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    This post courtesy of Explore Brooklyn, an all-inclusive guide to the businesses, neighborhoods, and attractions that make Brooklyn great.

    While Brooklyn is a place of constant flux, the savvy Brooklynite knows where to find remnants of its historical past. Here are five historic Brooklyn buildings that are still standing, despite the incredible changes that are happening all around them.

    Brooklyn Borough Hall
    Opened in 1851, Brooklyn Borough Hall was originally the City Hall of the former City of Brooklyn, before it was a part of New York City. In 1898, the consolidation went into effect, and this impressive Greek Revival structure became known as Borough Hall. It still houses the offices of the Borough President today and is protected as a New York City landmark.

    Read more about Brooklyn Borough Hall here.

    Photo by Wally Gobetz via Flickr.

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      All right, kids… get off the swings and the jungle gyms. It’s time for your parents to play.

      On Saturday, June 6, The Old Stone House in Park Slope’s Washington Park will be holding a fundraiser for the maintenance and upkeep of the adjacent JJ Byrne Playground. Parents at Play, a benefit for grown-ups, will bring together hundreds of local Brooklyn parents and friends for food, cocktails and fun. Parents will have the playground to themselves from 7-10 p.m. (It’s about time!)

      Photographer Marc Goldberg will be on hand taking candids of the festivities, and there will also be a funky Photo Booth from ibidmobile.net. After School Special, a band featuring Park Slope locals, will perform.

      The Old Stone House is a reconstructed 1699 Dutch farmhouse, part of the Historic House Trust of NYC and site of the battle of Brooklyn, August 1776 and is now home to over 2000 park users a day. 

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        This post courtesy of Explore Brooklyn, an all-inclusive guide to the businesses, neighborhoods, and attractions that make Brooklyn great.


        The Revolutionary War makes many think of New England, but a number of significant battles actually happened throughout New York. Brooklyn, in particular, was home to many historic war sites, buildings and battles, many of which have been memorialized. For Memorial Day weekend, we present these five Brooklyn Revolutionary War sites that are worth the visit for any history buff, or any Brooklynite who had no idea how monumental a role the area played in the war.

        Map of the Battle of Long Island courtesy of the Library of Congress via mountvernon.org.

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          Transit-themed art exhibit Brooklyn Utopias: In TRANSITion brings together 19 artists and designers, who explored subjects such as weaknesses in the city’s transportation system, rising transportation costs, and “transportation deserts” in the outer boroughs. The artists also imagined ideal urban transit systems and alternate solutions to the city’s problematic subways and commuter trains. The above photo shows a detail from Martin McCormack’s digital collage, “A Proposal for a Rail Link Connecting Midtown Manhattan, 2 Pulaski St, Brooklyn and Coney Island.” The opening reception is tonight from 630 to 9 pm at the Old Stone House, 336 3rd Street in Park Slope.

          Photo by Brooklyn Utopias

           

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