A WALKING TOUR GUIDE

WILLOWTOWN BROOKLYN, NY

SPONSORED BY THE WILLOWTOWN ASSOCIATION WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 1 WELCOME WELCOME TO WILLOWTOWN, our unique Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. The boundary of Willowtwon extends from Joralemon Street on the north, Atlantic Avenue on the south, both sides of Hicks Street to the east, and Furman Street to the west. The name Willowtown derives from our street Willow Place. Our blocks are distinguished by a variety of 19th-century residential architecture – Federal, Greek, Gothic, Romanesque Revival, and Queen Anne – all integrated gracefully with a few contemporary houses.

THIS IS A TOURGUIDE TO WILLIOWTOWN published in conjunction with the annual spring fair sponsored by our Willowtown Association.

FORMED IN 1953, THE WILLOWTOWN ASSOCIATION is a volunteer-based neighborhood organization with a longterm commitment to stewardship. Our mission is to address issues impacting the quality of life for our residents and to serve as their collective voice and advocate. We strive to share and protect our neighborhood’s history and architectural heritage while communicating with like-minded organizations and individuals on key issues. In addition to supporting the A.T. White Community Center and guided walking tours of the neighborhood’s architectural and cultural history, our main annual events are a vibrant spring fair held in May and a festive fall potluck community meeting.

WE ARE GRATEFUL for this place we call home and happily share invite our visitors from near and far to enjoy, learn, steward, and contribute towards the incredible history of our unique neighborhood.

2 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 3 2019 SPONSORS The Willowtown Association extends heartfelt thanks to the following supporters for their financial sponsorship, donations of goods and service, and ads in this guide:

4 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 5 WILLOWTOWN ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Willowtown Association is governed by a dedicated, all volunteer, 13-member Board of Directors, who are elected each year to serve during the next calendar year. They work closely as Willowtown’s most important advocates and champions.

LINDA DEROSA, PRESIDENT FRANKLIN CIACCIO, VICE PRESIDENT HILLARY ARCHER, SECRETARY AND GARDEN DIRECTOR TIM HOENIG, TREASURER JEAN CAMPBELL PIPPA LORD-HALE ANDY ISAACSON LENORE MITCHELL CLINT PADGITT ANDREW REYNOLDS KENNETH SHUSTERMAN: COLLEEN STAMOS JEFFREY STREEM

WILLOWTOWN FAIR COMMITTEE

LINDA DEROSA JEFFREY STREEM CHRIS SCARAFILE COLLEEN STAMOS BRANWYNNE KENNEDY HILLARY ARCHER PIPPA LORD-HALE TIM HOENIG

BOOKLET DESIGN

HILLARY ARCHER

RIVERSIDE APARTMENTS 6 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 7 WALKING TOUR The following walking tour was developed by Camilla Flemming, who lived with her family at 51 Joralemon Street for nearly 50 years, and Benjamin Bankson, a resident of 14 Willow Place since 1975. It is based on their own research and information gathered from other Willowtown residents over the years.

The area of Brooklyn that includes Willowtown was initially inhabited by Canarsie Indians, who spoke Algonquin. They called the area “Ihpetonga,” meaning “long, sandy bank.” Forty acres of the area became the country estate of Philip Livingston, 1716-78, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The start in 1836 of ferry service from South Ferry in Manhattan to the foot of Atlantic Avenue spurred what presently exists. Most of the houses are of the Greek Revival architectural style and were built in groups of two, three or more in the 1840s and 1850s. The groups often had continuous brick facades. Most of the apartment buildings are from the Civil War era and later. Teunis Joralemon, 1760-1840, a prominent attorney and judge from an old Dutch family, acquired part of the Livingston property including the Livingstons’ house on Hicks Street in 1804. The next year the road running at an angle along the property’s northern boundary from the East River to Red Hook Lane just beyond Adams Street became known as Joralemon’s Lane. One historian called it a “wretched, narrow country road.” Mr. Joralemon regularly took boatloads of vegetables and milk from his farm to a market in Manhattan. Brooklyn designated the lane a street in 1842.

BEGIN THE WALK AT THE INTERSECTION OF WILLOW PL. AND JORALEMON ST. A.T. White The Willowtown Community Center + The Belgium block surface of Joralemon is one of the 26 Willow Place few such survivingAsso cstreetsiation. oinr gNew York. The tunnel for the 4 and 5 subway lines runs under Joralemon. It was Brooklyn NY 11201 constructed in 1904 by a then private company, the Interborough Rapid Transit or IRT. The tunnel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of the few such sites that is not a building. Pairs of the houses stairstep down the hill, each pair 30 inches lower. Some of the houses’ third-floor windows have been enlarged.

8 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 9

Willowtown Walking Tour Guide.indd 32 17/05/2017 16:02 LOOK DIRECTLY ACROSS JORALEMON ST. AND TO THE LEFT.

+ 57, 55, 53 and 45 Joralemon Street were all formerly owned by one of Willowtown’s more eccentric residents, the late Abram O. Jarber, a plumber. He put the name, “Cozy Nook,” over the doorway to 57, which had lost its stoop, and replaced the cornices at the top of his houses with massive parapets. He wanted to turn the houses into a “hospital for bruised heels,” a phrase he took from the Bible. The present owner of 53 had three small windows put in the parapet and restored the cornice at a higher elevation.

TURN LEFT AND WALK DOWN THE SOUTH SIDE OF JORALEMON. 57/55/53/45 JORALEMON ST + 44, 42 and 40 Joralemon Street are three of Willowtown’s 12 smaller brick and/or clapboarded houses. This row was the setting for the 2004 psychological thriller, “The Forgotten,” starring Julianne Moore. The character she played and her family lived at 42.

+ 36 Joralemon Street, among Willowtown’s new contemporary houses, is on the site of a bar that was open for longshoremen from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. After the nearby docks ceased to function in the 1960s, the former one-story building was a series of restaurants, the last being Bistro 36. The restaurant and its surround were used in another of the films set in Willowtown--Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway” of 1994. The contemporary house and its twin at 5 Columbia Place were designed by Manhattan architect Alex Compagno. The rooftops contain gardens. 36 JORALEMON ST (1940)

CROSS TO THE NORTH SIDE OF JORALEMON ST. AND WALK TO THE LEFT TO THE END OF THE BLOCK.

