Fort Greene Park is regionally known as an important landmark in history. Named after American Major General Nathaniel Greene, the park holds significance for the American Revolutionary War as well as the War of 1812. Today, the park is commonly used for its playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, and for the many enriching events that are held throughout the year.
Designed by architect Stanford White and located in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument honors the more than 11,500 American soldiers, sailors, and civilians who died aboard British prison ships anchored in Wallabout Bay during the American Revolution. Dedicated on November 14, 1908, the monument consists of a 149-foot-tall freestanding Doric column topped with a bronze decorative lantern, designed by sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman. The column stands on a plaza at the top of a one-hundred-foot-wide granite staircase. Perched on fluted shafts at the four corners of the plaza are four bronze eagles, also designed by Weinman. Beneath the monument lies a crypt, which holds the remains of the so-called prison ship martyrs.
This small plot of land is located a couple of blocks away from Fort Greene Park. It was named after Naval officer Joseph Walter Person in 1951. Person served in the United States Navy during the First World War (1914-1918). He passed away at a young age before the war's end. He was buried in Queens and is today honored by this little square in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
The red brick building with the triple arched entrances was built as Feuchtwanger Stable around 1888. The three-story building, at 159 Carlton Avenue, is Romanesque Revival style. Meyer Feuchtwanger hired a prominent local architect, Marshall J. Morrill, to design the commercial stable. The entrances were designed to fit a horse-drawn carriage. Ramps once led to the top two stories where the horses were boarded. The building became a candy factory in 1913 and later was a warehouse. Feuchtwanger Stable was listed in the National Register in 1986. The building now houses people in condominium residences.
Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood has been home to a number of acclaimed writers. During the 1930s, the neighborhood was home to Richard Wright, one of the country's most highly regarded chroniclers of the African American experience. During his time in Brooklyn, Wright wrote one of his most well-known novels, Native Son. It was in Fort Greene Park, near his apartment, that Wright would often go and write, and his bench in the park is now marked by a plaque.
This brick house was built in 1874 for Charles Pratt, a wealthy businessman in the oil industry. Architect Ebenezer L. Roberts designed the building in a style transitional between Italianate and Neo-Grec. The Charles Pratt Mansion is part of the Clinton Hill Historic District, listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places in 1985 and containing significant buildings from the 1840s to 1930. Clinton Hill was largely rural until the 1840s and became the home of affluent Brooklynites like the Pratts, coffee merchant John Arbuckle, and lace manufacturer A.G. Jennings. The Pratt family sold the house to St. Joseph's College in the 1930s and it became the convent for the nuns who taught in the women's college, founded in 1916. It now serves as Founders Hall in the coeducational college.
Since the 19th century, Pratt Institute has been heated by this historic power plant that can be found in the basement of the Institute. To this day, the Steamworks provide heating for the entire campus and is managed by a single person. The power plant was built in 1887, with steam-driven generators added in 1900, making this one of the oldest Steamworks in the United States and the world. Pratt Institute was built by Charles Pratt, a Massachusetts-born petroleum industrialist and philanthropist. In 1885, he bought the plot of land in Clinton and commissioned the New York architectural firm of Lamb and Rich to build a ten-story building for Brooklyn’s students, and the first classes started in 1887.
This four-story red brick building in the Clinton Hill neighborhood was built in 1851 for the Brooklyn Society for the Relief of Respectable Aged and Indigent Females. The group home was later known as The Graham Home for Old Ladies in honor of donor John B. Graham. The building offered housing for as many as ninety widows and other elderly women and contained a hospital, chapel, and meeting areas. The Society later added a library, more bedrooms, and an outdoor porch. The group home operated for over a century and closed due to funding issues in the early 1960s. After closing, the building was used as a motel with a notorious reputation that included prostitution. The motel closed in 1986, and the building was boarded up and vacant until it was renovated in 2001 and converted into luxury condominium apartments.
The house at 410 Clinton Avenue was designed in 1882 for Cornelius N. Hoagland by the Parfitt Brothers. Dr. Hoagland made his fortune in baking powder through two different companies. The monochrome red brick and terra cotta asymmetrical building is Queen Anne style. The Cornelius Hoagland Mansion is part of the Clinton Hill Historic District, a neighborhood popular for building residences for the wealthy by the 1850s. The 20-room single-family home was divided into multiple suites in the mid-twentieth century and now holds 17 residential units.
The Broken Angel House was a four-story brick tenement building in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood that was purchased by self-taught architects and artists Arthur and Cynthia Wood in 1979 and expanded and modified to reach a height of over 100 feet along with unique architectural features in the coming decades. The building – named after an appropriated cherub statue from Staten Island – was immediately recognizable for its tall spire on the roof. The building was also the setting for Dave Chappelle's 2006 film Block Party. The Woods used the building as their family home and even had aspirations to turn it into an architectural school, but a fire in 2006 resulted in the Department of Buildings finding the structure in fault of building codes. In 2013, after some failed attempts to secure the crumbling walls and develop the building into apartments, the Woods were evicted, and the next year the property was sold. The site was later purchased by a developer for the construction of luxury condominiums.
Built in 1890, the Lincoln Club was once one of the most elite social clubs in Brooklyn. It was founded by Republicans who named it for the patron saint of their party. The Queen Anne structure was designed by Mexican-born architect Rudolph Daus and is one of the few club houses in the area to retain most of its original features. After the Lincoln Club disbanded in the early 1930s, the building became the property of the Independent Order of Mechanics, a Masonic organization. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This wood-framed Italianate villa was built circa 1854 and is the former home of prominent shipping merchant, James W. Elwell. The property was later acquired by the African American religious leader known as Father Divine and was one of several properties where Divine and his followers lived communally. The house is now part of the Clinton Hill South Historic District and listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Elwell House also is a New York City Landmark as of 2006 and was saved from demolition. The structure now serves as a multi-family private residence.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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Start at historical Ft. Greene Park and stroll by the monument to Revolutionary War martyrs and Joseph Person Square. Next, walk by historical mansions, a stable, a factory complex, an old age home, and a tenement building from the Clinton Hill neighborhood's heyday in the 2nd half of the 19th century.
