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Splendor and Scandal in Brooklyn Heights: A Self Guided Tour

Splendor and Scandal in Brooklyn Heights: A Self Guided Tour

Overview

Is Brooklyn Heights the most charming neighborhood in New York City? A remarkable number of celebrity residents seem to think so.

No wonder this elegant brownstone wonderland was the first district in the city to be awarded historic landmark status. The leafy enclave where Gilded Age bankers and merchants built handsome townhouses has also been called ”America’s First Suburb”.

On this self-guided walking tour, you’ll hear about the poets, preachers, abolitionists, suffragists and free love advocates who made the Heights a hotbed of progressive thought. The tour starts outside Plymouth Church, the “Grand Central Depot of the Underground Railroad”. From there, you’ll hear about Reverend Henry Ward Beecher – “the most famous man in America” – and how he profoundly transformed religion, helped Abe Lincoln win the Civil War, did a little gun running, and slept with the wives of his best friends.

City: Brooklyn

Sun 22 Jun

Other dates

You can choose the date already on the booking website

Starting at $14.99

Make a reservation

Sun 22 Jun

Starting at $14.99

Make a reservation

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What's Included

Lifetime access to this tour in English before your booking date and after it

Offline access to audio, maps, and geodata

App for Android and iOS

Flexibility to explore at your own pace with a self-guided GPS tour

Directions to the starting point so that when you’re in the right place, the tour will start

Additional Info

Wheelchair accessible
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Service animals allowed
Public transportation options are available nearby
Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
The total tour time includes walking the route and passing by the attractions

What To Expect

Brooklyn Heights Promenade

There is no better view of Manhattan than from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. But while other just look, you hear it's story brought to life, and stand in the spot where Washington Roebling supervised construction of the Brooklyn Bridge by telescope from his bed after becoming paralyzed on the job.

Plymouth Church

Known as "The Grand Central Depot of the Underground Railroad." It was in here that Reverend Henry Ward Beecher -- "The Most Famous Man in America" -- held a live slave auction, raising money set a young woman free. This tour follows Beecher's story including his trial for adultery that gripped America.

Brooklyn Cat Cafe

All-volunteer woman-run nonprofit that helps homeless cats find furr-ever friends cats. For a small admission fee you can hang out with the feline residents

St. Ann & The Holy Trinity

Designed by Minard Leferve, this gothic masterpiece contains stained glass windows so extraordinary that one is now displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You'll hear the church's dramatic backstory, from abandoned wreck in the 70's to incubator of a leading arts program and New York's finest prep school.

Montague Street

Brooklyn Height's main shopping street, home to the original Haagen Dazs, the Cat Cafe and the historic Heights Casino, with America's first indoor tennis courts.

Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic

The first Romanesque church in America with bronze doors salvaged from the SS Normandie which sank dramatically in New York Harbor.

Brooklyn Historical Society

Now called the Center for Brooklyn History, this handsome Romanesque revival library was designed by George Post, "Father of the Tall Building."

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