+ 25 Joralemon Street was the New York City Fire Department’s former main high-pressure pumping station opened in 1908. The station pumped both salt water from the East River and fresh water from city mains to fight fires in tall buildings. One section was lost to the construction 25 JORALEMON ST (1940)

10 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 11 in the late 1940s of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway just to the west of it. The station was phased out in 1954 following the introduction of fire engine super pumpers. It sat empty until the late 1970s when converted into a six-family co-op called the Heights Mews.

An 1816 map of the then village of Brooklyn shows that the East River came up to this point and that a brewery dating from the second half of the 18th century stood just to the south on the shoreline. The Joralemons controlled the beach but were generous in letting villagers go fishing there. The brewery was owned by Philip Livingston and later sold to Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont, 1768-1838, who played a key role in Brooklyn’s development. Pierrepont converted the brewery to a distillery that made his “Anchor” brand gin. He sold the distillery in 1819. Such industries as a spermaceti candle factory and a sugar refinery subsequently operated there.

360 & 334 FURMAN ST (1958) CONTINUE WEST UNDER THE BQE OVERPASS AND ACROSS FURMAN ST (THE WESTERN EDGE OF WILLOWTOWN).

+ 334 Furman Street to the right and 360 Furman to the left, also now known as One Brooklyn Bridge Park, were built respectively in 1917 and 1928 by the New York Dock Company. They were two of the company’s massive loft buildings, warehouses and railway sheds that stretched for two and a-half miles along the then completely industrial Brooklyn waterfront. No. 334 now houses the offices of the not-yet-complete Brooklyn Bridge Park going from Atlantic Avenue north just beyond the Manhattan Bridge. The latest incarnation of No. 360 is as a luxury condo with first floor retail shops. 334 FURMAN ST At the waterfront end of Joralemon Street is the Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 5. It has been transformed into recreation fields with a continuous esplanade around the perimeter for strolling and fishing. A concession stand operates on weekends from the spring through the fall. A picnic peninsula extends to the north, as does the remnant of Pier 4 turned into a protected habitat preserve adjoined on the upland by a beach and sound- attenuating berms.

12 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 13 RIVERSIDE APARTMENTS PRE-BQE RIVERSIDE APARTMENTS TODAY

RIVERSIDE APARTMENTS 14 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 15 CROSS BACK ACROSS FURMAN ST. TO THE SOUTH SIDE OF The young owners, who are Riverside residents, chose JORALEMON ST. to retain the name of what in recent years was a deli. Previously in the space was a small department store + The Riverside Apartments at 24 and 32 Joralemon Street dating from 1920 that sold, as it advertised, “men’s, and 10, 20 and 30 Columbia Place were built in 1889- ladies’ and children’s wear.” 90 on the site of the brewery/distillery. Considered “a masterpiece of late Victorian design,” they are an early + A second-floor apartment at 10 Columbia Place was model of better housing for the urban poor. The original once the home of another Willowtown eccentric known U-shaped, nine-unit complex had 280 two- to four-room as “Superman.” He was a veteran of the Vietnam War apartments and 19 stores. In 1890 the rent was $8-$11 exposed to the herbicidal “Agent Orange” chemical used a month. Bathing was communal in the basement. The in the war. When drunk, he would dive out of his open bathrooms, a first for a tenement, were described as window onto the street—and amazingly come out OK. “nicely fitted up.” The courtyard’s amenities included a bandstand where concerts were held on weekends, a CROSS TO THE EAST SIDE OF COLUMBIA PL. AND WALK TO children’s playground and a fountain. The west section THE END OF THE BLOCK. along Furman Street was lost to the BQE. However, the courtyard with some fine old trees remains largely intact + 7, 9, 11 and 13 Columbia Place are survivors of nine although neglected by the landlord. Archaeological such houses known as “Cottage Row” and distinguished remains of the early industries on the site may well be for their shallow porches. According to Brooklyn preserved under the garden. directories from the 1840s, the first residents were, respectively, a painter, a ferry pilot, a milkman and a Alfred T. White, 1846-1921, known as “the great heart fur merchant. All four have been extensively changed and mastermind of Brooklyn’s better self” and a lifelong inside. resident of Brooklyn Heights, was the figure behind the construction of the Riverside Apartments. He was a + The four-part, four-story tenement at 15, 17, 19 and founder and major benefactor of the Brooklyn Botanic 21 Columbia Place dating from the 1880s replaced the Garden and the Brooklyn Heights Association, among his other five cottages. Each part has eight apartments. many other interests. The ground-floor spaces were formerly all businesses. The small department store once across the street at ENTER THE RIVERSIDE APARTMENTS GARDEN NEXT THE BQE, the corner of Joralemon first opened for business at this THEN RETURN TO JORALEMON ST. location.

+ Apt. E-148 at 24 Joralemon Street was the home of the + 25 and 27 Columbia Place was called Chapel House novelist Raymond Kennedy until his death in February when built in 1905 to provide more space for the school 2008 at age 73. The latest of his eight novels was “The in the former Willow Place Chapel to which it was Romance of Eleanor Gray.” The New York Times in an connected. The cost, $20,000, was paid in total by Alfred obituary noted that “his books were characterized by T. White and his sisters. Christened Columbia House a their bleak settings; baroque, boisterous prose; and decade later, the addition also served as a clubhouse grotesquely comic characters, notably the larger-than- for the children who lived in the Riverside Apartments. life women who charged through his fictional universe In the deadly flu epidemic of 1918 it became a call like out-of-control trains.” center for medical help, food and other relief. One of the epidemic’s victims was White’s daughter Katharine + River Deli at the corner of Joralemon and Columbia Van Sinderen. The Roosa School of Music, founded as a Place is a popular Italian restaurant opened in 2010. teacher cooperative in Brooklyn Heights in 1940, made its

16 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 17 7 COLUMBIA PL (1940) 25 COLUMBIA PL (KINDERGARTEN CLASS OF 1922-23)

15/17/19/21 COLUMBIA P (1940) 39/41 COLUMBIA PL (1940)

18 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 19 home here in 1963 when the chapel had become the A.T. White Community Center. When the school was dissolved in 1989 because of financial problems, its replacement became the S.E.M. Ensemble that was already using the center for rehearsals.

