Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Fort Greene is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City, USA, roughly bounded by the Brooklyn Navy Yard/Nassau Street to the north, Flatbush Avenue to the west, Classon Avenue to the east and Atlantic Avenue to the south. The main drags are Fulton Street above St. Felix Street and DeKalb Avenue. The neighborhood is served by the 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, M, N, Q, or R trains of the New York City subway at the Atlantic-Pacific station; or the C train at Lafayette Avenue station; or the Queens-Brooklyn G train at the Fulton Street station. Fort Greene is listed on the National and New York State Registry of Historic Places, and is a New York City designated Historic District.
Fort Greene is named after a Revolutionary War era fort that was rechristened in honor of General Nathaniel Greene of New Hampshire. General Greene aided General George Washington during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776. Fort Greene Park, originally called Washington Park and Brooklyn's first, is also derived from General Greene's name and the neighborhood. In 1864, Fort Greene park was redesigned by Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. The park notably includes the Prison Ships Martyrs monument and crypt, which honors some 11,500 patriots who died aboard British prison ships during the War of Independence.
Fort Greene is comprised of many superb examples of mid-19th Century Italianate and Eastlake architecture, most of which is well preserved. The area is the home of the famed Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Music School, Brooklyn Tech, The Paul Robeson Theater, Urban Glass Works, 651 Arts perfoming center for African-American presenters, and the Atlantic Center commercial and transportation hub.
The political figures of Fort Greene are: Councilmember Letitia James, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblymen Roger Green and Joseph Lentol, and U.S. Congressman Edolphus Towns. They are all Democrats, but Letitia James was elected on the Working Families Party line.
Notable Fort Greene residents include, but is not limited to: poet and one-time resident Walt Whitman, who influenced the creation of Fort Greene Park in 1843; poet Marianne Moore; rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard; author Richard Wright wrote Native Son while living in Fort Greene; Spike Lee grew up in the neighborhood; jazz matriarch Betty Carter; Chris Rock, Cecil Taylor, Wynton Marsalis, and Rosie Perez have all called Fort Greene home.
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