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The beautiful Brooklyn Heights. Since 1834, this neighborhood has been a special area of the borough, originally referred to as Brooklyn Village.
Low-rise architecture, specifically the many pre-Civil War brownstones and rowhouses, line the blocks. It is the home of the first art gallery in #Brooklyn, the sightseeing Promenade, and the site of many old and notable religious/educational institutions.
Brooklyn Heights occupies a plateau on a high bluff that rises sharply from the river's edge, known to the Lenape Natives as "Ihpetonga", or "the high sandy bank". Ferries travelling across the East River were running as early as 1642, helping the lowland area to thrive, especially the farms and factories.
With the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, and the subway line in 1908, the neighborhood's development took rise. It was advertised as the"first commuter suburb" for Manhattanites, being easier and faster to get to Manhattan by ferry than it was to commute from upper Manhattan.
"The resulting ease of transportation into the neighborhood and the perceived loss of the specialness and 'quality' began to drive out the merchants and patricians who lived there; in time their mansions were divided to become apartment houses and boarding houses. Artists began to move into the neighborhood, as well as writers, and a number of large hotels were constructed."
Throughout the 1800s, Brooklyn Heights remained an elegant neighborhood, and became Brooklyn's cultural and financial center. By the mid-1950s, a new generation of property owners had begun moving into the Heights, pioneering the "Brownstone Revival" by buying and renovating pre-Civil War period houses.
As a result, preservationists worked to protect the neighborhood from unchecked development by the creation of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, the first such district in New York City.
This preservation was cemented in the following decades by the growing gentrification of the neighborhood into a "firmly middle-class area"; a home to local shops, eateries, bars, schools, and friendly neighbors, making it known as "one of New York City's most pleasant and attractive neighborhoods."