Brooklyn Heights: Splendor and Scandal in America’s First Suburb

Is Brooklyn Heights the most charming neighborhood in New York City? A remarkable number of celebrity residents seem to think so.

No wonder this elegant brownstone wonderland was the first district in the city to be awarded historic landmark status. The leafy enclave where Gilded Age bankers and merchants built handsome townhouses has also been called ”America’s First Suburb”.

On this walking tour, you’ll hear about the poets, preachers, abolitionists, suffragists and free love advocates who made the Heights a hotbed of progressive thought. The tour starts outside Plymouth Church, the “Grand Central Depot of the Underground Railroad”. From there, you’ll hear about Reverend Henry Ward Beecher – “the most famous man in America” – and how he profoundly transformed religion, helped Abe Lincoln win the Civil War, did a little gun running, and slept with the wives of his best friends. When one of those friends sued him for adultery, the trial generated more newspaper headlines than the entire Civil War!

While walking through Brooklyn Heights, you’ll swing by the homes of legendary writers like Truman Capote, Norman Mailer and Arthur Miller, whose antics range from hilarious to heartbreaking. You’ll also meet Victoria Woodhull, the beautiful clairvoyant con artist, who seduced Cornelius Vanderbilt, became the first female stockbroker, published a newspaper so obscene it landed her in prison, and was the first woman to run for US President... even though women couldn’t vote!

This two-hour tour ends at the Henry Ward Beecher Statue in Cadman Plaza. Along the way, you’ll:

• Learn the secrets of the famous Brooklyn Heights Promenade with its spectacular views of Lady Liberty, Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge
• Stop for a meowment at the Brooklyn Cat Cafe, where you can pet the staff
• Get the scoop at the original Häagen-Dazs ice cream shop started by the family that invented super premium ice cream
• Pay your respects to Lucy Burns, the suffragist who suffered the most, and finally won the fight to secure votes for women
• Find out how the Brooklyn Dodgers first got their name, long before they were sold to Los Angeles
• Take in several notable churches including the First Unitarian Congregational, St Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, and Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral

All of this is brought to life with the dramatic storytelling that makes TellBetter tours unique – with actors, sound effects, and music.

CREDITS: Many of the details and quotes in the tour come from two books: The Most Famous Man in America: The biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate, for which she won a Pulitzer, and Brooklyn Heights; the Rise, Fall and Rebirth of America’s First Suburb, by Robert Furman and Brian Merlis.

Quotes are typically voiced by actors; often edited for brevity; often processed with AI.