soar into spring with free kite flying and live music at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Photos courtesy of Etienne Frossard

April 18, 2024

Soar into spring with free kite flying and live music at Brooklyn Bridge Park

By Aaron Ginsburg

Celebrate the start of spring beneath hundreds of vibrant kites in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy is hosting its annual Sound & Color! Spring Festival on May 18 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., a free family-friendly event that celebrates the beginning of the season with kite flying, live music, food vendors, activities for kids, and more. Guests can craft their own kites in a workshop and send them off into the sky with help from expert flying instructors. The festival remains the only day of the year when kite flying is allowed at Pier 5.
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Events & Things To Do

Photo credit: Allyson Lubow for The Corcoran Group

March 5, 2024

For $4.6M, this classic Park Slope limestone updates history without erasing the details

By Michelle Cohen

On a leafy Park Slope block, the townhouse at 351 Fourth Street embodies the neighborhood's historic elegance. Built in 1909, the restored limestone residence consists of a two-bedroom garden flat and a gracious upper duplex. Behind a charming bay window, interiors have been renovated for the 21st century with a careful hand, while preserving details like original millwork and plaster walls and moldings. Asking $4,595,000, the 20-foot-wide home offers a total of five bedrooms, a rear garden and a deck.
take the townhouse tour

Distinctive Homes

How to celebrate Women’s History Month in NYC

Suffragists marching, probably in New York City in. New York, 1915. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress

March 1, 2024

How to celebrate Women’s History Month in NYC

By Aaron Ginsburg

Every March, Americans celebrate Women's History Month, a chance to highlight the invaluable contributions of women who helped shape the history of the nation. In New York City, where the month-long holiday began in 1909, there is a large selection of engaging, informative, and entertaining ways to show your admiration for influential women. Ahead, here are some ways to celebrate Women's History Month in NYC, from learning about women who changed the history of the five boroughs with the Urban Park Rangers to listening to hilarious comics at the Knockout Women's Comedy Festival.
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Leasing launches for apartments at Brooklyn’s landmarked Empire State Dairy complex

Renderings courtesy of The Moinian Group and Bushburg

February 27, 2024

Leasing launches for apartments at Brooklyn’s landmarked Empire State Dairy complex

By Aaron Ginsburg

Here's a chance to live in a modern apartment building within a historic and unique Brooklyn property. Leasing launched this week for 320 apartments at The Highland at 2480 Atlantic Avenue, the site of the landmarked Empire State Dairy Company complex in East New York. Developed by The Moinian Group and Bushburg and designed by Dattner Architects, the mixed-use development incorporates the early 1900s buildings with a brand new 14-story residential tower offering a mix of studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms, and three-bedroom rentals.
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Portraits of 200 Brooklynites on view at Industry City

All photos courtesy of the Free Portrait Project

February 15, 2024

Portraits of 200 Brooklynites on view at Industry City

By Aaron Ginsburg

The portraits and stories of 200 South Brooklyn residents will be on display in Sunset Park later this month as part of the Free Portrait Project. During a year-long residency at Industry City that began in January 2023, artist Rusty Zimmerman selected Brooklynites to be the subjects of oil paintings and share their oral histories. The portraits, which will be given to participants for free, will be on view from Saturday, February 24 through March 25.
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Events & Things To Do

February 8, 2024

How to celebrate Black History Month in NYC

By Devin Gannon

Every February the country commemorates Black History Month as a celebration of African American culture and history. In New York City, you can honor the accomplishments and influence of Black Americans with art, film screenings, music, dance, lectures, and tours all month, and year, long.
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Events & Things To Do

Brooklyn Museum marks 200th anniversary with a yearlong celebration

Brooklyn Museum plaza garden and OY/YO sculpture, 04/20/2023. Brooklyn Museum. (Photo: Andrew Brincka)

February 1, 2024

Brooklyn Museum marks 200th anniversary with a yearlong celebration

By Devin Gannon

Founded in 1824 as Brooklyn’s first free circulating library, the Brooklyn Museum has supported and promoted art and culture in New York City for 200 years. To mark its 200th anniversary, the museum is hosting a yearlong birthday party, kicking off this fall, with special events, exhibitions, programs, and even a new Museum on Wheels.
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Events & Things To Do

