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Brow nstone * Brow nstone %u2022 Brow nstone %u2022 Brownstone %u2022 Brownstone %u2022 Brow nstone %u2022 B_r ownstonFrom Brooklyn Heights To Lefferts Gardens BroBY BETSY KISSAMBrooklyn%u2014butt of endless jokes, but birthplace of many of the nation%u2019s comedians, proud home of the majestic Brooklyn Bridge, and past home of the Dodgers is a city rich in history, and the fourth largest in the country. The name has easily become one of the most famous %u201c place%u201d names in the nation, and perhaps the world. Even if one has never set foot on its soil, the name of Brooklyn conjures up some image! Roller skating in the streets, delapidated housing, a humorous accent, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Coney Island, churches, trees, or elegant rowhouses come to mind.The history of the present metropolitan area of Brooklyn began in 1636 with a small Dutch settlement on Gowanus Bay. Farming and waterfront activity comprised the main occupations of the settlers of Breuckelen, established as a town in 1657. The town became a city almost 200 years later in 1834 and soon began annexing the neighboring areas making up Kings County-Flatlands, New Utrecht, Williamsburg, Bushwick, Flatbush, New Lots, and Gravesend. Ferry service connecting Brooklyn with Manhattan, began with some regularity in 1642, and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 established further ties across the East River so that in 1898 Brooklyn itself was incorporated into greater New York City.Edward R. Stiles, Brooklyn%u2019s famous historian, wrote in 1884 %u201c the Town of Breuckelen was founded, upon nearly the same locality which has since became the political center of the City of Brooklyn.%u201d And it is this same area of the original town that comprises the downtown commercial, civic cultural, and political hub of today%u2019s Brooklyn as well as a large majority of the brownstone communities whose elegant and charming structures have attracted and continue to attract so many individuals to the borough.In the Plan for New York City, 1969, the New%u2019 York City Planning Commission called Brooklyn, %u201c New York%u2019s first %u2018suburb%u2019%u201c and said that %u201c much of its housing no matter how well built years ago, is among the oldest in the City.%u201d But it is this housing stock replete with Greek revival, Italianate, colonial revival, neo-Georgian styles and more distinguished by colonaded porches, stained glass, ornate woodwork, elegant staircases and entrance hallways, carved mantles that is causing the wave of renovation that is sweeping Brooklyn.Starting a few decades ago in Brooklyn Heights, the brownstone movement has spread outward bringing new people who are renovating rundown housing into desirable living space. These newcomers coupled with longtime residents of the borough are revitalizing the spirit at the same time as its houses of Brooklyn. Back in 1969 the N.Y.C. Planning Commission felt that %u201c the growth of many community organizations in Brooklyn has demonstrated residents%u2019 desire to share responsibility for solving their borough%u2019s problems.%u201d And today groups organized around specific goals, civic, cultural, and political are taking root in Brooklyn%u2019s diverse neighborhoods and making their force felt.BROOKLYN HEIGHTSBrooklyn Heights,-once called Clover Hill, \according to historian Edward R. Stiles%u2014is one of Brooklyn%u2019s most historic communities. Street names, Middagh, Hicks, Livingston, Remsen, Pierrepont personify some of the early land owners and those instrumental in the community%u2019s growth. Fine stately townhouses, converted carriage houses, courts and mews characterize the Heights where the oldest existing structure dates back to 1820.A one-time suburban retreat from the rush of Manhattan, the neighborhood wasJ--------I'm n J U%u00ab, %u2022%u2022mnULtt momKorc r \\ f t Tipuwwtupvu KJJ r. vu.w. J ...v... Vcommercial and financial communities who built fine homes with great attention to detail. One of the wealthiest areas in the country in the 1890%u2019s, The Heights today enjoys a sound resurgence after decliningfor a period at the middle of the century.In 1965 about 30 square blocks of Brooklyn Heights became the first historic district designated in the city under the Landmarks Preservation Law. The overall boundaries of the entire neighborhood run roughly from Atlantic Avenue to the Brooklyn Bridge, and Court Street to the East River.Montague Street, lined with restaurants, boutiques, speciality shops as well as drug and food establishments, is the shopping artery of the Heights. And along the East River, the Esplanade, more commonly known as the Promenade, affords a spectacular view of lower Manhattan, the bridges, harbor and spirited shipping activity.COBBLE HILLCobble Hill, bounded by Atlantic Avenue and DeGraw Street on the north and south and Court and Hicks Streets on the east and west, was designated a national landmark in 1976. The community%u2019s name is derived from \shill%u201d used on an 18th century survey map to describe the steep hill that used to characterize the locale. This hill, which was to be lopped off by the British, became an important Continental Army fortification during the Battle of Brooklyn in Revolutionary times.Never as fashionable as Brooklyn Heights to the north, this neighborhood began to be developed into a suburban community