Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Fort Greene is a section and district on the National and New York State Registry of Historic Places, and a New York City designated Historic District. It is in northern Brooklyn, taking its name from General Nathaniel Greene of New Hampshire, an aide to Gen. Washington during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776 -- hence the name also of Fort Greene Park. In this park is the notable Prison Ships Martyrs monument and crypt honoring some 11,500 patriots who died aboard British prision ships during the War of Independence. Poet and then-resident Walt Whitman instigated the creation of Fort Greene Park in 1843.
Rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, now deceased, grew up in Fort Greene. In addition to Whitman, Fort Greene has also been the home of poet Marianne Mooore and Richard Wright, who wrote Native Son.
Fort Greene comprises some of the most superb examples of mid-19th Century Italianate and Eastlake architecture, most of it well preserved. The area is the home of the famed Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Music School, Urban Glass works, 651 Arts perfoming center for African-American presenters, and the Atlantic Center commercial and transportation hub.