Brooklyn Bridge towers illuminated with new LED lights

All photos courtesy of NYC DOT

January 12, 2024

Brooklyn Bridge towers illuminated with new LED lights

By Aaron Ginsburg

The Brooklyn Bridge is starting the New Year with a major "glow up." The city's Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled on Thursday a new lighting system on the iconic landmark that includes 56 new energy-efficient LED lights illuminating its famous towers. The new lights are part of a four-year, $300 million restoration project to remove dirt and restore the mortar between every stone on the bridge, returning the towers to their original light gray color.
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Architecture And Design

Art collection of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum

Ebony G. Patterson (born Kingston, Jamaica, 1981). . . . they were just hanging out . . . you know . . . talking about . . . ( . . . when they grow up . . .), 2016. Beads, appliqués, fabric, glitter, buttons, costume jewelry, trimming, rhinestones, glue, digital prints, 90 × 224 in. (228.6 × 569 cm). The Dean Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © Ebony G. Patterson. Courtesy of the artist, Monique Meloche Gallery, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. (Photo: Adam Reich)

January 9, 2024

Art collection of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum

By Aaron Ginsburg

Next month you'll be able to view a world-class selection of artworks from the personal collection of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition, called "Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys," features more than 100 major artworks from world-renowned Black American, African, and African diasporic artists, including Gordon Parks, Kehinde Wiley, Esther Mahlangu, Barkley L. Hendricks, Lorna Simpson, and more. "Giants" will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum from February 10 through July 7.
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Events & Things To Do

Photo by Ling Tang on Unsplash

January 4, 2024

10 secrets of the Brooklyn Bridge

By Emily Nonko

On May 24, 1883, throngs of New Yorkers came to the Manhattan and Brooklyn waterfronts to celebrate the opening of what was then known as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge. It was reported that 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people total crossed what was then the only land passage between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The bridge--later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name that stuck--went on to become one of the most iconic landmarks in New York. There's been plenty of history and secrets along the way. Lesser-known facts about the bridge include everything from hidden wine cellars to a parade of 21 elephants crossing in 1884.
All the secrets right this way

Work begins on Studio Gang-designed Shirley Chisholm Rec Center in Brooklyn

Rendering of the Shirley Chisholm Recreational Center in East Flatbush. Credit: New York City Department of Design and Construction

October 17, 2023

Work begins on Studio Gang-designed Shirley Chisholm Rec Center in Brooklyn

By Aaron Ginsburg

A new recreation center that will serve as a hub for learning, fitness, and recreation is coming to East Flatbush. City officials on Monday broke ground on the $141 million Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center, a new facility named after the late congresswoman and Brooklyn native who was the first Black woman ever elected to Congress. Located in Nostrand Playground, the roughly 62,000-square-foot center will feature a public plaza, indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, walking track, commercial teaching kitchen, and a media lab.
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Architecture And Design

Southward view of Gay Street via Wiki Commons

October 10, 2023

Your guide to the West Village: New York City’s downtown heart of cultural history

By Michelle Cohen

It may seem challenging to navigate the winding, narrow streets in one of the few Manhattan neighborhoods not arranged on a sensible grid. Fortunately, it’s also hard to make a wrong turn no matter where you end up in the West Village. And there’s so much to see and do in this iconic and charming neighborhood, that you may find it even harder to leave.
discover the west village, old and new

The history of New York’s railroad apartment

Photo by Martina Maffini and Michael DePasquale exclusively for 6sqft.

September 12, 2023

The history of New York’s railroad apartment

By Cait Etherington

Apartments comprised of a series of directly connected rooms—without a hallway—are a common feature of the New York City housing market. Generally, this layout is described as a “railroad apartment.” With origins in the city's turn-of-the-century tenement lifestyle, the layout today comes with its share of pros and cons. At its best, this apartment layout offers considerably more space at a lower cost than a conventional layout and desirable pre-war details. At its worst, this layout offers nothing but a dark and dank space that can be especially awkward when shared by roommates rather than couples.
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For $11M, live in a Brooklyn Heights mansion with perfectly restored details and a literary past

All photos courtesy of SERHANT. Studios

July 31, 2023

For $11M, live in a Brooklyn Heights mansion with perfectly restored details and a literary past