+ Even though it looks like a garage, 39 Columbia Place is actually a private residence that two previous occupants, both artists, developed as a studio. One was Christian Thee, a leading practitioner of the trompe l’oeil style of painting—literally “deceiving the eye.” He is also a stage designer and author of such books as “Behind the Curtain.” In 1981 he was commissioned to paint a portrait of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, on the occasion of his 21st birthday. The other artist was a sculptor.

+ 47 Columbia Place is the second of the three 47 COLUMBIA PL (1940) contemporary houses on the block. It was built in 1998. Its core is actually the one-story machine shop previously on the site. The architect was Joseph Eisner of Manhattan. The new façade is of brick and panelized glass. In the rear is a spectacular walled-in garden featuring a waterfall that cascade down a three-tiered landscape.

+ The Willowtown Community Garden toward the southwest end of the block is overseen by the Willowtown Association. The site of the gardens was once filled with houses that were demolished in phases for construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway between 1937 and 1964.

A park was built by NYC Parks in 1947 in the resulting vacant area along Columbia Place and the BQE, first called Atlantic Playground, then named State Street Park. In 1999, the Willowtown Association advocated for a redesign of the park, which resulted in new landscaping, play equipment, improved basketball courts, a new dog run, and the community gardens with a small greenhouse. At the dedication ceremony, then Parks Commissioner Henry Stern announced the name Palmetto Playground. Palmetto, he explained, is the official tree of a “State” that borders on the “Atlantic” whose capital is “Columbia” - thus, the names of the three bordering SITE OF WILLOWTOWN COMMUNITY GARDEN (1940)

20 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 21 WILLOWTOWN COMMUNITY GARDEN 22 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 23 streets. Adam Yauch, an artist, filmmaker, activist, and one of Brooklyn’s most influential musicians (famously TURN LEFT ONTO TO HICKS ST. AND WALK TOWARDS known as ‘MCA’ of the legendary Beastie Boys) grew JORALEMON ST. up playing in this playground. The park was the setting for some of Yauch and his family’s fondest memories, + 324 and 322 Hicks Street, a recently completed six- including his father Noel teaching him to ride a bike. Ad family condo, is distinguished by its V-shaped facade died in May 2012 at age 47. A year after his premature and triangular bay windows that were intended by death, Yauch’s parents renamed Palmetto Playground as the architect, Nikolai Katz, to echo the proportions of Adam Yauch Park on May 3rd, 2013. Later, the community facades typical of the neighborhood but especially the garden came to be known separately as Mickel’s row, 315 to 303 Hicks. Garden, after the neighbor and late gardener Mitchell “Mickel” Minawar who died unexpectedly in 2007. Today, + 314 Hicks Street is a brand new brownstone completed it is known as the Willowtown Community Garden and in 2013 on one of the last empty lots in Willowtown. The houses forty some neighborhood gardeners. Manhattan architectural firm, Gordon Kahn & Associates, designed this 4,500-square-foot, single-family house + Where Columbia Place meets State Street was once to look like it had always been there. As the brass filled with houses on Columbia Place that went through plaque on the side wall state, it was inspired by “the to Atlantic Avenue and on State Street through to the simple elegance of Brooklyn Heights early Greek Revival waterfront docks. Formerly on the four corners here were houses.” a grocery store, a saloon, a fruit store and a vegetable store. All the structures were demolished for the BQE. + 290 Hicks Street was where the Lebanese-American philosophical poet, writer and artist Khalil Gibran, 1883- + The park is on the site of the South Ferry Flint Glass 1931, lived when he wrote his best-known work, “The Works founded in 1823 and later called the Brooklyn Flint Prophet,” composed of 26 poetic essays. The book Glass Works. Rebuilt after being destroyed by a fire in has been translated into more than 20 languages. In 1866, the company relocated only two years later upstate September 2007 New York City opened a new public to Corning, N.Y. It was renamed Corning Glass Works for academy on Dean Street near Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn the city and became widely known for its high quality named after him. The academy has an international products. theme and includes the study of the Arabic language.

WALK THROUGH ADAM YAUCH PARK TO ATLANTIC AVE. + Originally on the lot on the east side of the street, the AND THEN LEFT TO HICKS ST. address being 295 Hicks Street, was a house bought in 1902 for the start of a Lebanese Maronite Catholic church + Montero Bar and Grill at 73 Atlantic Avenue is the last called Our Lady of Lebanon. The name is a title for St. remnant of 50 years ago when bars and restaurants lined Mary the Virgin used in Lebanon. The church constructed both sides of the avenue and this corner of Willowtown a one-story worship facility on the next lot to the south was all Spanish. Montero’s is more or less as it was when that was empty. The church also used the facilities for a it opened in 1947 and is still run by a member of the parochial school named St. Mary’s. Following 1944, when Montero family. The inside is decorated with ship models the Maronites bought the former Church of the Pilgrims at and paintings of Spain. Remsen and Henry streets and relocated there, the Hicks Street facilities were demolished. Formerly owned by Catholic Charities, the lot was used for parking until late in 2012 when a developer bought it at an auction. Three

