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Heights History: Montague & Henry, Then & Now

The corner of Montague and Henry streets, at the current location of Andy’s Chinese, has no doubt seen a revolving door of businesses over the past 100+ years. But the actual building, constructed in 1900, has thankfully maintained its architectural integrity with surprising few changes, as we see from parallel Now & Then images from […]

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Take A Look At Me (Then &) Now: 109 Montague Street

This is why we treasure Brooklyn Heights’ landmarked status, which, as many know, became the first community in the nation to mandate a cease fire on decimating the facades of historic buildings, in 1965. Let’s take an historic look at 109 Montague Street (full photo views are below the jump)… Our first pic is from […]

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Nelson George on Brooklyn’s African American Bohemia at BHS Thursday Evening

Nelson George, author, most recently of The Plot Against Hip Hop (published by Brooklyn based Akashic Books), and film director will be at the Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street (corner of Clinton) this Thursday evening, March 15, starting at 7:00 p.m., for a screening of his new documentary Brooklyn Boheme.

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Historic 1820 Townhouse At 31 Middagh Street Hits The Market

The Federal-style three-level single family townhouse at 31 Middagh Street, built in 1820, has hit the market with a price tag of $1.795 million. The listing with Prudential Douglas Elliman (here) characterizes the property as “one of the oldest houses in Brooklyn Heights,” with 4 bedrooms, 2-1/2 baths and a basement/rec room. In all: 1,626 […]

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Historic Facade Restoration Completed At 177-179 Columbia Heights

The meticulous facade restoration at 177-179 Columbia Heights—where residents discovered lavish ornamentation adorning the first two floors of the 29-unit co-op building, comprising fruit, flowers and mythical creatures, dating back to 1920—has been completed. Six months and some $300,000 later, “It feels wonderful to have finally finished the restoration,” says Joe Levine, the resident who […]

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Bowery Boys: “10 Fabulous Facts About 70 Willow Street”

With the yellow house at 70 Willow Street where Truman Capote once lived fetching the highest price for a single-family home in Brooklyn history last week, New York history blog The Bowery Boys has come up with a delectable post “Ten fabulous facts about 70 Willow Street.” Read all about the home being a destination […]

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A Sentimental Stroll Through Downtown Brooklyn

It wasn’t until I worked for the U.S. Census Bureau between February and August 2010 that I truly discovered Brooklyn. While I had lived in Brooklyn Heights for a decade, my compass always seemed to point toward Manhattan, where I worked and played. [See Photo gallery below the jump] But with the Census gig, I […]

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Quote Of The Day: Heights Is “Brooklyn’s De Facto Gold Coast”

A long, luxurious article in Business Insider profiles South Brooklyn’s “BoCoCa” neighborhoods lining Brooklyn Heights: Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. The piece, headlined “Gentrification Has Made This Old Brooklyn Neighborhood Unrecognizable,” discusses how those nabes have evolved as Brooklyn Heights became financially unobtainable, with some respectful perspective about the Heights…

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February House Update: Times Gives It a Rave

February House, the new musical play by Gabriel Kahane and Seth Bockley that imagines life at 7 Middagh Street in the early 1940s, when the house was inhabited by a stellar and remarkably disparate collection of poets, composers, and novelists (including a striptease artist who became a novelist while living there) of various aesthetic and […]

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Henrik Krogius Shares Promenade History At BK Women’s Exchange Reading

A presentation and discussion hosted by Brooklyn Heights Press editor and local historian Henrik Krogius Thursday March 1—based on his 2011 book, The Brooklyn Heights Promenade—offered a wealth of fascinating historical facts and anecdotes about Brooklyn Heights’ most beloved public space, which acknowledged its 60th anniversary December 7, 2011. The event was held at the […]

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