SNEAK PEEK OF OUR TOURS
From Bush Terminal to
Industry City
Located along the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Industry City was built as part of the massive 19th century industrial complex known as Bush Terminal. The complex was developed as a combined manufacturing, storage, and distribution facility and transportation mecca for an evolving turn-of-the century city. The innovative, self-contained “Industrial City” as it was coined helped put Brooklyn on the map as an international manufacturing hub. Today’s Industry City has been reactivated as a multipurpose manufacturing, light industrial, and arts campus. Discover this architectural landmark and see how it continues to play a role in this vibrant community.
Welcome to
Brighton Beach
Known locally as Little Odessa, Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach has a long and richly-cultured history as home to immigrants resettling from Eastern Europe and Asia. Learn how an area initially developed as a family playground by the sea, filled with hotels and vaudeville theaters, gave way to a middle class neighborhood of Jewish families relocating from neighborhoods around the City and around the world. Hear accounts of those who lived and worked in Brighton Beach, and see why this lively community continues to attract those looking to prosper in their new country.
The Lost Seaside Resorts: Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach has a well-known history as Brooklyn's Little Odessa, home to immigrants resettling from Eastern Europe and Asia. However, this neighborhood enclave began as a family playground by the sea, filled with Victorian hotels, bathhouses, racetracks, casinos, and vaudeville theaters, all of which hosted dignitaries and celebrities looking to escape the heat and prying eyes of city summers. Learn about the history of this lost seaside resort, the lives of those who played there, and the stories of those who made and lost their fortunes there.
Welcome to
Bay Ridge
Originally developed as a summer retreat for wealthy industrialists that later became an enclave for middle-class families, today’s Bay Ridge was formed by changing tastes in transportation. Explore the Brooklyn neighborhood's gas-lit brownstones, Victorian mansions, pre-war apartment buildings, and panoramic views of New York Harbor from four miles of park-lined shorefront. Highlights of this tour include the Narrows Botanical Gardens and Owl’s Head Park, the former Bliss estate, as well as the “Revolutionary Cemetery,” an 18th century family burial plot tucked into a residential block.
Discover Lady Moody's Gravesend
One of the six original towns that would later become the City of Brooklyn, Gravesend was established in the 1640s as a lone settlement of British among Native American and Dutch populations. However, its significance goes far beyond its colonial history. Discover how Lady Deborah Moody’s sanctuary settlement went on to influence south Brooklyn’s independent nature for centuries. While the neighborhood has changed significantly since Moody’s time, there are surprising remnants of the 17th century planned town, including the original grid and cemetery.
Bay Ridge:
A Wealthy Enclave
Dive deeper into this Brooklyn neighborhood's late 20th century history as a summer retreat for wealthy New Yorkers looking to escape the city and recreate. Today, it is still dotted with the Victorian mansions built to take advantage of the expansive views, as well as more modest architectural treasures that filled the neighborhood as the city's middle class developed. Highlights of this tour include a "cottage" mansion, a monastery perched on a ridge, the monumental Fort Hamilton High School, and the site of former summer recreation clubs that lined the shores.