24 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 25 single-family, four-story townhouses also designed by institution that closed in the 1980s. Then the present 277 architect Nikolai Katz are to be built there. and 275 were redeveloped together as an 18-unit co-op. The house of the Livingstons that the Joralemons bought + The winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was located approximately at No. 277. Following the Rudolph A. Marcus, lived at 286 Hicks Street during 1958- Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, and the defeat 64 when he was on the faculty of the Polytechnic Institute by the British of the Continental Army under George of Brooklyn. He received the Nobel for the “Marcus Washington, he and his officers met in this house to theory” of electron transfer, doing most of this research decide to evacuate across the East River to Manhattan. whenin this brownstone. He has been at the California The victorious British used the house as a hospital. The Institute of Technology in Pasadena since 1978. next street to the east, Garden Place, was named for the fact that the garden behind the house extended to that + 293 and 291 Hicks Street on the east side and 284, point. The original structure wasdestroyed by a fire in the 282, 280, 278 and 276 Hicks Street on the west side are 1840s. seven of a cluster of a dozen carriage houses built in Willowtown between 1870 and 1887. All but two survive + The row of houses from 272 through 262 Hicks Street was as private residences. The five on the west side are built in 1887 in the short-lived, busy Queen Anne style backed up by three on Willow Place. The three-story by Mrs. Harriet Packer, 1820-92. Her husband William No. 282 was the home of the American painter Albert J. Satterlee Packer, who made a fortune in the fur trading Pucci, 1920-2005, who did striking still lifes, landscapes business and died in 1850 at age 49, founded in 1845 and portraiture. His widow Gora continues to live there. the Brooklyn Female Academy on Joralemon Street No. 278 was the former carriage house of Alfred T. eventually renamed the Packer Collegiate Institute. Mrs. White. No. 276 was the former studio of William Zorach, Packer used some of her fortune to rebuild the school 1887-1966, a Lithuanian-American sculptor, painter and when it burned to the ground in 1853. watercolorist. His wife Marguerite Thompson, 1887-1968, was also an artist. The head of a woman on the dormer + 273 Hicks Street is the example of a house for which was placed there by Zorach. the stoop, entrance and parlor windows were recently restored to their original form. Like that of a number of + Engine Co. 224 of the New York City Fire Department other houses in Willowtown, No. 273 suffered the removal was built in 1903 with Renaissance Revival details of the stoop, the replacement of the entrance on the and copper dormers. The building is a favorite of first floor by a window, the shortening of the other two neighborhood children and visitors. The company went windows and the entrance lowered to the basement. to the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 but thankfully suffered no loss of personnel. + The front of 260 Hicks Street on the northwest corner at Joralemon originally faced Joralemon. The house + Early in the 1900s the two brownstones at 283 and 281 was enlarged at the same time as Mrs. Packer built her Hicks Street became St. Christopher’s Hospital for Babies. row and a new facade done on Hicks having Queen Alfred T. White was also a benefactor of this institution to Anne and Romanesque Revival details, including a bay the tune of $30,000. Originally at 277 Hicks Street stood window on the corner and a scroll pediment doorway the two lost carriage houses. They were demolished supported by clustered colonnettes. The recent removal in 1916 for a new building for the hospital. No. 275 of the paint from the brick facade and its pointing clearly served as the nurses’ quarters. In 1923 St. Christopher’s reveals the addition of the top floor to the original house. was transferred to the Brooklyn Hospital at DeKalb and Flatbush avenues. The Hicks Street facilities then became AT JORALEMON ST. TURN LEFT AND WALK DOWN THE HILL St. Charles Orthopedic Hospital, a Roman Catholic TOWARDS THE EAST RIVER.

26 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 27 + 75, 73 and 71 Joralemon Street on the north side were of a girl on a dog’s back by the sculptor William Zorach. necessarily given new brick facing and metal bracketed His son Tessim, 1919-95, who oversawthe donation of his cornices because of the construction of the subway parents’ works to many American museums and to the tunnel under the street. The longtime former resident Pushkin Museum in Moscow, formerly lived in the house. A of No. 71, Pearl Bowser, was a filmmaker who collected journalist couple–Seth Lipsky, who was editor-in-chief of historical and contemporary films documenting black the former New York Sun, and Amity Shlaes, a best-selling film history. Her collection has become part of the author and senior fellow at the George W. Bush Institute— Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of African are the latest residents. American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The interiors of both Nos. 73 and 71 have recently undergone + 17, 19 & 21 Willow Place complete the group of major renovations. Willowtown’s former carriage houses. Around 1920 the three were converted into commercial garages and + 63 Joralemon Street also on the north side was apartments. In the 1930s the second floor of No. 17 was a the home for 14 years until recently of the American club that could hold up to 50 people. Among the tenants biographer Ron Chernow, born in Brooklyn in 1949. He of the apartment at No. 19 was the actor Malcolm Jamal was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for biography or Warner, who at the time was playing the son Theo in the autobiography for his “George Washington: A Life.” Huxtable family of the TV sitcom “The Cosby Show.” All Other works by him are “the House of Morgan: An three houses have been redeveloped as grand single- American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern family residences Finance,” “The Warburgs,” “Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr.” and “Alexander Hamilton.” + After more than four decades of being unoccupied and neglected, 25 Willow Place was finally sold in 2009 + 62 Joralemon Street was built in 1890 as a gymnasium by descendants of the last residents. The new owner, and reading room serving boys of the neighborhood by Jonathan Marvel, is an architect who completed a major William Gilman Low, whose family’s wealth came from the renovation the next year. His projects include the 1 Hotel importing of silk and tea from China. His uncle, Seth Low, and Pierhouse condos in Brooklyn Bridge Park. was mayor in 1881-85 of the still separate Brooklyn and mayor in 1902-03 of the consolidated New York City. Next + Transforming Power Substation 21 of the Metropolitan the building was the South Brooklyn Settlement House Transportation Authority was built in 1908 in conjunction until 1970, the Brooklyn Central Branch of the YMCA of with the start of subway service to Brooklyn. It was Greater New York until 1985, and a redeveloped four- the first of an eventual 75 substations that converted family co-op since. alternating current to the 600-volt direct current needed to power the subway. It used to be manned around the + 58 Joralemon Street has been described as “the world’s clock, but this became unnecessary with the introduction only Greek Revival subway ventilator,” a former private of silicon rectifier substations controlled electronically house from 1847. It contains an emergency evacuation from a central command station. stairway for the subway below and is guarded full-time when the national threat advisory is at the higher levels. + 43, 45, 47 and 49 Willow Place are known as “Colonnade Row” for their unique continuous portico of AT THE CORNER OF WILLOW PL. TURN LEFT AND WALK DOWN tall wooden columns. The interiors of all but one have THE EAST SIDE OF THE BLOCK. undergone extensive renovations in recent years. The resident of No. 43, Mary Ricciardi, a widow in her 90s, has + 15 Willow Place has a casting just behind the hedge lived her entire life in Willowtown. She was born in the

