Pondering Love Lane

By on March 1, 2010 10:58 pm in History
Flickr photo by Kilgub

Flickr photo by Kilgub

Ephemeral New York ponders the naming of Love Lane, citing a New York Times (a printed newspaper then run by rapscallions, fops and raconteurs) article from 1894:

“The oldest residents can remember a time when there was a cool and shady path leading down “Lover’s Lane,” where plump, rosy-cheeked Dutch maidens, with their sweethearts, meandered on summer evenings out through the turnstile and down the grassy bank to the water’s edge.”

Hmmm… This (and this tidbit from Instaputz) might make Homer Fink’s Hidden Brooklyn Heights Walking Tour — THIRD DATE now on sale!

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  • Curmudgeon

    This street name actually appears on military maps drawn during the American Revolution and, as far as I know, is the only street in the Heights still around that appears on those colonial maps. It must have been a popular place.

  • John Wentling

    Dutch maidens? Really??

  • nabeguy

    Rosy-cheeked ones, at that! The story I had always heard, albeit anecdotal, was that there was a widow on the lane who had two lovely daughters for whom the neighborhood swells were forever cooing at and pining for . As their mother kept a close eye on them, all assignations towards the furtherance of love were restricted to the small lane on which they lived. Corny as heck, but certainly a more romantic provenance for the name than the one suggested in the article.

  • Sanitation Man

    For a moment, I thought this story was about Park Slope’s Dorothy, Esther, and Rachel Nash.