This wondrous 1905 image shows Brooklyn Heights looking northwest up what was then known as Columbia Street. The background reveals nearly the entire span of the Brooklyn Bridge. In the upper right corner of the photo is the renowned Hotel Margaret, between Orange and Cranberry Streets, which was built in 1889 as the neighborhood’s “first skyscraper”; unfortunately, it burned down during a 1980 renovation.

(Photo: NYC Vintage Images) Below, the Hotel Margaret…

For all you Brooklyn Heights moms, including Mrs. Fink and my sweetie, it’s your day. Enjoy!

Photo: Rosa rugosa at Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park, May 13, 2012.

Wednesday, Montague Street entrance to Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
(Photo: Chuck Taylor/Nikon D5000, edited with Picnik)

Post-dawn Friday, south of Governor’s Island, from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. (Photo: Chuck Taylor/Nikon D5000)

New York couple Michael & Danielle take in the view from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade on the day national headlines proclaimed that One World Trade has surpassed the height of the Empire State Building—to once again become New York City’s tallest building. With its unfinished frame, the structure now stands at just over 1,250 feet high.

It will be at least another year before the tower—which broke ground five long years ago in 2006—reaches its full height of 1,776 feet , including a 408-foot spire. At that point, it will be deemed the tallest building in the U.S., the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and the third tallest in the world.

By comparison, the Empire State Building is 1,454 feet from the ground to the top of its antenna. Sans the antenna, Empire State is 1,250 feet—the figure that fostered Monday’s kudos.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo stressed the site’s symbolism of rebirth: “The new World Trade Center is more than just a skyscraper: It is a symbol of the enduring spirit of the city and state of New York, representing our commitment to rebuilding stronger than before.”

(Photos: Chuck Taylor)

The Space Shuttle Enterprise, aboard a NASA 747, appears over the Brooklyn Heights skyline this morning on its way to JFK Aiport, and eventually the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. (Photo: M. Hermann/BHB)

Photo by M. Hermann/BHB

With temps tickling the mid-70s over the weekend, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade was teeming with tourists and locals taking in the consummate view of Lower Manhattan. Wowsah!

(Photo: Chuck Taylor)

It appears your BHB correspondents had the same idea, following our post about The L Magazine naming Brooklyn Heights among New York City’s Most Walkable neighborhoods. With camera in hand, I ambled from end to end along the Heights Promenade, showcasing how “L” got this one right. With Claude Scales’ pics taken across a wide swath of the the nabe, alongside these, we’ve got every color of the rainbow to enjoy in our beautiful locale.

(Photos: Chuck Taylor)

I decided to take my own advice as well as test the theory L Magazine proposed, as reported here by Chuck Taylor. I had an errand to run at the Greenmarket, but I decided to go there, with camera, by a circuitous route, down the Promenade and Squibb Hill to Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park, then up the hill to Middagh Street, then to Cadman Plaza Park, across to the Greenmarket, then back by way of Remsen Street. The flowering cherry tree in the photo is at the north end of the Promenade. More photos follow the jump.

Sunbathing, Pier 1.

Southwest corner, Hillside Park.

More cherry blossoms and other blooms, Cadman Plaza Park.

Herbs for sale, Greenmarket.

Outside Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, Remsen Street between Clinton and Henry.

Entrance to Our Lady of Lebanon Rectory, Remsen Street near Henry.

He may have been playing “A Sunday Kind Of Love,” but tenor sax aficionado “Anthony” serenaded passersby this Thursday afternoon in front of St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church on Montague Street near Clinton Street. One sweet-sounding song. (Photo: Chuck Taylor)

Enjoy this sunny Sunday! A high in the mid-60s is expected for the afternoon. (Photo: Chuck Taylor/Cadman Plaza)

Filming for a New York Lottery commercial continued throughout the afternoon Tuesday March 20, in front of Banana Republic at 133 Montague Street. This morning, Heights resident Rick Elkin shared with BHB that the action was focused on a vehicle with smashed windshield and a felled lamp-post. Ouch!

By mid-afternoon, the storyboard had evolved to a crowd of zombies collected around the shiny new newspaper vendor site in front of City Chemist at 129 Montague (with a car now completely overturned), apparently consumed with deadly desire to purchase NYC lottery tix. Meanwhile, a mob of ghoulish extras sat along Henry Street in front of NY Kids Club, waiting their turn as the action progressed.

At least a hundred or so locals gathered at the corner of Montague and Henry to gaze upon the zombie spectacle by 5 p.m., armed with cell phone cams, amid a spirited, accommodating crew. Below the jump, see a half-dozen pics from the zombie-fest.

(Photos: Chuck Taylor)

Another harbinger of a spring that has arrived early, this migrant from the South was spotted between Piers 1 and 2, in Brooklyn Bridge Park, resting on a branch of what appears to be sumac, with drupes. Click on photo to enlarge.

Early spring-like weather has been propitious for flowering plants, both in gardens and window boxes, around the Heights. The flowers in the photo at left are in front of the residence of garden designer Catherine Fitzsimmons on Joralemon Street between Hicks and Willow Place. More photos and text after the jump.

