May 3–9, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 11
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By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
This is the guide of Kings!
A new book showcases more than
a hundred interesting spots in Brooklyn,
going beyond the usual tourist traps.
“111 Places in Brooklyn That You Must
Not Miss” unveils the borough’s quirky
and historic sites, which the author hopes
will lead Kings County residents out of
their routines to rediscover the objectively
best borough.
“As locals we form our little routes
to the subway or shops that we frequent
and we at some point stop looking as
vigorously as when we first arrived,”
said John Major.
The Park Sloper first moved to Brooklyn
some two decades ago from Ohio,
and said that he has kept the attitude of
a visitor by continually seeking out interesting
places in his adopted home. His
guide takes explorers beyond Brooklyn
Heights brownstones and Williamsburg
bars to unveil the borough’s vastness and
complexity — and its weirdness, too.
For example, on the fourth floor of
City Point you can discover the House of
Wax, where bartenders stir craft cocktails
against a backdrop of eerie vintage wax
figures. Effigies of German Kaiser Wilhelm,
Napoleon, classical composers, and
the victims of gory medical procedures
made their way from a 19th century exhibit
in Berlin, Germany, to America’s
Downtown, according to Major.
“It’s just this very weird, macabre experience
to be in there,” he said. “They
have great cocktails and about 25 beers
on tap, meanwhile you’re sitting at the
bar and you’re staring at these faces of
history looking back at you.”
Also in the book is a row of 19th-century
houses in Crown Heights, on Buffalo Avenue
between Bergen Street and St. Marks
Avenue. Here you will find the remnants
of the 1830s African-American enclave
Weeksville, named after its founder, former
slave James Week, who bought the
two lots of land and sold houses to black
men, who were only allowed to vote at
the time if they owned property.
Only a couple of buildings, known
as the Hunterfly Road Houses, remain,
but they show how Brooklynites have
fought to liberate the suppressed for centuries,
according to Major.
“To me it represents this real pride
personally, that Brooklyn has this piece
of history within it,” he said.
Major found some of his 111 entries
through online research, but said that
the old-fashioned method of walking
around and getting the locals’ recommendations
still holds up.
“What better recommendation can you
get than from someone who lives there
and takes great pride in sharing a place
that’s important to them?” he asked.
Meeting people with a deep knowledge
about where they are from was a great
pleasure during his journey, he said.
“People who are so passionate about
that history — I find it so fun to be in
the presence of people who have a real
passion,” he said.
“111 Places in Brooklyn That You
Must Not Miss” by John Major.
www.111places.com. In bookstores
now. $19.90.
The one book
Guide invites exploration with
Brooklyn’s 111 best-kept secrets
Photo by Kevin Duggan
Wax work: (Right) John Major’s
new guide book “111 Places in
Brooklyn That You Must Not Miss”
includes Downtown’s House of
Wax bar. (Above) The book also
recommends a visit to Bizarre Bar
in Bushwick, which often hosts
burlesque and drag shows.
Ed Lefkowicz
Borough of
museums
The publisher behind Major’s
guide to Brooklyn also released
a guide to the best museums in
the five boroughs. From the book
“111 Museums in New York That
You Must Not Miss,” we plucked
these two lesser-known spots in
Kings County:
Collector’s items: The City
Reliquary Museum houses a collection
of city artifacts — including
Statue of Liberty paraphernalia,
vintage seltzer bottles, and other
curiosities — all crammed into a
small Williamsburg storefront.
www.city reliquary.org
Safe Harbor: Located on the
Fort Hamilton Army base in Bay
Ridge is the Harbor Defense Museum,
where you will find old uniforms,
muskets, and a 1,400-pound
Flank Howitzer cannon, which
could launch 48 iron balls in a
single shot when it was used in
1864. harbor-defense-museum.
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