Before I ever met Raymond Trapp, I asked him a favor. I was hoping he could help me with a sing-along after the 175th Anniversary celebration dinner of Plymouth Church last November. He was the recently-named interim Minister of Music. “Just a few songs, we could sing around the piano,” I’d said. He quickly agreed. […]
Tag Archives | henry ward beecher
Robert Furman’s Brooklyn Heights is a Trove of Information
Robert Furman’s (with contributions of photographs of historic Brooklyn Heights buildings by Brian Merlis) Brooklyn Heights: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of America’s First Suburb is a massive–471 pages–attempt to encompass all that is significant in the history of our neighborhood. The subtitle provides a narrative arc, though an inverted one. It begins with a […]
Coming at Brooklyn Historical Society Next Week
It’s been called “Lavender Lake”, it’s still a Superfund site, but its banks are now also a development site, as they were in the 19th century. At Brooklyn Historical Society on Tuesday evening, October 13, at 7:00 Joseph Alexiou will discuss his new book, Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal. This event is presented in partnership with […]
Coming Up at Brooklyn Historical Society This Week
On Wednesday evening, March 11, starting at 6:30, the Brooklyn Historical Society will present “Women and Power,” a panel of four historians discussing their works about women who “exercised power in an often hostile environment and advocated changes in American society.” Cindy Lobel is the author of a soon to be published biography of Catharine […]
The Impressions Head the Bill for “Free the Slaves” Concert at Plymouth
Plymouth Church is known for its pre-eminent role, under the leadership of Henry Ward Beecher, in the anti-slavery movement before the Civil War. While the Emancipation Proclamation declared the slaves free, and the Thirteenth Amendment abolished the “peculiar institution,” slavery still exists in the United States, and, on a larger scale, elsewhere in the world. […]
Brooklyn Historical Society Hosts “Grave” Trivia Tuesday and Beer Garden Thursday
On Tuesday, October 22, starting at 7:00 p.m. the Brooklyn Historical Society, in partnership with Green-Wood Cemetery, will present “Pushing Up Daisies: Trivia from the Dark Side,” an evening of “grave” trivia hosted by trivia masters Stuart and Chris. The event will be held in the newly renovated Great Hall at the Society’s historic building […]
New Book Tells History of Plymouth Church in Antislavery Movement and Civil War
This evening there was a book launch party at Plymouth Church for Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church in the Civil War Era: a Ministry of Freedom, (History Press, Charleston, SC, 2013) a new book by church member Frank Decker, assisted by Lois Rosebrooks, Plymouth’s Director of History Ministry Services. The book tells the story of Plymouth’s role […]
Four Brooklyn Heights Churches in “Sacred Sites” Event This Weekend
This coming weekend–Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19–the New York Landmarks Conservancy will hold its third annual Sacred Sites Open House event. Among the houses of worship participating are four Brooklyn Heights churches. The First Unitarian Church, 50 Monroe Place (corner of Pierrepont) will be open Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There […]
Christmas Eve Morning Walk Photos, With Tugboats
Yesterday was a good day for a walk, so I did a circuit around the northern part of Brooklyn Heights, including a side trip into Brooklyn Bridge Park and DUMBO, where I did a little last minute Christmas shopping. The photo above–more photos and text follow–is of a wreath on the red door at 33 […]
Wesley McNair, Maine’s Poet Laureate, Reads at Plymouth Church
Yesterday evening the New England Society in the City of Brooklyn held its annual poetry event at Plymouth Church. This year’s featured poet was Wesley McNair, professor emeritus and poet in residence at the University of Maine, Farmington, and Poet Laureate of Maine. He began by expressing his delight at being, for the first time, […]
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