These pansies are blooming just across Joralemon from Ms. Fitzsimmons’ place.

While it’s not a flower, I couldn’t resist photographing this splendid example of ornamental kale on Remsen Street near Montague Terrace.

Here are forsythia, emblematic of early spring, on the Montague Street side of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church.

Daffodils, crocuses, and red berries brighten the scene at the Montague Street entrance to the Promenade.

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 had the opportunity to discover on a block-by-block (if not door-to-door) basis more than I ever realized was just east of the Heights: Sunset Park, Fort Greene, Park Slope, Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and—my favorite—Downtown Brooklyn.

Strolling through Fulton Mall every day on the way to the Census office on Flatbush Avenue as it was just beginning mass renewal, the sidewalks were widened, new bus stands and street lights installed, streets were repaved and repositioned for bus traffic only. The age-old Fulton Mall sign came down… Something big was happening here.

Of course, there are two sides to gentrification. In 2012, Shake Shack opened, while Gap launched a massive Factory Store there, with H&M and TJ Maxx on the way in the historic Offerman Building. While it’s nice to see the once-decaying area return to life, it’s also bittersweet to witness the typical fallout that comes in every neighborhood on the rise: the shuttering of local businesses, which can no longer afford escalating rents.

So before I bid a fond farewell to the fabulous array of wig stores, pawn shops, bodegas and discount vendors, I took another trip with camera in hand to capture what I suspect is going to look very different a year from now. With love to downtown BK.

The weather gods have been kind in the winter of 2012… which just about makes good on last year’s Snowcalypse, with one wintry pounding after another. Saturday temps hit a glorious 60 degrees in New York City. Los Angeles, you got nothin’ on the Heights.

(Photo: Chuck Taylor)

It’s going to take a good long time to tidy up Brooklyn Heights’ Montague Terrace with this street-cleaning mechanism, observed curbside early Wednesday morning on trash day. Then again, given Brooklyn council members futzing with a city-funded street-cleaning program last summer, it may one day come to this.

(Photo: Chuck Taylor)

Disney’s new cruise ship, the 130,000 ton Disney Fantasy, could be seen from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade this morning, arriving after a trans-Atlantic voyage from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany, where she was built. She was heading toward the Hudson River and the cruise terminal on the West Side of Manhattan.

Barbara E. Bouchard passes under the Manhattan Bridge, as seen from Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Early bloomers in the garden between the Clark and Pineapple Street entrances. Addendum: According to reader “Baron von Montague St” these are “lenten roses, Helleborus × hybridus.”

With a low of 22 degrees and the chance of precip 90% Saturday, prepare for potential snow showers this weekend. It appears February has at last found its mojo. (Photo: Chuck Taylor/Joralemon Street across from Borough Hall subway station)

Good evening… A panoramic view from the Montague Street entrance to the almighty Promenade, Sunday 7 p.m., during this clear, crisp 40-dgree eve. We who call the Heights home are pretty fortunate, yes?
(taken with Nikon D5000 by Chuck Taylor)

Glass on the addition, under construction, to 20 Henry Street, reflects the facade of the building at the northwest corner of Henry and Poplar streets, as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge on January 7.

The Brooklyn Heights Christmas tree and menorah as seen from your correspondent’s window this evening at dusk.

A year ago last June the intrepid Karl Junkersfeld toook a stroll around Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park and made the acquaintance of Rosa rugosa. Yesterday morning your correspondent took a similar stroll and found some of the flowers still in bloom, along with the rose hips that look like small tomatoes.

The view Sunday at dusk’s peak from a Montague Street rooftop (nope, photo is not edited, colored or digitally manipulated one iota).

Clever memories of Halloween just passed, on Grace Court Alley.
See what this bad boy looks like lit up, courtesy of king of all Grace Court Alley Halloween, Peter Steinberg…. after the jump.

Your correspondent went leaf-peeping yesterday. Above is the view from the crest of the mound on Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park. More photos after the jump.

Seen from the path connecting Pier 1 to Pier 6, a row of bushes on the south end of Pier 1 provide a colorful accent to the view of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The view looking up from Pier 1 towards the Heights and Cadman Plaza.

Snow falling shortly after noon in front of Two Montague Terrace.

On Saturday morning, Jonathan Landsman and his crew were busy planting by the Clark Street entrance to the Promenade. More photos and text after the jump.

Because of an intervening commitment, by the time I got to the Poplar Street Community Garden the folks were packing up their gardening equipment after a hard afternoon’s productive work. But some workers were still busy there: I’ve included this photo in honor of BHB reader Lois, whose husband was a beekeeper.

Early in the morning I’d heard a rumor that #Occupy Wall Street was relocating to Cadman Plaza. That didn’t seem to make much sense, but when I got there I saw a large crowd assembled around some tents on the Cadman Plaza East side. As I approached, I noticed that lots of the people were wearing pink. It proved to be a rest stop on the Avon Walk to End Breast Cancer.