Clinton Hill - An Affluent Neighborhood in BrooklynThe legacy of industrialist and philanthropist Charles Pratt defines Clinton Hill today. The Pratt Institute was founded in 1887 as an art and industrial school and the Brooklyn campus continues to thrive more than 100 years later. The Pratt Institute has more than 3,500 full-time, part-time, and graduate students studying art and design, architecture and library science, and more than 900 full-time and part-time faculty members, with many students and faculty living in the community.
Clinton Hill was discovered in the 1840s by some of Brooklyn's wealthiest residents who began building mansions with lawns, stables, and carriage houses, and in the 1860s by developers who began building row houses for affluent professionals. But it was Pratt who inspired wealthy Brooklynites to build homes.
Apartment buildings replaced some of the stately mansions beginning in the 1920s and 1930s and large homes were cut up into single room rentals in the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1970s, however, the downward trend was reversed as new owners began restoring the historic homes. A portion of the neighborhood became a historic district in 1981 and many buildings have landmark status. | More Local Area InformationSo, why Brooklyn? Fuhgeddaboudit! Ask any Brooklynite and you’ll have a hard time convincing them that Brooklyn isn’t the best place on earth t... Read moreDecades ago, Brooklyn, New York was a city that looked with nostalgia to the glory days of Coney Island, the Victorian Gold Coast, and the Brookly... Read moreThe pristine municipal Dyker Beach Golf Course, 242-acre Dyker Beach Park on Gravesend Bay, seasonal events at the 8.5 acre McKinley Park, and, o... Read moreFor more than 100 years, Coney Island has captured the imagination of people worldwide who are familiar with its history as a major resort tha... Read moreSurrounded by the ocean on three sides and protected from outsiders by two secured entrances, Sea Gate is an exclusive community featuring privat... Read moreFor years a sleepy neighborhood sandwiched between Park Slope, Cobble Hill, and downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill now stands at the epicenter o... Read moreMidwood is noted for having one of the largest number of single-family, detached homes in Brooklyn as well as 18,000 shade trees. Its graciou... Read moreEast New York was primarily a rural community in the 19th Century but flirted with industrial development in 1835 when a prosperous merchant name... Read moreFollowing the opening of the Brooklyn, Bath, and West End Railroad in 1885, real estate developer James Lynch bought land from the Benson family an... Read moreAs Bob Dylan wrote, “the times they are a-changin', ” and no where is that phrase more evident in Brooklyn than in the neighborhood o... Read moreOnce a decaying warehouse and manufacturing district, the fortunes of DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) began to change when artist... Read moreGrand Army Plaza, which Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed in the style of dramatic European plazas like the Parisian Etoile where th... Read moreThe rise of Greenpoint mirrors the rise of industrialization in the United States. Beginning in the mid-19th Century firms based in Greenpoin... Read moreThe cool ocean breezes and location Sheepshead Bay an ideal destination for tourists. Hotels began arriving in the early 1800s, and tourists als... Read moreOld timers in Windsor Terrace speak of the days when Irish Catholic families were so large that they filled entire pews at Holy Name Roman Catholi... Read moreLady Deborah Moody is the founder of Gravesend in the 17th Century, a wealthy widow and the leader of Anabaptists who settled the community in 1643... Read moreSunset Park is a neighborhood located in the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. Sunset Park is a city within a city that features many distinc... Read moreIn the mid-19th Century, thanks to the Rockaway Beach Railroad, Canarsie became a beach resort with hotels, beer gardens, and vaudeville house... Read moreIn the mid to late 19th Century, prosperous industrialists and businessmen seeking refuge from the summer heat flocked to Bay Ridge and buil... Read moreAs in the neighboring communities, artists and their shows have arrived hip stores are springing up between the Montrose and Morgan Avenue L subwa... Read moreWealthy New Yorker Austin Corbin founded the resort of Manhattan Beach after buying 500 acres of property and building two elegant hotels—th... Read more | 
