In a comment to Homer’s sixth birthday post, I noted that my association with BHB began when he reposted a sunset photo from my blog, Self-Absorbed Boomer. Tonight’s was, I think, even more picturesque.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45210
On Friday morning I took a quick turn around Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park, before heading to work. As I was lining up a shot of Mark di Suvero’s Yoga, a small branch with some dry leaves fell in front of me. I didn’t notice it until I downloaded the photo; it’s at the right side of the picture (click on it to enlarge). More photos and text after the jump.
Rounding a corner of a path, I startled some sparrows. They flew up, then alighted on a fence.
These are rose hips from Rosa rugosa, near the Granite Prospect, where Patti Smith will read and sign books this Monday evening, August 6, at 7:00.
Sailing up the East River, a sloop approaches the Manhattan Bridge.
Worker on a cable of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Flowers by the pond near the pier’s northeast corner.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/45153
Forget Christmas in July. The folks at Verizon Wireless on Montague Street—apparently wanting to insure no passersby ended up meeting the Grim Reaper in the netherworld below the sidewalk—placed this non-intimidating scarecrow beside the candy corn safety cone… making hay out of potential hell. (Photo: Chuck Taylor)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44815
Most of us Brooklyn Heights denizens have seen dozens of pics of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade in its early days, but there are actually a couple here that were new to a guy who loves to scour the webbie for Heights history. How about you? Via Gothamist here.
Here’s the text that accompanies the Gothamist slideshow:
The idea of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade had been bounced around since Hezekiah Pierrepont proposed it in 1827 (decades later, in 1864, Abraham Lincoln declared, “There may be finer views than this in the world, but I don’t believe it.”). The idea didn’t happen in Pierrepont’s lifetime, but he “lived and died in the belief and desire, that the Heights some day be made a public promenade.” Over 100 years later, enter Robert Moses.
Moses originally proposed that the BQE go directly through Brooklyn Heights, but was talked down from this crazy idea by the powerful residents of the neighborhood. The idea for the design with the promenade on top was actually proposed by one such resident “whose private garden would be destroyed by the arterial highway”—he suggested that the BQE be two levels, and have a “cover” on top protecting the gardens from smog and noise. The “cover” became the promenade, and the space was dedicated on October 7th, 1950, when Moses announced: “I don’t know of anything quite like this in any city in the world.”
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/44319
As the sun set westward, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade boasted a full house of spectators, taking in the beauty of a perfect summer day. More below the jump. (Photos: Chuck Taylor)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/42928
Times haven’t changed but so much between 1937 and 2012. Some 75 years ago, the U.S. was enduring a marked recession that lasted 13 months and catapulted unemployment from 14.3% in 1937 to 19.0% in 1938. Thankfully, in 2012, the national unemployment rate isn’t quite as dire—but it remains stagnant for a fifth dismal year. On Friday June 15, the Labor Department reported that unemployment in May 2012 rose to 8.2% from 8.1% in April, the first increase in a year. In New York City, the May rate upticked from 9.5% to 9.7%.
That makes this vintage photograph from April 1937 all the more relevant. The 28-year-old unemployed Brooklyn resident is showing great ambition wearing a sandwich sign around his neck, proclaiming he’s “Stalked by Stork.” That, of course, means a baby is on the way. He’s looking for work in advertising, sales promotion, contract publicity and the like.
After digging down deep into the Internet, I found “A Woman’s New York” column written by Alice Hughes on April 13, 1937. She reports:
New York’s sidewalks are filled with ladies and gentlemen carrying signs. They may advertise a cheap beauty parlor or they may announce that the bearer, an American citizen, spent 10 months in a German prison and is very mad about it. But I met my favorite the other day. A young man was wearing a ‘sandwich’ which read, in part, ‘Stalked by Stork. I want work now!’ The gallant young man carried his sign and (walked) out of my life, but I certainly hope he got a job, don’t you? That ‘Stalked By Stork’ is a punch line if ever there was one.’
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/42520
While the world at large shares in the historic vistas of Brooklyn Heights from ground level, there’s an entire different viewpoint from the rooftops of our neighborhood residential buildings… offering a far-reaching panorama across the borough and beyond that is ours alone. This pic looks down upon the modest but still heavenly roof at 1 Montague Terrace (where poet W.H. Auden lived in 1939-1940).
(Top photo: Chuck Taylor/Bottom: lumierefl via Flickr)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/42009
Any given day, one can see blissed-out couples posing for their formal wedding portraits along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and the shore along the DUMBO side of Brooklyn Bridge Park. We came across the “Mille Fiori Favorati” blog in our daily web sweep for all things BH, and thought these were particularly endearing pics.
Blog author Pat, a life-long New Yorker and Brooklyn resident, writes, “So where does a girl and a guy who were born in Brooklyn, N.Y., go to have wedding portraits taken? Of course, under the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn Bridge Park. My daughter and son-in-law wanted to have this iconic landmark as part of their wedding shots, even though they now call the state of Colorado home.” The photos were taken May 30.
See more sweet images below.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41566
Here is a 1952 view of the incomplete Brooklyn Queens Expressway, with people on the newly opened Brooklyn Heights Promenade over the new highway. The BQE just comes to an end at the lower right corner, with the Brooklyn Bridge far in the distance.
See original full-size photo on Flickr here.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41256
Brooklyn’s handsome Borough Hall is all decked out for the Memorial Day holiday, with flags unfurled and flowers surrounding the fountain in full bloom. Ooh, la la!
(Photos: Chuck Taylor/iPhone)
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41409