Park Slope is one of the most treasured, historic neighborhoods in Brooklyn, NY.  It is home to some of the most amazing homes in the entire city, many of which rival the Gilded Age Mansions of Manhattan.  Once upon a time Brooklyn was its own city and many industrialists called it home.  Nearby Prospect Park, designed by the same team that designed Central Park was a major draw for wealthy Brooklynites and central to the neighborhood’s development and continued appeal.  Olmstead and Vaux famously alluded to having done a better job with Prospect Park than Central Park with its 585 acres, lakes, streams, meandering paths, playgrounds, ballfields, zoo and carousel.


The tour will start at the historic Montauk Club and learn about the development of this neighborhood which slopes down from the park to the Gowanus Canal.  Walk along Brooklyn's famed tree lined streets and see why those Brownstones became so popular.  You’ll see the different types of homes which were built for both the wealthy and the working folks of Brooklyn.  On this tour you'll definitely get a feel for why Brooklyn has been known as "the borough of churches". We'll observe Victorian architecture and learn about the men (the Litchfields, C. P. H. Gilbert and others) who created this place, now one of the most sought after neighborhoods in New York, but it wasn't always.  

Along the way we’ll see:


  • The Montauk Club with its historic frieses of George Washington and Native Americans and Venetian architecture

  • The home known as the “Chicklet House” where the creator of Chicklets gum lived and hear about the famous ghosts who they say inhabit it

  • Multiple homes built by C. P. H. Gilbert before he went on to design many of Manhattan’s most treasured buildings

  • The corner where Charles Feltman, the creator of the Coney Island Hot Dog lived and see photos of his former mansion

  • We’ll talk about the inside of extraordinary homes along Prospect Park West

  • The Synagogue where former US President Lydon Baines Johnson paid respects to the wife of his former friend and colleague Emmanuel Celler

  • Pass by the home of William Engeman, developer of both Brighton Beach and Coney Island

  • You’ll learn about the worst disaster in US Aviation history until the time of 9/11 which happened in Park Slope and its impact on the neighborhood


About the tour:

  • We begin near the Montauk Club, next to the Grand Army Plaza train station (2 / 3 train) at 1 Plaza Street

  • We end at Park Place and 7th Avenue, around the corner from the 7th Avenue station (Q / B Train) next to Antionio’s wonderful Brooklyn pizza place