Early 19th Century New York
Village of Brooklyn
Early Dutch Village
Although there are several plausible theories on the origin of the place name; an anglization of Breukelen, a town between Amsterdam and Utrecht is widely accepted. Afterall the shores of New York harbor were first settled by the Dutch and their influence persisted well into the English era.
The City Grows
The townhouse lined streets of Brooklyn Heights preserve the character of 19th century New York.
By the early 19th century while commercial activities were thriving in lower Manhattan, living conditions had degraded and lethal epidemics were becoming too common. There was little fresh water and what there was had been polluted with the waste stream.
The population first shifted north along the Hudson. That settlement, which came to be known as Greenwich Village. grew around what had been a country estate far removed from the city growing at the foot of the island.
Brooklyn - New York's first suburb
With the establishment of Robert Fulton’s ferry company in 1814 the Brooklyn shore became a viable residential community. Brooklyn Heights developed on the bluff above the shoreline. What had been mostly farmland slowly blossomed into the village of Brooklyn.
19th Century Townhouses
The earliest row houses, from the early 19th century up to the 1850s were of brick; four stories tall with an additional basement. Lots of twenty to 30 feet were laid in a grid by the early developers of the area,
Around the end of the 1840s a brown colored sandstone, quarried in Portland, Connecticut, became more prominent in the market. The industrial building boom had begun and new “luxury” townhouses of the era featured “Brownstone” facades. These area are often referred to today as Brownstone Brooklyn which encompass not only Brooklyn Heights but Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Fort Greene and Park Slope.