Borough and State: Brooklyn, New York
Listed: 1981
Type of district: National Register historic district, state historic district, local historic district
Main Intersection: Greene and Washington Streets
Clinton Hill National Register Historic District Report
Clinton Hill National Register Historic District Map
The Clinton Hill neighborhood began as a suburban retreat on the outskirts of the city of Brooklyn. Initially developed as a quiet middle-class residential neighborhood in the 1830s, it was almost completely built up by the 1880s. However, the community enjoyed another period of growth and appeal at the turn of the 20th century when Brooklyn’s wealthiest citizens came into the area and replaced many of the older houses with stylish new mansions. The once quiet residential neighborhood became known as Brooklyn’s “Gold Coast.” The community remained popular with the affluent until the 1920s, when the wealthy abandoned the area for Manhattan and Clinton Hill again became a middle-class haven. Buildings from all of these periods survive in the Clinton Hill Historic District and give the area an uncommon diversity of architectural styles. Buildings in Clinton Hill range from small frame houses to monumental mansions. There are unified blocks of brownstone and brick row houses, asymmetrically massed rows of late 19th century houses, as well as institutional buildings that are a direct reflection of the area’s wealth and social standing.