The New York Times has a 8:41-minute video up on their website called Brooklyn Heights, Then and Now. When I started heading back to New York City on regular visits, I used to stay with a friend who lived in Brooklyn Heights, so I got to know the neighborhood pretty well. When I decided to make the move back, I had decided I wanted to live in that neighborhood. The only problem was that it had out-priced my budget. I do go there on a regular basis, and I enjoy wandering through the streets. I've taken visitors to the Promenade for the fantastic view of lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. Much of the architecture is "High Victorian," with ornate limestones and brownstones, Romanesque- and Queen Anne-style houses, and a few Art Deco-like buildings. I knew Walt Whitman had lived in Brooklyn Heights and wrote Leaves of Grass there, but did you know that Truman Capote wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's there, and that W. H. Auden had lived there as well? Notice anything "queer" about these connections? Brooklyn Heights always has been a haven for writers and artists of all kinds. After all, Gypsy Rose Lee lived there too. For more information on this great neighborhood, you can check out Wikipedia's entry on Brooklyn Heights (the above image is from there), but I definitely urge you to watch the online NYT video Brooklyn Heights, Then and Now.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Brooklyn Heights, Then and Now
The New York Times has a 8:41-minute video up on their website called Brooklyn Heights, Then and Now. When I started heading back to New York City on regular visits, I used to stay with a friend who lived in Brooklyn Heights, so I got to know the neighborhood pretty well. When I decided to make the move back, I had decided I wanted to live in that neighborhood. The only problem was that it had out-priced my budget. I do go there on a regular basis, and I enjoy wandering through the streets. I've taken visitors to the Promenade for the fantastic view of lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. Much of the architecture is "High Victorian," with ornate limestones and brownstones, Romanesque- and Queen Anne-style houses, and a few Art Deco-like buildings. I knew Walt Whitman had lived in Brooklyn Heights and wrote Leaves of Grass there, but did you know that Truman Capote wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's there, and that W. H. Auden had lived there as well? Notice anything "queer" about these connections? Brooklyn Heights always has been a haven for writers and artists of all kinds. After all, Gypsy Rose Lee lived there too. For more information on this great neighborhood, you can check out Wikipedia's entry on Brooklyn Heights (the above image is from there), but I definitely urge you to watch the online NYT video Brooklyn Heights, Then and Now.
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and did you know that Truman Capote used to go to the St. George Hotel for the largest indoor salt-water pool in the United States?!
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