WATCHING THE (HOUSE) DETECTIVES…
Have you ever wondered about the people who once lived in your house? Where did they sleep? How did they dress? Were they bankers, doctors, carpenters, engineers…? What were the hopes that encouraged them to go on and the secrets that kept them awake at night? Well, if you live at 738 Macon Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn – which is a decidedly very low probability – then you are privy to the answers to these questions. And more. Brownstone Detectives, an historical investigation team, published 738 Macon Street: The Story of a House, a 170-page full color coffee table book laying out the history of the brownstone house at that address. Published in 2014, it was their first book of many others to follow. Since then, they have gone on to publish more than 50 others for homeowners in Brooklyn and Manhattan. And they plan to expand soon to the remaining boroughs and eventually to the tri-state region. Their first book – like the many that have come after it – spanned the ownership of the house for many generations, including the ownership of the land that the house was built on back to the time of the original Dutch settlers. The story is revealed in a manner that seamlessly weaves the individual owners’ stories into one continuous and flowing narrative. Rich, colorful pictures, ancestral documents, newspaper clippings, and architectural records fill the almost 200-page hardbound document. FALLING INTO HISTORY… Brian Hartig, the chief Brownstone Detective, fell […]
