Jane's Carousel

Jane's Carousel (formerly Idora Park Merry-Go-Round) is a hand-carved wooden carousel that now resides in Brooklyn Bridge Park in DUMBO.

It was built in 1922 for the Idora Park amusement park in Youngstown, Ohio by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 6, 1975, and was, in fact, the first carousel to receive such designation. It features 48 hand-carved horses.

In 1984, it was sold in auction for $385,000 to Brooklyn residents David and Jane Walentas, a former art director for Estee Lauder. Jane slowly restored the merry-go-round over the next 22 years - it had its first reveal on October 13, 2006, where it was rechristened "Jane's Carousel". In 2007, Jane agreed to donate the carousel, along with funding to build a pavilion and $3.45 million toward landscaping and improvements, to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation.

On September 16, 2011, the carousel officially opened to the public for the first time in 27 years in its new home in Bridge Park at 65 Water Street in Brooklyn. It sits on the western edge of the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park inside its glass walled pavilion, which was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel. The carousel is open Wednesday - Monday from 11am-7pm during the Summer and Thursday - Sunday from 12pm-6pm in winter. Stop by to catch a ride while taking in the stunning Manhattan skyline.

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The BellTel Lofts in Downtown Brooklyn

The 27-story brick building at 365 Bridge Street, home to the BellTel Lofts Condominium, was built in 1929 as the Long Island headquarters of the New York Telephone Company. Back then, Brooklyn had about 446,000 telephones, a number that was growing at an astronomical rate of +28,000 per year. The building, at Bridge and Willoughby Streets, straddles what is now Metro Tech near Flatbush Ave., and was considered Brooklyn’s first skyscraper.

An Art Deco masterpiece, the building was designed by Ralph Walker, voted architect of the century by the American Institute of Architects in 1957 for his contribution to modern design. As the building rose in height, the tiered design gave the illusion that the towers grew in the air. It cost over $5.5 million to build – a massive sum in 1929. The building was voted a landmark in 2004, and today, it’s home to the BellTel Lofts Condominium.

The condominium’s completion in 2008 is a definitive example of “adaptive reuse,” an architectural term that refers to the re-design of historic structures to fit modern needs after a building’s initial purpose has become outdated. As a historic conversion, many have claimed it deserves national recognition. The developer – Clipper Equities – was highly committed to historic preservation. The architects he hired to oversee the restoration - New York-based Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB) – were also behind the restoration of Grand Central Terminal and notable residential projects like the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg. BBB is renowned for their work in the adaptive reuse category. 365 Bridge Street is now home to 250 apartments with over 100 different floor plans.

Downtown Brooklyn has seen huge change over the past 11 years since the BellTel Lofts completion. All major subway lines are within blocks of the building. Supermarkets, hotels and restaurants came slowly but today the area has emerged as a major cultural, shopping and foodie destination. Countless other condominiums have risen nearby. BBB’s director said in a 2011 interview: “It has been great thrill… I never thought I’d live to see the day people in huge quantities lived in downtown Brooklyn. There is new street life. Investment, which wasn’t there for decades, is prevalent. The renaissance is really about the entire area.”

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Green-wood Cemetery

Founded in 1838 and now a National Historic Landmark, Green-Wood Cemetery was one of the first rural cemeteries in America. Green-Wood is comprised 478 acres of hills, valleys, and pond, throughout which exists one of the largest outdoor collections of 19th- and 20th-century statuary and mausoleums. Four seasons of beauty from century-and-a-half-old trees offer a peaceful oasis to visitors, as well as its nearly 600,000 permanent residents, including Leonard Bernstein, Boss Tweed, Charles Ebbets, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Horace Greeley, Civil War generals, baseball legends, politicians, artists, entertainers and inventors.

Two decades after the cemetery was opened, the United States found itself embroiled in war, and Brooklyn, like most cities across the nation, found itself scrambling to provide adequate burial spots for the seemingly endless stream of Civil War casualties. They established a “soldier’s lot” that provided free burial for those killed in the war and by 1865 more than 200 soldiers and sailors, many of them unknown, were buried there. In 2002, the cemetery launched its Civil War project, which has located the graves of more than 5,000 men who fought in the Civil War and installed new, permanent markers for each one.

Despite the brutal conflict raging in much of the country, the mid-1800s was also a high point for Green-Wood tourism. With both Central Park and Prospect Park still under construction and few of New York’s iconic cultural buildings yet in existence, Green-Wood Cemetery, with its rolling hills, marble monuments and lush landscaping, became a popular escape from the already crowded city. By the early 1860s, it had earned an international reputation for its magnificent beauty and became the prestigious place to be buried. It attracted 500,000 visitors a year on average, second only to Niagara Falls as the nation’s greatest tourist attraction. Crowds flocked there to enjoy family outings, carriage rides, and sculpture viewing in the finest of first generation American landscapes. Green-Wood’s popularity helped inspire the creation of public parks, including New York City’s Central and Prospect Parks.

On September 27, 2006, Green-Wood was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior, which recognized its national significance in art, architecture, landscaping and history. A magnet for history buffs and bird watchers alike, Green-Wood is a Revolutionary War historic site (the Battle of Long Island was fought in 1776 across what is now its grounds), a designated site on the Civil War Discovery Trail and a registered member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System.

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