Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names

Wonderfully informative and interesting book for anyone from Brooklyn or interested in the great borough.

Brooklyn has several patterns of street numbering, but streets that carry names of people add the presence of those folk, yes, even if the named are deceased! Congratulations to authors Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss for the scholarship and style that went into this handy, fascinating book of Brooklyn neighborhoods and names. A few years ago, when a friend inquired about Maujer Street, Williamsburg, where she grew up, I inquired at the nearby branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. We learned he was a local alderman, but the informative source was only a few typed pages of Brookyn street names. "Brooklyn by Name" has come to the rescue. I believe it is the first book published on this topic. Arranged geographically into eight chapters, it is aided by well-selected and helpful photos. The authors introduce the history of the region, then explain the street names alphabetically. The book's index is complete, not limited to street names, but including famous Brooklynites mentioned in the volume. As for The Bronx, James McNamara spent his lifetime compiling and revising his "History in Asphalt." Two books have been published about Manhattan stret names. As far as I know, no author has published a guide of Queens street names nor those of Staten Island. "Brooklyn by Name" is a model of the genre.

This is a wonderfully enjoyable read: informative, witty, original. And I'm not even from New York!

Brooklynites, did you know Empire Boulevard was originally Malbone Street, but was renamed after a devastating 1918 Brighton Beach Line train accident there that killed more than 90 people? Did you know that parts of DeGraw St. in Park Slope were renamed Lincoln Place in 1873 because a famous murder there had caused the street name to be tainted by association? This book is full of amazing name origins like these. It opened my eyes to the tumultuous history of my city and the remnants that are everywhere, once you know where to look. Get this book and impress your smartalecky Brooklyn friends with your obscure wisdom!

I thought I would leaf through a few pages and that would be enough. Was I wrong! I literally could not stop reading this marvelous work. It is immensely readable, beautifully written and funny, to boot.