Get a New Perspective on Brooklyn Heights History With a Special BHA Walking Tour Series

Sixty years ago, walking tours threaded through Brooklyn Heights, part of the early preservationist’s toolkit to raise awareness of the rich architectural legacy of the neighborhood. The publication of Clay Lancaster’s architectural guidebook “Old Brooklyn Heights” in the fall of 1961 was another important milestone in the fight for preservation. The Brooklyn Heights Association is marking the anniversary, and the walking tour tradition, by launching a new series of guided tours with a contemporary perspective.

Led by four experienced storytellers, the walks will tread some familiar streets but focus on the complex history of the neighborhood, exploring the people and places that would not have been celebrated on those early tours. Participants will get a 21st century view of the neighborhood’s ties to women’s suffrage, abolitionism and the Queer community while learning more about the overlooked architecture of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The tours take place across four Saturdays in October starting at 11 a.m., rain or shine. First up, on October 2, is the historian and guide Lucie Levine with “Brownstone and Ballot Boxes: Suffrage and Women’s Activism in Brooklyn Heights.” On October 9, Brownstoner’s own Suzanne Spellen will be leading “Brooklyn Heights: African American Abolition and Self Determination.” Join architectural historian Matt Postal on October 16 for “Beyond Brownstone: Overlooked Buildings in Brooklyn Heights” and then the series wraps up October 24 with writer Hugh Ryan and “A Queer History Walking Tour of Brooklyn Heights.”

The groups for each tour will be of a limited size and tickets, which are $25 for BHA members and $35 for non-members, are required. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the event page online.

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