MOOKIE, A CHILD BRIDE & A PET HORSE
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Not much exciting took place at 173 Stuyvesant Avenue throughout its 140+ year history – unless you count 1) Spike Lee’s movie, “Do The Right Thing,” 2) a pet horse, or 3) a child bride. MOOKIE’S CRIB The brownstone where director Spike Lee’s character “Mookie” lived in the 1989 movie, “Do The Right Thing,” 173 Stuyvesant Avenue sits at the corner of Quincy Street. Filmed at various additional locations in Bedford-Stuyvesant – but mostly on Stuyvesant Avenue – “Do The Right Thing” was a commercial success that featured the debuts of Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. A few years back, Spike Lee was in the news not only for his vilification of his old neighborhood’s “gentrifiers,” but also for his own request for a change in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Lee saw that change after he lobbied to have Stuyvesant Avenue – between Lexington Avenue And Quincy Street – renamed “Do The Right Thing Way.” YES, VIRGINIA, THERE WAS A HISTORY BEFORE SPIKE LEE Built at some point before 1877, it was listed for rent that year as a “partially furnished,” “two story basement brown stone house.” The owners included a rather interestingly worded phrase in this ad in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, stating that they were willing to “let the whole or part […]
