Two Years Ago on BHB: The Aesthetic Crimes of Henry Street

The Fortune House sign is emblematic of the restaurant itself: time in a bottle, that time being the early 80s, I’d say.

I’ve gone through many. many changes concerning FH, which I find myself in with astounding frequency.

Like her restaurant, with its frozen decor–the worn carpets, the tinsel over the counter, the old aquarium with its bobbling fish–the owner has achieved a quality of laconic indifference to time’s sway.

Initially, I found this frustrating, even annoying. But I’ve passed through early opprobrium and now find myself kind of…liking the fact that, in a world out-of-control, there’s one constant: Fortune House.

Though perhaps the “F” on the sign should be repaired, for the general good.

Have to disagree, Homer. Leave the Fortune House sign alone. We do not want Henry Street to lose it’s charm and start looking like the strip mall Montague St became. This neighborhood has devolved into conformism which bases everything on how something/one looks, how much they paid for something and not for it’s character. The FH sign shows character. I remember seeing Norman Mailer who is on another post in front of the Fortune House walking around the Heights with a torn down jacket held together with grey duct tape. He had real talent but those who look at the shallow end of the pond would never get it.

What a moronic comment. Pls focus on real “crime” in the hood. Henry’s End doesn’t look like anything special on the outside and it’s a real gem.
Let’s focus on the derelicts mugging our residents in broad daylight..

stan, so was yours.

The biggest aesthetic crime on henry is on the opposite side of the street! Those high rises irreperably destroyed whatever hope for vibrant street life there ever was. and the worst part is they are there for good….

leave the signs alone !!

Have any of you geniuses noticed that Homer was reposting something from TWO YEARS AGO?

my2cents, haven’t those towers been around for like 40 years or so? Seems a bit long to hold a grudge, its not like they were just built.

My main complaint is about the site plan more than the incredible mediocrity of the architecture, which is par for the course in 60s/70s NY high rises. I have no gripe that they were built for middle income people, but remember too that they were built during a period when Brooklyn Heights was not an exclusive neighborhood like today, and it was designed, as many apt. complexes of its era to keep the street life *out* (hence all the inaccessible catwalks,terraces, etc) rather than embrace it – essentially Pre-Jane Jacobs planning thinking. Now we’re still stuck with it. Instead of putting a lot of stores on the street frontage, there is just gristedes and P&P. As a result there is no life on one side of the street, Pineapple walk is often like a ghost town. So if people want to talk about graphic design on a sign ruining the character of a block, let’s focus on bad architecture and planning ruining the character and the business ecosystem on the block. People talk about the cursed businesses on Henry all the time and wonder what Smith street has that works. Well, business frontages on both sides of the street is CRUCIAL for foot and car traffic. And unlike a crappy sign, this complex is here forever. I would call it an aesthetic HIGH Crime, and sadly it is so taken for granted that people don’t even seem to notice how truly heinous it really is. But as a design professional, I think about it all too often.

I love the Fortune House sign.