South of Division Street: Part I
While Mrs. B and our eldest were grabbing some Z’s on Saturday afternoon, we popped Brownstoner Jr. into the Baby Bjorn and set out to explore South South Williamsburg. Though we’ve been living in South Williamsburg, just north of the bridge, for the past two years, we had never gone on foot into the largely…
While Mrs. B and our eldest were grabbing some Z’s on Saturday afternoon, we popped Brownstoner Jr. into the Baby Bjorn and set out to explore South South Williamsburg. Though we’ve been living in South Williamsburg, just north of the bridge, for the past two years, we had never gone on foot into the largely Hasidic neighborhood south of Division Street. Although we have been uniformly unimpressed with any buildings the Hasidic folks have had a hand in building themselves, there are a number of beautiful nineteenth-century structures, most of them worse for the wear, that still stand amid the squat, window-guarded facades that dominate the landscape. Throughout the week we’ll be posting pictures from our walking tour, most of which took place on Bedford Avenue but included some forays down side streets.
There are (or I guess were) some very nice buildings in that part of Williamsburg. The building at the top left could be anywhere in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill – in fact the architecture of south Williamsburg has much more to do with those nabes than with anything north of Division.
In fact, I’m not sure that area between Division and Flushing would have been called Williamsburg historically (Division was the line between the village/city of Williamsburg and the City of Brooklyn).
And technically, if you live north of the Bridge I’d say you live on the southside (traditionally hispanic), vs. south williamsburg (heavily hasidic).