Crown Height & Bed Sty - Walking Around
Huby and I are going to spend some time walking around crown heights and bed sty this weekend. Besides the obvious landmarked streets (I have maps of both landmarked areas), and my trusty AIA Guide. What are other great streets to walk on? What are the commercial streets? What about a nice place for lunch,…
Huby and I are going to spend some time walking around crown heights and bed sty this weekend.
Besides the obvious landmarked streets (I have maps of both landmarked areas), and my trusty AIA Guide. What are other great streets to walk on? What are the commercial streets? What about a nice place for lunch, dinner, a good bakery, dry cleaners, supermarkets. etc. What streets shouldn’t we walk on..wink, wink -(we’ll walk on them also).
We’re interested in the commerical streets, to see what the nabes have to offer. We also love architecture…and a good chocolate cake.
I find the best way to figure out the main streets in a neighborhood is by using Yelp. Just goto http://www.yelp.com, make sure New York, NY is in the location field at the top (and leave the other field blank) and click ‘search’.
Then use the interactive map along the right side to maneuver it to enclose the specific area/neighborhood you want and then click ‘Redo Search in Map Area’ – a bunch of red flags will show up on the map and it should become quickly obvious which streets in that neighborhood are the commercial streets — zoom in until you can read the street names.
For more helpful tips like these, lookout for http://www.borobound.com – coming soon!!
Bayridgegirl, how did it go? Would love to get your opinions and observations.
BRG: The museum you mentioned is the Jacques Marchais, opened in 1947. It’s at 338 Lighthouse Avenue, Tel: 718-987-3500 – http://www.tibetanmuseum.org/ It has a lovely garden, and an eclectic collection. If both architecture and Tibetan art interests you, be sure to visit the Newark (NJ) Museum sometime (and eat in nearby Portuguese Ironbound). The Newark has one of the largest collections of Tibetan art in the Western hemisphere, many other beautiful galleries, and is built over (yes, over) and around the 1885 Ballantine Mansion–with beautifully preserved architecture, art and period furniture: newarkmuseum.org/PermanentGalleries.html
ER and Kid…also, thanks. I’m sure we’ll find someplace to eat or maybe we’ll nosh at a few.
Last time, we were in crown heights, we crossed Eastern and ate at a Kosher place. This time I Want to stay on the Northern side of Eastern. I hate to admit, but I didn’t care for the Crown heights area south of Eastern. It was void architecturally, unless we missed something.
MM…Thank you, Thank you. I just finished highlighting and creating a route on a map, taking your streets and points of interest, combining that with the AIA guide’s points of interest.
We’re going to drive to each nabe, park and walk.
We’ve been through both neighborhoods several times, but really want to spend some time gawking at the architecture. In our past ‘trips’ to these nabes, we meet some wonderful people and a couple of shady characters (one was a guy, who sent us on a hunt on Macon Street for a house for sale by his cousin, he couldn’t remember the addrsss, but he gave us his cousin’s number and we could only call during certain hours…hhhmm.
Walking is not a problem for us. The most we’ve walked in one day is 22 miles. We’ve walked most of Manhattan (90%), alot of brooklyn, some of queens and the bronx…staten Island, we’ve been to the historic areas. In SI, we walked past a lighthouse that was on someone’s private property, right next to their house. We also stumbled upon a Tibetan Museum which was cool (wish I could remember where they were). One day we’ll explore SI in detail.
Not sure if we’re going to hit CH or BS and which day. Right now, I’m more interested in Crown Heights.
If anybody this weekend in BS or CH, sees a couple walking around with a map, guide book and gawking, photographing. Say hi, we’re friendly.
ER, you are correct. I can’t remember everything in one post. Brooks Valley is a great place for a tasty meal, as is Common Grounds for coffee and a snack.
Kidbklyn, you are also correct. Unfortunately, most of those places are take out. I was tending my remarks as if I was walking around and desperately needed a place to sit down and rest, as well as eat.
I would love to find a great Caribbean place with a dining room, in CH. Any suggestions?
And don’t forget the food. Crown Heights = Caribbean food. Various distinct dishes from each island sold at representative restaurants. Rotis, patties, stews, jerk chicken,cod fish cakes, peas and rice, bulla cake, pone, coconut drops, currant rolls, sorrel, mauby etc., etc. Too spicy? You can go Glatt Kosher on Kingston Av. south of Eastern Parkway ( closed on Saturdays ). babka, challah bread, roasted chicken, matzoh ball soup, mushrooms and barley, roasted potatoes, kosher pizza.
Montrose- what about all the little restaurants that opened in Bed-stuy, like on Tompkins st.?
BRG, I hope you and the hubby have hiking boots, there is a lot to see. Each of these neigborhoods has much to see, and because both are quite large, a lot of the goodies are far from each other. When Bed Stuy has their house tours, they rent buses to ease the distance. If we had the money to do that in Crown Heights, we’d do it too.
That said, here goes: Bed Stuy – architecturally, the Nostrand Ave A stop lets you out a block from the Alhambra and Renaissance apt buildings, on Nostrand. Some of Montrose Morris’ best work, and near some of the best blocks in BS. I’d walk down Hancock, especially between Nostrand and Thompkins. Also Jefferson, same blocks. MM was busy here, as were a lot of other greats. The AIA guide is handy here. That puts you near the fantastic Boys High School on Marcy/Putnam. I’d walk down Marcy to McDonough, and you keep walk east. This entire street is also first rate, with fine homes and churches. The restaurant row in BS is Lewis Ave, you will be passing Peaches, Bread Stuy, etc as you continue one more block to Stuyvesant. Akwaaba Mansion, beautiful St. Phillips Episcopal Church, and some fantastic homes are on this block. You will be right around the corner from those magnificent limestones on Stuy, like the one Babs Corcoran just got, and the homes here, and on all of the side streets to Fulton Street are quite beautiful.
If you wanted to see Crown Heights, you could subway to the same station and head the other way (south) across Atlantic Ave. Dean Street, 2 blocks from Atlantic is architecturally significant between Kingston and Bedford. On the Bedford side is Grant Square, with the Armory, the majestic Imperial Apartments (MM again), the Union League Club all in that immediate area. The architecture of Dean St. is great, and the block between Nostrand and NY is often photographed as an iconic CH street. Beautiful blocks are found on Prospect Place and Park Place between Nostrand and New York, and extremely fine apartment buildings line New York and Brooklyn Avenues between Bergen and Sterling.
Some of the best churches are in CH, St. Bartholowmew’s on Pacific and Bedford, Union United Methodist and the Church of Christ Scientist, now the Hebron SDA church on the corner of Dean and NY. One of my absolute favorites, the enormous Methodist Home, a half block of Victorian spendor is on NY between Park Pl and Sterling. Further east is the Children’s Museum and Brower Park on St. Marks, leading to our “millionaire’s row”, St. Marks between Brooklyn and Kingston. All of the area is dotted with free standing mansions, blocks of excellent row houses, and really good apartment buildings. You won’t be bored.
For food, you’d have to walk or bus west to Franklin and Classon. There are several good restaurants and cafe’s there, and if you walk, perhaps down Sterling, or any block, the architecture is still great. Crow Hill, the section of CH between Bedford and Classon is also very architecturally fine.
That was a very simplistic tour, but you could honestly spend a day in each neighborhood. You should roam around both this weekend, but come back for the house tours. Crown Heights North tour is Oct 4th, Bed Stuy’s is 2 weeks later, on Oct.18th.