in the 1830's by the moderately well-to-do who built homes in the styles of Italianate, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, and more. The community also contains the city%u2019s first housing project for low income families erected in 1878, which has been named a landmark because of its innovations and fine design. Atlantic Avenue, which separates Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill and then farther east runs through Boerum Hill, was a fashionable shopping district during the 19th century. After a period of decline, today it has become famous for its Near Eastern shopsand restaurants with numerous antique shops, some say the Avenue is the tum-oftje-century oak furniture capital of the c o u n try .shops and more restaurants, have given the street new life.BOERUM HILLBoerum Hill%u2019s homes, predominantly three and four story rowhouses, were built between the 1850%u2019s and 1870%u2019s and are mostly Greek Revival and Italianate in style. Exmaples of earlier Federal framehouses Gothic Revival and other styles can also be found in the area which runs from Fourth Avenue to Court Street, adjacent to Cobble Hill, and from Schermerhom Street roughly to Warren Street. In 1973 a portion of the community was designated as an historic district.Boerum Hill is slowly returning to the fashionable neighborhood it once was, claims Sidney Lanier as a one-time resident and visits from James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryan.Close to the downtown area marked by its own renaissance most dramatically to become visible at Fulton Mall, Boerum Hill also includes part of vibrant Atlantic Avenue and the shopping streets of Court and Smith where some new antique shops have opened standing side by side with old-time meat and fish markets and fruit and vegetable stores.CARROLLGARDENSCarroll Gardens is distinguished by the deep lush green front yards that characterize the blocks between First and Fourth Places and Henry and Smith Streets. The entire community, runs from Hamilton Avenue to DeGraw Street and from Hicks Street to the Gowanus Canal of which a few blocks were designated an historic area in 1973.The deep front yards were the result of Richard Butts planning in 1846. They give the area a unique bucolic flavor unusual to Brooklyn, or any city atmosphere. The name Carroll Gardens was coined in the1960%u2019s and comes from the neighborhooc park, Carroll Park, and the surrounding ambience.The houses were generally built in the late 19 century and show the range oi styles. Well tended gardens and grape arbors, and veal, olives, sausages anc other Italian specialties belie the ItalianAmerican atmosphere of the neighbor hood.FORT GREENEFort Greene%u2019s rowhouses cluster to the south and east of the 30 acre park frorr which the community gets its name. The history of this park reaches back tc Revolutionary Days. Frederic Law Olms stead, the creator of Prospect Pari designed this park coupled with the proximity of the Brooklyn Academy o Music and Long Island University%u2019s down town campus has helped lure new families into the neighborhood.The housing ranges from pre-Civil Wai frame houses to late Victorian structures, some elegant and some mansions. The neighborhood as it is defined todae comprises the blocks from Flatbush tc Vanderbilt Avenues, and from Park tc Atlantic Avenues.Downtown Brooklyn and the nev Fulton Mall are just a few blocks away as i: the Long Island Railroad%u2019s Atlantic Term inal. Myrtle Avenue, the area%u2019s busies commercial strip, has a strong merchant%u2019: association which is currently working wit! neighborhood groups to improve the shopping facilities in the community.CLINTON HILLA surprising number of mansions-Mil ionaires Row-plus rows of townhouses, o carriage houses on shady blocks give Clinton Hill its unique character. NameeThe MartaBY STEPHEN HABERSTRGIf you%u2019re in the market for a place you can call your own and are interested in a reasonably priced brownstone, brick or frame house, there are many neighborhoods that have something to offer%u2014some of which are familiar and others many may never have heard of.In Brooklyn neighborhoods from Sunset Park to Crown Heights, from Navy Hill to Bedford Stuyvesant, and down the South Slope, civic associations are reporting that even though demand for homes is up, houses are still to be had foi less that $70,000. In some areas magic prices of below $40,000 for a house are still possible.Neighborhoods, of course art more than houses. Neighborhoods are people and the identity and pride they share is what makes them unlike surrounding areas which may %u201c look%u201d similar but be missing that fabric of community spirit. This crazy patchwork quilt, called Brooklyn has incredible ethnic diversity, with growing, increasingly active community organizations and block associations giving each hamlet a unique flavor.SUNSET PARKThe Sunset Park Restoration Committee fall house tour boasts that is showing off houses that were bought for less than $40,000. But this might not be true for very long. Alice Walsh of the Committee says %u201c not many realize it but Sunset Park is on its way up and the house buying market is becoming tighter. The neighborhood, bounded by 40th Street, 6th Avenue, 4th Avenue and 60th Street, traditionally, was a point of departure, Walsh explained, for those who came into money and then moved south to more fashionPage 16, The PHOENIX, October 11,1979