Notable Residents of Brooklyn Heights Past and Present

By on December 27, 2009 7:50 pm in Celebrity Residents, History

BHB contributor Karl Junkersfeld has delivered this omnibus of notable Brooklyn Heights residents past and present.

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  • Karl Junkersfeld

    You guys are incredible. I must admit, I never heard of many of the individuals mentioned but they were all tremendously talented individuals who deserved to be included. What a fantastic neighborhood to be associated with.

    I have improved this product that much more by adding many of the individuals mentioned plus I found a couple that were omitted on my own.

    This was very much a collaborative effort and I’m never surprised by the intelligence that resides in Brooklyn Heights.

    Claude thanks for the spelling correction. I’m always embarrassed when I do that but would be more embarrassed if I let it stand. Thanks.

    The length is longer than planned so no more names. Pleeeease. Check out the footage i added from one of my new additions. Pretty funny.

    And nabeguy, I want you to know that I appreciated your contributions even before I found out you were descendent from royalty. The apple did not fall far from the tree.

    I’m sending final video to Homer and hopefully you will enjoy the “new and improved” of the old “new and improved”.

  • sue

    I heard one of Eli Wilentz’s sons speak at a Bob Dylan class at the 92nd Y this fall — the Princeton professor — and he was fascinating. He brought the Beat scene to life and made me wish I was older than I am… I

  • C.

    No William Hurt? or the lead singer of MGMT? Bjork?

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    William Hurt. C. where were you before I sent the latest version to Homer? I can’t leave out Hurt. I’ve seen him walking around the nabe plenty. Will send new version of the new version of the new version to Homer later tonight. I’ll include Bjork even though she hasn’t moved here yet technically from what I understand. By the time I finish this film she will have moved in and gone. No more names please unless they have won an academy award like Hurt, ok. ;.)

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Nabeguy: Sean’s your brother? I’m a big fan of his, despite our having been on opposite sides of the Clinton vs. Obama contest a year and a half ago.

  • Dave

    This video was great! Fantastic work, Karl. Anybody know where Barack lived when he was in the neighborhood?

  • stephanie milligan

    Great idea..makes me want to move there even more..thanks.

  • Andrew Porter

    Topic drift, I know, but Nabeguy, when I was a teenager living on the UES I used to make a big sweep of mostly used bookstores starting on Third and Fourth Avenues, then going to the 8th St Bookstore and on to the used book stores on 7th Avenue. Back when “Book Row” still really meant something.

    Speaking of which, how could we forget Jack Biblo, who also lived on Middagh and, after he retired from co-owning Book Row’s Biblo & Tannen, owned Biblo Books, the bookstore on the corner of Middagh and Hicks?

    I’m pretty sure Obama lived in the North Heights. He mentions getting the NYTimes and bagels on Clark Street.

  • Andrew Porter

    There was also a famous artist, Charles Schucker?, who lived across the street from Biblo on Middagh.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Andrew, right you are again. Charles’s kitchen window was 20 feet from my bedroom window and I could smell his wife’s cooking on a daily basis. How could I forget him?

    He is now included.

    I moved David Levine’s picture to the beginning of the film for a dedication and added some more individuals.

    It is the final version of the final version of the final………..

    Again thanks to everyone who contributed. You guys are a wealth of information.

    Homer should post latest version momentarily.

  • http://mermaidsonparade.blogspot.com melanie hope greenberg

    Thanks for improving the video so I could finally watch it. Fantastic, congratulations. Makes me proud and inspired to live here. Jennifer Connolly still owes me 27 cents (a silly joke she might remember). Used to see her in aerobics class at the gym.

  • Pierre

    I’m sorry – where will the newest of new version be posted? back on this specific thread or a new one?

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Sent it to Homer. In my opinion, based on the input from BHB contributors, much better.

    One of us will let you know when he post the updated version. Sometimes I forget that Homer has another occupation other than “super blogger”.

  • bornhere

    He may be a bit too obscure, but the artist John von Wicht lived here, as well (his wife used to babysit for Since47 and me — and the fact that she somehow survived my sister’s and my antics should qualify her as a “notable,” too :).

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Bravo, Karl! I just saw your final version, which is a masterpiece.

  • Pierre

    Mr. Junkersfeld – my hat is off to you – fabulous! Proud to live here.

  • nabeguy

    Claude, yes I am. And I was too.

  • nabeguy

    Sadly from the obits today, the passing of Norval White, another resident who along with Elliot Willensky, yet another resident, created the AIA Guide to NYC.

  • Ilikebrooklyn

    Great video. Perfect. Better than YouTube. I don’t need YouTube cookies. Don’t love the ads but the quality of the video overall is A+. Thanks.

  • sbk3

    Loved it , thank you but what about Patty Duke who has only seen the sites a girl can see from Brooklyn Heights!

  • Cranky

    I really enjoyed that video.

  • skb

    Bill Wilson (co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) lived here on Clinton St., I understand.

  • nabeguy

    Never knew that, skb. He definitely had a lot of friends in the neighborhood.

  • Andrew Porter

    And I just remembered, Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, was born at 71 Pineapple Street, according to a religious person I knew.

  • wren

    Bill Wilson (Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) lived at 182 Clinton St. which was actually his wife’s parents place. They moved there when Bill became unemployable because of his constant drinking. Fortunately its also the place he got sober.
    The Clinton St. home is mentioned in this portrait of Bill Wilson from Time’s 100:
    http://205.188.238.181/time/time100/heroes/profile/wilson01.html
    Bill himself spoke about early A.A. in NY and his Clinton St. home in this transcript of a talk he gave in 1955: http://www.barefootsworld.net/aabillwmanhattan1955.html
    Yet another amazing neighborhood fact.

  • Sonia Etcheberry

    I’m going to NY next week and while looking for info about Brooklyn came across this film and honestly loved it. Some images even filled my eyes with tears.
    Thanks a lot
    Sonia
    Argentina

  • Ramona

    How heart-warming and snuggly-feeling was that video…Thanks so much for all the work required to produce it.
    Ramona McDaris

  • http://Robert HeightsGuy

    The great abstract painter Esteban Vicente lived in Brooklyn Heights on Hicks Street between 1942-46.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    HeightsGuy,

    That is very true. During that period he was teaching Spanish at the prestigious Dalton School a couple of blocks from where I grew up on 89th Street between Park Avenue and Madison. I always wanted to go to Dalton but the expense was way beyond my parents financial resources. Brings back memories. I’ll add him to the prominent names and the end of the film. Thanks.

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