Brooklyn Heights resident/author Elizabeth Gaffney writes about growing up here and living in the same townhouse her entire life. The piece is not only a marvelous account of her personal history, it also sheds light on the previous owners of her home and some “hidden” Heights history:
NYT: When my parents first moved to the Heights, in 1966, the neighborhood had gotten rather down at the heels — meaning, it was affordable. There was a topless bar, the Club Wild Fyre, around the corner from the house, and several grand old hotels operating as single-room-occupancy residences. The apartment they were interested in was on the ground floor, and had a garden and nice moldings. Still, it was dark, and the children’s room — for my parents were expecting their second child, me — would be tiny, hardly more than a closet with a window. They wouldn’t have rented it if my mother’s friend Ginger hadn’t said, “If you don’t take it, I will.”