By Michelle Cohen

From the wine cellar to the landscaped roof deck, this 19th-century Greek Revival mansion represents five stories of pristine restoration, with historic flourishes accenting modern style and ease of living. Asking $11,500,000, the 6,094-square-foot two-family townhouse at 20 Remsen Street in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District has some notable literary history: Norman Mailer had his writing studio here. The house was also, according to the listing, the inspiration for Mailer's 1951 novel "Barbary Shore."
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

Brooklyn’s borough-wide ‘bookstore crawl’ is back

Photo of Powerhouse Arena in Dumbo by Wgreaves on Flickr

April 14, 2023

Brooklyn’s borough-wide ‘bookstore crawl’ is back

By Aaron Ginsburg

The beloved Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl is returning to the borough for its largest outing yet. The event, which kicks off on April 22 and runs through Independent Bookstore Day on April 29, invites bookworms to visit the 25 book shops participating in this year's crawl for a chance to win prizes while supporting local businesses.
Bookworms, this way

Events & Things To Do

Leasing kicks off at the Brooklyn Tower, luxury rentals priced from $3,965/month

Photo courtesy of Evan Joseph

April 10, 2023

Leasing kicks off at the Brooklyn Tower, luxury rentals priced from $3,965/month

By Aaron Ginsburg

Leasing has launched for market-rate rental units in Brooklyn's tallest tower. Located in Downtown Brooklyn, the 93-story Brooklyn Tower offers residences designed by award-winning Gachot Studios and over 120,000 square feet of luxury amenities, including three outdoor pools surrounding the dome of the historic Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn. Rentals start at $3,965/month for studios, $5,075/month for one-bedrooms, and $7,100/month for two-bedrooms.
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Women’s History Month began in New York in 1909 to honor the city’s garment workers’ strike

(1917) Picketing in all sorts of weather. N.Y. Day Picket. United States Washington D.C. New York, 1917, [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

March 8, 2023

Women’s History Month began in New York in 1909 to honor the city’s garment workers’ strike

By Michelle Cohen

International Women's Day, and what later became Women's History Month, originated in New York City over 100 years ago. On February 28, 1909, “Women’s Day,” was celebrated as the one-year anniversary of the city’s garment industry strike led by the International Ladies' Garment Workers’ Union. The Socialist Party of America chose the day to honor the women who bravely protested miserable labor conditions. American socialist and feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman addressed a New York crowd, saying: "It is true that a woman's duty is centered in her home and motherhood but home should mean the whole country and not be confined to three or four rooms of a city or a state.” At the time, women still couldn't vote.
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The Museum of Failure exhibit is coming to Brooklyn

Images courtesy of SEE Attractions/Museum of Failure

March 8, 2023

The Museum of Failure exhibit is coming to Brooklyn

By Aaron Ginsburg

A new exhibit in Sunset Park gives an opportunity to learn about some of the biggest failures of the biggest companies. Located in Industry City, the Museum of Failure offers New Yorkers a close look at more than 130 "epic fails" by giant global corporations, including Coca-Cola, Google, and Nokia, with the intention of teaching visitors the importance of learning from your mistakes. Presented by SEE Attractions, the exhibit will be open from March 17 until May 14.
See more here

Events & Things To Do

How to celebrate Women’s History Month 2023 in NYC

Photo courtesy of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

March 2, 2023

How to celebrate Women’s History Month 2023 in NYC

By Aaron Ginsburg

Every March, Americans celebrate Women's History Month to honor the countless achievements and contributions of women nationwide. New York City, where the month-long celebration originated, has plenty of special events and happenings for those looking to show their appreciation to the women of the world. Ahead, here are some ways you can celebrate Women's History Month in NYC, from learning about the influential women behind Central Park's most iconic attractions to listening to music by trailblazing women composers at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.
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Photo courtesy of Douglas Elliman

February 9, 2023

This $10M historic wood-frame in Brooklyn Heights is one of the neighborhood’s oldest homes

By Michelle Cohen

Listed for a Heights-priced $9,950,000, this compact wood-frame home at 69 Orange Street makes up in history and location what it may lack in size. Charming inside and out, the 1829 townhouse on a covetable, picturesque "fruit street" is on the market for the first time in nearly a century. Though the home could use some TLC from what we can see, there are plenty of period details, and it has been equipped with a central A/C and a washer and dryer.
Brooklyn history, this way

Distinctive Homes

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