
History & Culture
Every block of Brooklyn Heights has reminders of the city’s past and its cultural riches. From the pulpit at Plymouth Church, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher rallied abolitionists. At the eastern end of Brooklyn Heights, Borough Hall was the seat of the independent city of Brooklyn for the first 50 years of its existence, until it merged into New York City in 1898. Poet Walt Whitman walked these streets, novelist Thomas Wolfe lived on Montague Terrace, and Bob Dylan memorialized Montague Street in song. Along the western edge of the Heights, the Promenade has stunning views of downtown Manhattan and New York Harbor, while below it is the most notable contemporary addition to the area, the new Brooklyn Bridge Park. If all of this inspires you to dive deeper into the borough’s history, the Brooklyn Historical Society is at 128 Pierrepont.