28 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 29 BLIZZARD OF 1947-8 WILLOW PL. RESIDENT (1923) 43-49 WILLOW PL / “COLONADE ROW” (1936)

26 WILLOW PL 43-49 WILLOW PL / “COLONADE ROW”

30 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 31 Riverside Apartments and next lived in a house on Furman + 30 & 32 Willow Place was a two-part tenement put up Street. Its being razed for the BQE brought about her in the 1890s as residential falts having crown moldings, move to No. 43. pocket sliding doors and shafts for dumbwaiters and interior ventilation. Since 1962 the building has been a + 51 Willow Place was once a Spanish-American grocery 15-unit co-op. The steel sliding fence in front of the co- store and then the home of the French mime Claude op’s adjoining parking lot was designed by Joe and Mary Kipnis, 1938-1981, founder of a mime company and Merz. author of “The Mime Book.” His son Joel continues to own the house but is an absentee landlord. + 26 Willow Place honors Alfred T. White in its name, the A.T. White Community Center. Dating from 1876, + The parking garage at the intersection of Willow the center was originally a chapel of the First Unitarian Place and State Street was originally the powerhouse Church on Pierrepont Street at Monroe Place. Its for the Brooklyn Heights Railroad. From 1891 until 1909 architect, Holland C. Anthony, was a member of it operated a cable line that ran on Montague Street the church as was White. He founded and was the between the Wall Street ferry landing on the East River superintendent of a kindergarten there. The chapel was and Brooklyn’s Borough Hall on Court Street. The cable also used for an interdenominational ministry focused reached Montague by a long blind conduit on Hicks on immigrant families with a Sunday school and worship Street. The line continued to operate using electricity services Sunday evenings. During 1928-42 the building from 1909 to 1924. was a public school whose students included Mary Ricciardi of 43 Willow Place. For the remaining years of CROSS TO THE WEST SIDE OF THE BLOCK. RETURN TO World War II when the waterfront was teeming with port JORALEMON ST. FOR THE END OF THE TOUR. workers and sailors, it was a brothel; during 1947-56, a furniture factory; and after 1956, a metal fabricating + 48, 44 & 40 Willow Place are Willowtown’s oldest shop. During 1961-62 residents of Willowtown and greater modern houses. Designed by Joe Merz and his late wife Brooklyn Heights raised the funds needed to purchase Mary, both architects, the cement-block houses replaced and renovate the building as a community center. the original structures taken over and torn down by the Principal users are the Heights Players, the St. Ann’s city and the lots put up for auction. The new houses Preschool and the S.E.M. Ensemble. were praised for “giving new life to Willow Place while respecting the nature and scale of the older Heights.” + 24, 22, 20, 18 & 16 Willow Place complete Willowtown’s The attorney Leonard Garment, 1924-2013, who served in group of smaller houses. Washington as President Nixon’s special counsel, and his family were the first residents of the largest of the three, + 8, 6, 4 & 2 Willow Place are unique to Willowtown for No. 40. His book, “In Search of Deep Throat: The Greatest their Gothic Revival architectural style, their coupled Political Mystery of Our Time,” was published in 2000. A entrance porches with clustered colonnettes supporting recent renovation included the addition of a glass atrium Tudor arches, their diamond-paned transoms and side and garden on the roof. The Merz family has lived at No. lights, and their vertical recessed “Davisean” panels 48 since its completion in 1965. unifying the second- and third-story windows. Because of the angle of Joralemon Street, No. 2 is narrower at the + 46 Willow Place is one of two survivors of four that back. mirrored the “Colonnade Row” across the street. The other survivor is not easily recognized because of the addition of a modern front. Can you guess the house? THAT CONCLUDES THE TOUR! It’s No. 42.

32 | WILLOWTOWN WWW.WILLOWTOWN.ORG 2019 BROOKLYN | 33 Joan Goldberg Willowtowner Since 1974

NYRS, Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker [email protected] o: 212-452-4471 m: 646-812-0468

2018 BHS Broker of the Year - TriBeCa BHS Listing Broker of the Year - TriBeCa Most Townhouses Sold by a BHS Manhattan Agent Highest Priced BHS Townhouse Sale in Brooklyn Top 10 Brokers at BHS

43 North Moore Street New York, NY 10013 Circle back across Furman to the south side of Joralemon. + The row of houses from 272 through 262 Hicks Street was built in 1887 in the short- lived, busy Queen Anne style by Mrs. Harriet Packer, 1820-92. Her husband William SPONSORS, DONORS & ADVERTISERS Satterlee Packer, who made a fortune in the fur trading business and died in 1850 at age + The Riverside Houses at 24 and 32 Joralemon Street and 10, 20 and 30 Columbia Place 49, founded in 1845 the Brooklyn Female Academy on Joralemon Street eventually re- were built in 1889-90 on the site of the brewery/distillery. Considered “a masterpiece named the Packer Collegiate Institute. Mrs. Packer used some of her fortune to rebuild The Willowtown Association extends heartfelt thanks to the following supporters through the school when it burned to the ground in 1853. financial sponsorship, donations of goods and services and ads in this journal: of late Victorian design,” they are an early model of better housing for the urban poor.

