houses from the 1850s still stand toward the end of the block.
Turn right on Smith Street. Bar Tabac, at the right corner, was an early factor in Smith Street’s reputation as a “restaurant row,” and the French bistro has remained while many other restaurants on the street have come and gone.
The F/G subway station is at Bergen Street.
Points of Interest
Barclays Center 620 Atlantic Ave.; 917-618-6100, barclayscenter.com
Williamsburgh Savings Bank clocktower 1 Hanson Place
Brooklyn Academy of Music 30 Lafayette Ave.; 718-636-4100, bam.org
Roulette 38 3rd Ave.; 917-267-0363, roulette.org
Brooklyn Inn 148 Hoyt St.; 718-522-2525
The Invisible Dog 51 Bergen St., 347-560-3641, theinvisibledog.org
Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill
6
Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill:
Standing the Test of Time
Above: Within the Carroll Gardens Historic District, on Carroll Street
BOUNDARIES: Atlantic Ave., Hoyt St., 2nd Pl., Hicks St.
DISTANCE: 2.9 miles
SUBWAY: F or G to Carroll St. (President St. exit)
The “Carroll” comes from Declaration of Independence signatory Charles Carroll; the “Gardens” from the unusually large plots of land bestowed on each house in an 1846 design for the neighborhood conceived by surveyor Richard Butts. Those deep front yards were well cared for over the years by garden-loving Italians, who moved to the area for the longshoreman work and were the dominant immigrant group here throughout the 20th century. Today most parts of Carroll Gardens are unrecognizable as a working-class community, as its proximity to Manhattan and abundance of brownstones have attracted an upscale populace. Cobble Hill, which borders Carroll Gardens to the north, first emerged as a fashionable residential district in the mid–19th century. A plethora of specialty shops and dining destinations that opened over the past 15 years have added a new facet to these neighborhoods rich in historic homes and churches along tree-lined streets.
Walk Description
Exit the subway at Smith and President Streets, and head west on President beside
Cross Smith and walk straight onto President Street. You’re now within Carroll Gardens’ small historic district, developed entirely between 1869 and 1884.
Turn right on Hoyt Street. Those first four brick rowhouses on your left are the oldest homes in the historic district.
Turn right on Carroll Street. All the houses on this block date from 1871–74, except for #297 and #299, which were built in 1986 to fill a gap left after a former Norwegian church burned down.
Turn left on Smith Street. When the Gowanus Canal—located on the other side of Hoyt—was thriving as a commercial waterway in the first half of the 20th century, this was a strip of taverns and rooming houses for laborers.
Turn right on 2nd Place. To your left is a community garden on MTA-owned land.
Turn right on Court Street, then left on 1st Place.
Make a right at Clinton Street, across from an 1856 church that has been converted from Westminster Presbyterian to the Norwegian Seamen’s Church to apartments. At the next corner on your left, the F. G. Guido Funeral Home occupies an 1840 mansion that’s considered one of the city’s finest examples of Greek Revival architecture. Diagonally across the Carroll Street intersection stands St. Paul’s Episcopal. Its architect was one of its parishioners, Richard M. Upjohn, a Gothic master like his father, Richard Upjohn.
Make a right on President, where you pass a variety of freestanding residences and apartment houses before returning to brownstone uniformity. The magnificent 1893 home at #255 used to be the rectory of South Congregational Church—hence, the churchlike windows on the top level. Next to it, the church’s ladies parlor (1889) has also become a private home, while the 1850s church itself was turned into an apartment co-op in the early 1980s. Take note of the twisted-rope shape of the property’s lampposts, an homage to the neighborhood’s maritime ties.
Turn left on Court Street, where G. Esposito, Monteleone’s, and Marco Polo preserve the traditional Italian flavor on a block also home to newer businesses like a yoga studio and fro-yo joint. And what could better represent the upscaling of the neighborhood than the big new residential complex on your left past Union Street? On the right, the
