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ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE WALLABOUT SELF GUIDED WALKING HISTORY FORT GREENE CLINTON HILL TOUR Fort Greene Park & house was one of the many free-standing “villas” built in started to build narrower and taller. Developers were very 1 The Prison Ship Clinton Hill, when it was a suburban retreat. Eventually, the active in Wallabout in the later 1800’s, including Charles Martyrs’ Monument larges homes with their yards were replaced with Pratt. Mr. Pratt, the founder of Pratt Institute, was an rowhouses and the backyards were turned into new active speculative builder and completed his first project at Fort Greene Park was once streets. If you travel one block east to Waverly you’ll find 85-89 Vanderbilt. Lastly, before turning onto Park Avenue, used as a strategic fort many carriage houses, which had once been built in the note 69-71 at the during the Revolutionary “back-yards” of the Clinton Avenue homes. corner, the two War. It was then known as

oldest homes on Fort Putnam and was later Wallabout 4 the block, built in renamed to Fort Greene Historic 1849-1850. during the War of 1812. In District (part 1) 1850, the site of the former Industrial fort was turned into a public This block of 6 Wallabout park. The famed landscape Vanderbilt Avenue architect Fredrick Law is designated by As you walk Olmstead provided a proper New York City as along Park plan for the park in 1867. the Wallabout Avenue, take note Most of his plan was later Historic District of the striking altered in 1908 by McKim, because of its rare building at the corner of Waverly Avenue. Now home to Meade and White. collection of pre- Benjamin Banneker High School, the building was built Civil War homes, originally as a Drake’s Cake factory. This was quite at a In 1908, this architectural including many home in an area rich with sweets and food manufacturers. trio was commissioned to wood frame homes. The area began to become predominately industrial in the design a proper memorial for the 11,500 people who died In 1852, Brooklyn late 19th century with the construction of many grocery in nearby Wallabout Bay on British Prison Ships during the banned wood frame warehouses. These businesses located in Wallabout to be Revolutionary War. The remains of some of these patriots, homes due to fire hazard. Many of the homes in Wallabout close to the Wallabout Market, one of the world’s largest most who died from starvation or disease aboard the ships, are smaller, wood-frame or simple masonry rowhouses. and busiest markets, lasting from 1888-1940. One of the can be found in a crypt below the monument. Many of these were originally built as single-family homes first grocery warehouses building (1890) was that of the

but quickly turned into apartments in the years following van Glahn Brothers at the corner of Washington & Park 2 Richard Wright the Civil War when Brooklyn’s population soared, the (where you’ll find Fresh Fanatic grocery store today). The Residence neighborhood saw more reliable transportation, such as building was eventually converted to manufacturing Famed African-American the Myrtle Avenue El train in 1888, and the growth of the chocolate for the Rockwood Chocolate Factory, the 2nd author lived at 175 Brooklyn Navy Yard. Most homes on this block were once largest chocolatier in America (second to Hershey’s). After Carlton for a brief period home to workers from the nearby Navy Yard. Take special WWII, the factory briefly made Tootsie Rolls.

note of 123 Vanderbilt, in the 1930’s where he The Brooklyn Navy Yard penned Native Son, his former home of Lip Pike, 6 most influential work America’s first Jewish At the corner of Washington and Flushing, the that thrust modern racial professional baseball expansive 300+ acre Brooklyn Navy Yard stretches issues into mainstream player.