The original U-shaped, nine-unit complex with an interior courtyard had 280 two- to A Cook’s Companion Rachel Maurer + 273 Hicks Street is the example of a house for which the stoop, entrance and parlor Nora Acosta Denise & Peter McCormick four-room apartments and 19 stores. In 1890 the rent was $8-$11 a month. Bathing was windows were recently restored to their original form. Like that of a number of other Marissa Alperin Studio Jacqueline Mc Nulty communal in the basement. The bathrooms, a first for a tenement, were described as houses in Willowtown, No. 273 suffered the removal of the stoop, the replacement of the Atlantic Avenue3+RPH'HFRU BID Joe Merz entrance on the first floor by a window, the shortening of the other two windows and the “nicely fitted up.” The courtyard’s amenities included a bandstand where concerts were WEISS PLUMBING Sandy Balboza Lenore Mitchell entrance lowered to the basement. Joan Azrak & William Ballaine Montague Wine & Spirits held on weekends, a children’s playground and a fountain. The west section along Fur- Ben Bankson Bringing GardensRalph & Pamela Morgan to Willowtown &RPHYLVLWXVDWRXUQHZKRPHLQ:LOORZWRZQ man Street was also lost to the BQE. However, the courtyard with some fine old trees + The front of260 Hicks Street on the northwest corner at Joralemon originally faced Alexis Bittar Priscilla & Bill Newbury PLUMBING & HEATING CONTRACTORS remains largely intact although neglected by the landlord. Archaeological remains of the Joralemon. The house was enlarged at the same time as Mrs. Packer built her row and Anita Brandariz & Family NYC Organics a new facade done on Hicks. It has Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival details, in- Three Generations of Licensed Plumbers Clare Brew & Chris Scarafile Clint Padgitt early industries on the site may well be preserved under the garden. cluding a bay window on the corner and a scroll pediment doorway supported by clus- Brooklyn Strength Kathy Palestino tered colonnettes. The recent removal of the paint from the brick facade and its pointing Suzanne Camhi & Kenneth Shusterman Mary Ann Palestino clearly reveals the addition of the top floor to the original house. Javon Carlos Carol Paske Alfred T. White, 1846-1921, known as “the great heart and mastermind of Brooklyn’s NYC MASTER FIRE SUPPRESSION LICENSE Jean Campbell Elise Pettus better self” and a lifelong resident of Brooklyn Heights, was the figure behind the con- At Joralemon turn left and walk down the hill. Kevin Carberry Daniel Pierce struction of the Riverside Houses. He was a founder and major benefactor of the Brook- NYS BANKFLOW PREVENTION TESTER Chez Moi Restaurant Rosanne Pugliese Chip Shop Andrew Reynolds lyn Botanic Garden and of the Brooklyn Heights Association, among his many other + 75, 73 and 71 Joralemon Street on the north side were necessarily given new brick FDNY CERTIFICATE OF FITNESS Frank Davis River Deli facing and metal bracketed cornices because of the construction of the subway tunnel interests. under the street. The longtime former resident of No. 71, Pearl Bowser, was a filmmaker DBe Design Riverside Tenants Association Della Pietra Gourmet Meat Market Darrly Roopchand who collected historical and contemporary films documenting black film history. Her TIM DONOHUE Alice & John Delury  Sahadi’s collection has become part of the Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of Linda DeRosa Melisa Sanyer African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The interiors of both Nos. LICENSED PLUMBER  Lisa DeRosa Judy Scofield Miller 73 and 71 have recently undergone major renovations. NO.1054 Phil Dewhurt-RUDOHPRQ6WUHHW%URRNO\Q1<Adam Shapiro Downtown Brooklyn Partnership Jeffrey Streem + 63 Joralemon Street also on the north side was the home for 14 years until recently of Ronnie Freundich Seaport Flowers the American biographer Ron Chernow, born in Brooklyn in 1949. He was awarded the ǁǁǁ͘WϳŚŽŵĞĚĞĐŽƌ͘ĐŽŵ Catherine Fitzsimons G. Bradley Smith 2011 Pulitzer Price for biography or autobiography for his “George Washington: A Life.” Cathy Goldhirsh Teresa’s Restaurant Other works by him are “The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Lassen & Hennig’s Taryn & Steve Turner Rise of Modern Finance,” “The Warburgs,” “Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr.” Radi Hamdan Trader Joe’s and “Alexander Hamilton.” Heights Chateau Tryee Trought Valerie Hallier Waterfront Wines & Spirits + 62 Joralemon Street on the south side was built in 1890 as a gymnasium and reading Tim Hoenig Wealth Fitness room serving boys of the neighborhood by William Gilman Low, whose family’s wealth Ira H. Inemer SinceWeiss Plumbing 1990 came from the importing of silk and tea from China. His uncle, Seth Low, was mayor Richard Lopez Willowtown Gardens in 1881-85 of the still separate Brooklyn and mayor in 1902-03 of the consolidated New Luzzo’s Pizza Woolyn York City. Next the building was the South Brooklyn Settlement House until 1970, the Allison Malt Carol Ziegler & Marty Minkowitz Brooklyn Central Branch of the YMCA of Greater New York until 1985, and a redevel- Jonathan Marvel 78 Laundry Service 99 ATLANTIC AVENUE. BROOKLYN, NY, 11201 oped four-family co-op since. TEL: 718 875 3926

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Willowtown Walking Tour Guide.indd 10-11 17/05/2017 16:02 +daughter The parking Katharine garage Van at the Sinderen. intersection The of Roosa Willow School Place ofand Music, State foundedStreet was as originally a teacher WELCOME! thecooperativeWELCOME! powerhouse in Brooklynfor the Brooklyn Heights Heightsin 1940, Railroad.made its home From here 1891 in until 1963 1909 when it operatedthe chapel a cablehad linebecome that ranthe onA. MontagueT. White Community Street between Center. the Wall When Street the ferry school landing was dissolved on the East in Welcome to Willowtown, our unique and inviting Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. While River and Brooklyn’s Borough Hall on Court Street. The cable reached Montague by a 1989Welcome because to Willowtown, of financial our problems, unique and its invitingreplacement Brooklyn became Heights the neighborhood.S.E.M. Ensemble While that the name is taken from our street Willow Place, the neighborhood’s boundaries extend on long blind conduit on Hicks Street. The line continued to operate using electricity from wasthe name already is takenusing from the center our street for rehearsals.Willow Place, the neighborhood’s boundaries extend on the north to Joralemon Street; the south, to Atlantic Avenue; the east, both sides of Hicks 1909the northto 1924. to Joralemon Street; the south, to Atlantic Avenue; the east, both sides of Hicks Street between Joralemon and Atlantic; and the west, to Furman Street.

