Dances were a way for young people to meet, and included outdoor events in gardens and taverns, called “germans” or cotillions, when held in private homes. In the 1880s organized dances called Junior Assemblies, Cinderella Balls and Bachelors Balls were held. Clubs often sponsored these events, and Dr. Charles Shephard’s Turkish Bath, America’s first, on Cranberry and […]
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Brooklyn Heights History: Slavery and Abolition
The Heights was farms until the early nineteenth century, and the Dutch and British owners used slave labor there, as they did throughout Kings County. This is indicated by the fact that of the county’s population of 4,500 in the first U.S. census of 1790, one-third, or 1,500, were slaves. Bondage ended in Brooklyn in 1825, two […]
Brooklyn Heights History: The Glass Works
One of the largest employers in the Heights was photographic equipment manufacturer F. Wesel Manufacturing. The magazine the Inland Printer and Lithographer reported in 1901 that the business was founded by German immigrant Ferdinand Wesel in Manhattan in 1880.
Heights History: Alfred T. White
During the Victorian era many wealthy people felt a religious obligation to aid the poor through privately organized uplift projects. Alfred Tredway White (1846-1921), a cousin of Seth Low the Younger, was the Heights’ greatest philanthropist and community activist. In 1880 he moved out of his father Alexander’s house at 2 Pierrepont Place into 40 […]
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