Boerum Hill

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Boerum Hill is a small segment of the New York City borough of Brooklyn roughly bounded by State Street to the north, 3rd Avenue to the east, Court Street to the west, and Warren Street to the south.

This neighborhood was featured in Jonathan Lethem's book The Fortress of Solitude, set primarily on one block in Boerum Hill (Dean Street between Nevins Street and Bond Street), in which he purports that the neighborhood was named in the wake of gentrification. It is unclear whether or not this is true; for instance, one profile in The Village Voice confirms it, [Close-Up On: Boerum Hill], The Village Voice, March 7, 2003, while the same column written two years later disputes the attribution.[Close-Up on Boerum Hill, Brooklyn], The Village Voice, October 12, 2005 In the 1950s, all the neighborhoods south of Atlantic Avenue and west of Hoyt Street were called South Brooklyn, which derived its name from being south of the original town of Brooklyn (now Brooklyn Heights) which was settled by the Dutch.

Boerum Hill features one of the biggest eyesores in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn House of Detention at Boerum Place (Adams Street) and Atlantic Avenue. The development of this neighborhood has created an interesting mix of urban decay, opulent brownstones, and newly-opened boutiques and restaurants (particularly stretching along Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue). If the neighborhood border is extended north to Schermerhorn or Livingston Street, one could compare the run-down, decrepit appearance of those streets to the tree-lined beauty of State Street's brownstones. As a cross-section of Brooklyn, Boerum Hill exemplifies the borough's great beauty and hideous dereliction in the space of a few square blocks.

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