+Street Even between though Joralemon it looks like and a Atlantic;garage, 39 and Columbia the west, Placeto Furman is actually Street. a private residence CrossNary to a thewillow west tree side is of in the sight, block but and our return sidewalks to Joralemon are amply and shaded the endby sycamore, of the tour. ginkgo that two previous occupants, both artists, developed as a studio. One was Christian Nary a willow tree is in sight, but our sidewalks are amply shaded by sycamore, ginkgo and linden trees. Our blocks are distinguished by a variety of 19th-century residential and linden trees. Our blocks are distinguished by a variety of 19th-century residential +Thee, 48, 44 a& leading 40 Willow practitioner Place areof theWillowtown’s trompe l’oeil oldest style modernof painting–literally, houses. Designed “deceiving by Joethe architecture–Federal; Greek, Gothic and Romanesque Revival; and Queen Anne–blended architecture–Federal; Greek, Gothic and Romanesque Revival; and Queen Anne–blended Merzeye.”gracefully and He his is with alsolate a wife afew stage Mary,contemporary designer both architects,and houses. author Ourthe of cement-blocklargestsuch books apartment as houses “Behind building, replaced the Riverside, Curtain.” the origi is In - gracefully with a few contemporary houses. Our largest apartment building, Riverside, is nal1981unique structures he onto was itself–a takencommissioned over model and of to tornbetter paint down and a portraithealthy by the ofcityhousing Prince and forthe Andrew, the lots urban put Duke up poor for of developed auction.York, on Thetheby new houses were praised for “giving new life to Willow Place while respecting the nature unique onto itself–a model of better and healthy housing for the urban poor developed by occasionthe philanthropist of his 21st Alfred birthday. T. White, The 1846-1921. other artist He was was a sculptor.called “the great heart and master- and scale of the older Heights.” The attorney Leonard Garment, 1924-2013, who served the philanthropist Alfred T. White, 1846-1921. He was called “the great heart and master- mind of Brooklyn’s better self.” inA Washington guide to Willowtown as President makes Nixon’s up most special of this counsel, journal. andIt is publishedhis family in were conjunction the first with resi - mind of Brooklyn’s better self.” dents+the 47 annual of Columbia the springlargest Place fair of the sponsored is three,the second No. by 40.our of WillowtownHisthe book,three contemporary“In Association. Search of Deep Ithouses was Throat: formed on the in block.The 1953 Great It- estwasby Political residents built in Mystery 1998.who came Its of coreOur together, isTime,” actually in wastheir the published words, one-story “to in work machine2000. for A and recentshop improve previously renovation the neighbor on included the -site. A guide to Willowtown makes up most of this journal. It is published in conjunction with theThehood addition architectin whatever of awas glass way Joseph atrium possible.” Eisner and A ofgarden more Manhattan. recent on the mission roof.The newThestatement facade Merz describes isfamily of brick has the andlived associa panelized at - No. the annual spring fair sponsored by our Willowtown Association. It was formed in 1953 by 48glass.tion’s since role Inits thecompletionas working rear is a“singly inspectacular 1965. and in walled-in cooperation garden with otherfeaturing concerned a waterfall community that cascades groups residents who came together, in their words, “to work for and improve the neighborhood downand governmental a three-tiered agencies landscape. to address issues impacting the quality of life for the residents in whatever way possible.” A more recent mission statement describes the association’s + 46 Willow Place is one of two survivors of four that mirrored the “Colonnade Row” and to serve as their collective voice and advocate.” Events the association sponsors role as working “singly and in cooperation with other concerned community groups and acrossinclude the the street. fair and The an otherannual survivor neighborhood is not easilypotluck recognized dinner. because of the addition of a governmental agencies to address issues impacting the quality of life for the residents and filled-inWe are privilegedfront. Can to youenjoy guess daily the this house? place weIt’s callNo. home42. and gladly share it with our visi- tors from near and far. Again, welcome! to serve as their collective voice and advocate.” Events the association sponsors include the + 30 & 32 Willow Place was a two-part tenement put up in the 1890s as residential flats fair and an annual neighborhood potluck dinner. having crown moldings, pocket sliding doors and shafts for dumbwaiters and interior ventilation. Since 1962 the building has been a 15-unit co-op. The steel sliding fence in We are privileged to enjoy daily this place we call home and gladly share it with our visitors front of the co-op’s adjoining parking lot was designed by architects Joe and Mary Merz. from near and far. Again, welcome!

Brooklyn Heights Homes - Co-ops - Apartments BY APPOINTMENT Planners of the 2012 Willowtown Spring Fair are, from left, front row, Elise Pettus, Bill Newbury, Clare Brew, Linda De Rosa and Libby Cooper; and back row, Jeffery Streem Planners of Willowtown’sPlanners 2015 of Springthe Willowtown Fair include, 2016 from Spring left, Fair Naomi include, Pearson, Linda De Rosa, Kevin J. Carberry 718.875.0033 and Ben Bankson. Jeffrey Streem,Linda Stephanie DeRosa. Zancolli, Jeffrey Bill Streem, Newbury, Stephanie Clare Brew,Zancolli and andWendy Bill GardenerNewbury. (not pictured). or Jenny Ross 718.483.0840 www.kevincarberry.com16 -- 15 131 - - 15 - 3 -- 29 1 - 29 - - 31 --

Willowtown Walking Tour Guide.indd 14-15 17/05/2017 16:02 Willowtown Walking Tour Guide.indd 30-31 17/05/2017 16:02 NOW OPEN

141 Montague Street, 2nd Floor Open 8 am to 8 pm, 7 days a week. Call to schedule an appointment 718.797.1221 www.choochoocuts.nyc Before continuing, walk into the Riverside Houses courtyard at the entrance next to the Walk through Adam Yauch Park to Atlantic Avenue and then left to Hicks Street. elevated BQE to take a look and then circle back to Joralemon and Columbia Place. + Montero Bar and Grill at 73 Atlantic Avenue is the last remnant of a half-century ago when bars and restaurants lined both sides of the avenue and this corner of Willowtown + Apt. E-148 at 24 Joralemon Street was the home of the novelist Raymond Kennedy was all Spanish. Montero’s is more or less as it was when it opened in 1947 and is still until his death in February 2008 at age 73. The latest of his eight novels was “The Ro- run by a member of the Montero family. The inside is decorated with ship models and mance of Eleanor Gray.” The New York Times in an obituary noted that “his books were paintings of Spain. characterized by their bleak settings; baroque, boisterous prose; and grotesquely comic characters, notably the larger-than-life women who charged through his fictional uni- Turn left onto to Hicks Street and walk to Joralemon. verse like out-of-control trains.” + 324 and 322 Hicks Street, a recently completed six-family condo, is distinguished

