Boerum Hill (pronounced /ˈbɔːrəm/BOR-əm) is a small neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York Cityborough of Brooklyn, bounded by Schermerhorn Street to the north and Fourth Avenue to the east.[1] The western border is variously given as either Smith or Court Street, and Warren or Wyckoff Street as the southern edge.[2]
Boerum Hill is named for the colonial farm of the Boerum family, which occupied most of the area during early Dutch settlement. According to the 1790 census, John Boerum's family owned at least two enslaved people.[5]
Most of the housing in Boerum Hill consists of three-story row houses built between 1840 and 1870. Despite the "hill" in the name, the neighborhood is relatively flat; some parts sit atop former marshes that bordered Gowanus Creek. In the 1950s, all the neighborhoods south of Atlantic Avenue and west of Prospect Park were known generically as South Brooklyn. Boerum Hill in particular was sometimes called "North Gowanus". The name "Boerum Hill" was coined in early 1964 by Boerum Hill Association founder Helen Buckler, referencing the name of the colonial farmers.[6][7][8]
From the early 1970s until about 2003, Boerum Hill was populated mostly by working class and middle-class African-American and Puerto Rican families. Since about the late 1990s, gentrification has changed the neighborhood to one of mostly upper-class individuals, though working-class families still reside in the immediate area.
In the early twentieth century, many of the buildings were run as boarding houses. Nearby was the union hall for ironworkers, who came to the city to work on bridges and skyscrapers.[9] The north end of Smith Street was the center of New York City's Mohawk community, who came mostly from Akwesasne and Kahnawake, Mohawk reserves in Quebec, Canada.[9] (Akwesasne extends across national boundaries into New York state.) Many of the Mohawk men were ironworkers, while their wives worked at a variety of jobs and created the community for their families. For 50 years, the Mohawk families called their neighborhood "Little Caughnawaga," after the homeland of Kahnawake. Many families would travel back to Kahnawake in the summer.[10]
Smith Street commercial strip
The Boerum Hill Historic District was first recognized and designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on November 20, 1973, after many years of advocacy by the Boerum Hill Association.[11] The Boerum Hill Historic District was then listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Many of its buildings are landmarked.[12][13]
In 2012, Boerum Hill had the sixth highest neighborhood median home prices among all New York City neighborhoods, and the highest of any neighborhood outside Manhattan.[14]
Micro Museum, 123 Smith StApple Store at Flatbush and Fourth Avenues
Boerum Hill is known for its independent boutiques, restaurants and rows of brownstones. Boerum Hill is home to many artists who own art galleries in the neighborhood and to many young families, and biking is popular in the neighborhood and nearby Prospect Park. Cultural offerings include The Invisible Dog Art Center, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and BAM. There are also the Smith Street restaurant row and the Atlantic Avenue design district.
The neighborhood has been featured in several contemporary creative works. It is the setting of Spike Lee's movie Clockers (1995), which was filmed in the Gowanus Houses. It is the setting for two of Jonathan Lethem's novels: Motherless Brooklyn (1999), a crime mystery set on Bergen Street between Smith and Hoyt streets; and The Fortress of Solitude (2002), set primarily on one block in Boerum Hill (Dean Street between Nevins and Bond streets).
^McKeough, Tim. "They Were Looking for a Place With an Elevator. They Found a Lot More.", The New York Times, November 2, 2021. Accessed May 15, 2022. "Like many buyers, Lilly Burns and Tony Hernandez set some parameters to narrow their online search when they began looking for an apartment in Brooklyn in early 2018.... Lilly Burns and Tony Hernandez, now expecting their third child, bought a new townhouse with an elevator in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, and hired D2 Interieurs to personalize it."
^ abUgwu, Reggie. "Paul Dano's Cup Runneth Over (and Over)", The New York Times, January 2, 2019. Accessed May 15, 2022. "Early on a December morning in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, where Mr. Dano and his partner, the actress and writer Zoe Kazan, have lived for nearly a decade, I met him at a handsome restaurant with dark wood paneling and an antique bar."
^Mays, Jeffery C. "Shaun Donovan Has the Résumé and the Money. He Just Needs the Votes.", The New York Times, May 31, 2021. Accessed May 15, 2022. "The correct answer is actually nine times that amount; Mr. Donovan, who, with his wife, Liza Gilbert, paid $2.3 million in 2019 for their home in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, later said he had misunderstood the question."
^Barron, James. "Stamps From Space, With Brooklyn Ties", The New York Times, May 24, 2011. Accessed December 7, 2023. "Donato Giancola does not remember the day itself, which, if you happen to be checking the calendar, was 50 years ago on Thursday — May 5, 1961....Mr. Giancola, who lives in Boerum Hill, went to Queens, to the New York Hall of Science, where a Mercury space capsule is on display not far from one of his other paintings."
^Dailey, Jessica. "Ethan Hawke Leaves Chelsea For $3.9M Boerum Hill Townhouse", Curbed NY,April 5, 2013. Accessed December 2, 2023. "Last week, we learned that Hawke sold his colorful home on West 21st Street for $6.25 million, and now Real Estalker reports that he's picked up a very similar house in a not-so-similar (or kind of similar?) neighborhood: Boerum Hill."
^Hurowitz, Noah. "Chuck Klosterman talks Batman, Brooklyn, and BoCoCa", The Brooklyn Paper, July 3, 2014. Accessed December 2, 2023. "As the New York Times Magazine’s “The Ethicist” columnist, Chuck Klosterman often challenges our sense of right and wrong in everyday situations. In his latest book, I Wear the Black Hat, the essayist and Boerum Hill resident once again exposes the ethical complexity behind a seemingly black-and-white concept — the villain — examining what it means to be the 'bad guy,' and how society decides who is one and who is not."
^ abSchulman, Michael. "The Nivola Kids Enter the Family Business", The New Yorker, December 5, 2022. Accessed December 2, 2023. "The Nivolas are the children of actors, Alessandro Nivola (The Many Saints of Newark) and Emily Mortimer (The Newsroom”), and have lately joined the family racket. In the new Noah Baumbach film, White Noise, they play siblings in a Reagan-era academic household led by Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, who are forced to flee their college town after an 'Airborne Toxic Event.' Sam, as it happens, had just fled the Nivola home, in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, to attend Columbia."
^White, Constance C. R. "How Lynn Nottage and Her Daughter Are Exploring Their Relationship in Writing", T, April 20, 2023. Accessed December 2, 2023. "From left: Ruby Aiyo Gerber, 25, poet, nonfiction writer and librettist of This House (2024), and Lynn Nottage, 58, playwright, screenwriter and librettist of This House, photographed at Nottage’s home in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, on Feb. 12, 2023."