American literature. Wallabout Historic 5 District (part 2) 3 Lefferts- Laidlow House As you walk through the Built in 1850, this district, you’ll pass a home is one of the large variety of oldest structures in architectural styles, Wallabout. Clinton including Greek Revival Avenue was (187 Vanderbilt), Gothic originally laid out as Revial (111-111) and a wide boulevard Italianate (127-129). There will also be a variety of sizes. (note how wide the Note the extrememly narrow homes at 104 & 104 1/2. space is still today These homes were built just after the Civil War when between the housing was in high-demand and land prices were buildings) and this extremely high in New York City, hence why builders north. The Navy home may also be the most significant, as it is where he families lived in more Yard began in 1801, wrote the first edition of Leave of Grass, his most famous modest homes, after the young work. He lived here for a brief time in 1855. typically constructed

Federal government Hungry? Myrtle Avenue has dozens of options of wood or basic purchased the land for a meal or a snack. To find a restaurant, visit masonry. Further around Wallabout myrtleavenue.org/dine down the hill, Bay. At its height adjacent to the bay during WWII, the and the Navy Yard, Yard had more than were the places of 70,000 employees. work and industry After closing in that provided jobs for 1969, the City of those who lived up New York took the hill and were control and for owned by those who decades it sat lived at the top (figuratively and literally).

underutilized. Today, it is home to 11 Charles Millard Pratt Mansion more than 300 As part of a Clinton Avenue’s “Millionaire’s Row,” the companies, Charles Millard Pratt mansion was built by the institute- employing over founding Charles Pratt’s son. The mansion, one of the 6,500 people. finest examples of Romanesque Revival architecture in Tenants produced Brooklyn, was designed by William Tubby (the family’s everything from Sweet ‘n Low to bulletproof clothing to favorite architect), and built in 1893. Other Pratt family producing the most television shows and films at Steiner Pratt Institute mansions still exist at 232 Clinton (Charles Pratt, Sr., Studios. Learn more about the Navy Yard at their visitor’s 9 1874), 229 Clinton (Caroline Ladd-Pratt, 1895) and 245 center, BLDG 92. Started by oil tycoon Charles Pratt in 1887, Pratt has Clinton (George Pratt, 1901). been in Clinton Hill for more than 125 years. Their 25-acre

7 Mergenthaler Linotype Complex campus is filled with historic buildings, beautiful Although many mansions along Clinton Avenue were lost After the turn of the 20th-century, the industrial landscaping and an ever-growing world renowned during urban renewal projects of the mid-20th century, the Wallabout district became home to a small company that sculpture garden. Architectural highlights include the Pratt Mansions still exemplify the grandeur and suburban produced linotype machines founded by a German campus’ oldest building, Main Hall, a Romanesque-Revival nature that Clinton Hill once had in the late 19th century. immigrant. Mr. Mergenthaler invented a new machine that building from 1888. Popular 19th-century Brooklyn significantly sped up the time automated printing presses architect William Tubby designed several buildings, operated, revolutionizing printing. Eventually, almost every including the Student Union, South Hall and the Library. newspaper and commercial printers owned a Mergenthaler The library also boasts an interior designed by Tiffany Linotype machines. All of these machines were produced Glass company. Be sure to peek in at the stacks to view in their large complex along Ryerson Street in Wallabout. In their impressive work. For some impressive modern 1909, the first building was constructed, designed by architect, step off the main campus to visit Higgins Hall on Albert Kahn, one of the most St. James Place to see a modern addition by Steven Holl famous industrial architects that connects two 19th-century school buildings. in America, ushering in a Henry & John van Glahn Houses (1892) new style of reinforced- 10 concrete structures that The twin houses at 229-231 Washington help to accommodated 20th century perfectly summarize how the neighborhood developed in industry. the late 19th century. The van Glahn brothers owned a large wholesale food distribution company (see stop #6 for Walt Whitman

more details). Their company’s headquarters, at 8 Residence Washington & Park, was designed by John Glover, who 99 Ryerson is also designed the brothers’ homes two blocks up the hill. Whitman’s only remaining Like many other successful business owners, they chose to

have their house at the “top of the hill,” between Myrtle and home in NYC, a city in which To learn more about local history, visit he had more than a dozen Lafayette. North of Myrtle, the topography begins to slope towards Wallabout Bay. On these blocks, lower-income BLDG 92, the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s addresses. Fortunately, this visitor’s center and museum.