Hear “Bedford-Stuyvesant,” (or possibly just its nickname, “Bed-Stuy,”) and you’ll probably think: brownstones. The Stuyvesant Heights historic district of Macdonough, Bainbridge and Chauncey is landmarked — Lewis Avenue between Macdonough and Decatur was once named the “Greenest Block in Brooklyn” — but there are beautiful historic brownstones scattered throughout Bed-Stuy. Many of these highly coveted Bedford-Stuyvesant townhouses have their original fireplaces, crown moldings, and shutters. Often they are set up as two- or three-family houses, so that Bedford-Stuyvesant renters as well as buyers can enjoy their historical charm.

More There are bits of the past everywhere in Bedford-Stuyvesant: shopkeeper F.W. Woolworth’s brownstone at 209 Jefferson Avenue; the Siloam Presbyterian Church, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and four wood frame houses (both single-family and multi-family) from Weeksville, a community of African-American freemen set up in the 1830s. But if you’re a modernist, don’t worry: Bedford-Stuyvesant has post-war buildings too! In the Lofts on Dekalb, for instance, you can find duplex condos in Bed-Stuy which offer oversized windows, balconies, whirlpool baths, and mezzanine-level sleeping lofts. The architectural titan I.M. Pei designed the Center for Art and Culture of Bedford-Stuyvesant, which is housed in a former milk-bottling plant and is now home to paintings, a writer’s collaborative, and a dance company. Overall Bedford-Stuyvesant’s present is very diverse and vibrant, partly because of the Brooklyn area’s great subway access on the A, C, G, J and M trains. Less