by its V-shaped facade and triangular bay windows that were intended by the architect, + River Deli at the corner of Joralemon and Columbia Place is a popular Italian restau- Nikolai Katz, to echo the proportions of facades typical of the neighborhood but espe- rant opened in 2010. The young owners, who are Riverside residents, chose to retain the cially the row, 315 to 303 Hicks. name of what in recent years was a deli. Previously in the space was a small department store dating from 1920 that sold, as it advertised, “men’s, ladies’ and children’s wear.” + 314 Hicks Street is a brand new brownstone completed in 2012 on one of the last empty lots in Willowtown. The Manhattan architectural firm, Gordon Kahn & Associ- ates, designed this 4,500-square-foot single-family house to look like it had always been + A second-floor apartment at10 Columbia Place was once the home of another Wil- there. As the brass plaque on the side wall states, it was inspired by “the simple elegance lowtown eccentric known as “Superman.” He was a veteran of the Vietnam War exposed of Brooklyn Heights early Greek Revival houses.” to the herbicidal “Agent Orange” chemical used in the war. When drunk, he would dive out of his open window onto the street–and amazingly come out OK. + 290 Hicks Street was where the Lebanese-American philosophical poet, writer and artist Khalil Gibran, 1883-1931, lived when he wrote his best-known work, “The Proph- Cross to the east side of Columbia Place and walk to the end of the block. et,” composed of 26 poetic essays. The book has been translated into more than 20 lan- guages. In September 2007 New York City opened a new public academy in Brooklyn

named after him. The academy has an international theme and includes the study of the + 7, 9, 11 and 13 Columbia Place are survivors of nine such houses known as “Cottage Arabic language. Row” and distinguished for their shallow porches. According to Brooklyn directories from the 1840s, the first residents were, respectively, a painter, a ferry pilot, a milkman + Originally on the empty lot on the east side of the street, the address being295 Hicks and a fur merchant. All four have been extensively changed inside. Street, was a house bought in 1902 for the start of a Lebanese Maronite Catholic church called Our Lady of Lebanon. The name is a title for St. Mary the Virgin used in Lebanon. The church constructed a one-story worship facility on the next lot to the south that was + The four-part, four-story tenement at15, 17, 19 and 21 Columbia Place dating from empty. The church also used these facilities for a parochial school named St. Mary’s. the 1880s replaced the other five cottages. Each part has eight apartments. The ground- Following 1944, when the Maronites bought the former Church of the Pilgrims at Rem- floor spaces were formerly all businesses. The small department store once across the sen and Henry streets and relocated there, the Hicks Street facilities were demolished. street at the corner of Joralemon first opened for business at this location. Formerly owned by Catholic Charities, the lot was used for parking until late in 2012 when a developer bought it at an auction. Three single-family, four-story townhouses + 25 and 27 Columbia Place was called Chapel House when built in 1905 to provide also designed by architect Nikolai Katz are to be built there.

more space for the school in the former Willow Place Chapel to which it was connected. + The winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Rudolph A. Marcus, lived at286 The cost, $20,000, was paid in total by Alfred T. White and his sisters. Christened Co- Hicks Street during 1958-64 when he was on the faculty of the Polytechnic Institute lumbia House a decade later, the addition also served as a clubhouse for the children of Brooklyn. He received the Nobel for the “Marcus theory” of electron transfer, doing who lived in the Riverside Houses. In the deadly flu epidemic of 1918 it became a call most of this research when in this brownstone. He has been at the California Institute of center for medical13 5help, ATLANTIC food and A otherVENUE relief. BR OneOOK ofLYN the epidemic’s NY 1120 victims1 was White’s Technology in Pasadena since 1978. Ph: 347.227.8337 135 ATLANTIC AVENUE BROOKLYN NY 11201 Ph: 347.227.8337-- 1312 1 - -- 1719 1 - - 19 -

Willowtown Walking Tour Guide.indd 18-19 17/05/2017 16:02 + 293 and 291 Hicks Street on the east side and 284, 282, 280, 278 and 276 Hicks Street on the west side are seven of a cluster of a dozen carriage houses built in Willow- We love our Willowtown Neighbors town between 1870 and 1887. All but two survive now as residences. The five on the west side are backed up by three on Willow Place. The three-story No. 282 was the home of the American painter Albert J. Pucci, 1920-2005, who did striking still lifes, landscapes and portraiture. His widow Gora continues to live there. No. 278 was the former car- riage house of Alfred T. White. No. 276 was the former studio of William Zorach, 1887- 1966, a Lithuanian-American sculptor, painter and watercolorist. His wife Marguerite Thompson, 1887-1968, was also an artist. The head of a woman on the dormer was placed there by Zorach.

+ Engine Co. 224 of the New York City Fire Department was built in 1903 with Re- naissance Revival details and copper dormers. The building is a favorite of neighbor- hood children and visitors. The company went to the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 but thankfully suffered no loss of personnel.

+ Early in the 1900s the two brownstones at283 and 281 Hicks Street became St. Chris- topher’s Hospital for Babies. Alfred T. White was also a benefactor of this institution to Carol Ziegler the tune of $30,000. Originally at 277 Hicks Street stood the two lost carriage houses. They were demolished in 1916 for a new building for the hospital.No. 275 served as the nurses’ quarters. In 1923 St. Christopher’s was transferred to the Brooklyn Hospital at & DeKalb and Flatbush avenues. The Hicks Street facilities became St. Charles Orthopedic Hospital, a Roman Catholic institution that closed in the 1980s. Then the present 277 Marty Minkowitz and 275 were redeveloped together as an 18-unit co-op.

+ The house of Philip Livingston that the Joralemons bought was located approximately at No. 277. Following the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, and the defeat by the British of the Continental Army under George Washington, he and his officers met in this house to decide to evacuate across the East River to Manhattan. The victorious Brit- ish used the house as a hospital. The next street to the east, Garden Place, was named for the fact that the rear garden extended to that point. The original structure was destroyed Saluting Our Wonderful by a fire in the 1840s. Willowtown Friends & Neighbors

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