The Real Deal New York

Brooklyn Heights is a waterfront neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, bounded by Old Fulton Street, Atlantic Avenue, Court Street, and the East River. City historians have called the neighborhood AmericaÍs first suburb. Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont and other 19th century landowners developed it into a residential area and marketed merchants and bankers, whose businesses were based in Manhattan, as a rural and disease-free idyll. Residents commuted to the city across the East River by ferry. Columbia Heights, an upscale six-block-long street next to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, is a micro-neighborhood within Brooklyn Heights. Thanks to its stock of landmarked buildings, including those brownstones built for those 19th century merchants, real estate in the neighborhood is some of the most expensive in the borough. When the Landmarks Preservation Commission was established in 1965, Brooklyn Heights was the first area the government agency designated as a historic district. Landmark restrictions account for the dearth of new construction and residences with views of Manhattan command the highest prices. -GB