A Cobble Hill Native Shares Her Neighborhood Lore

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Marie Brown shows off her favorite Carroll Gardens goodies. She was born in the neighborhood and moved back in 2005 after a 25-year hiatus. Photo: Gabriele Sierra

Though we’re fans (and publishers) of neighborhood guides and lists of where to eat right now, we also recognize that they tend to follow trends and overlook neighborhood gems. To that end, we’ve started a new series called Neighborhood Expert in which we chat with a longtime local for the scoop on their favorite spots and their take on how the area has changed. 

Name: Marie Brown

Neighborhood: Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill

How long have you lived here? Well I was born in this neighborhood 1951 in Long Island hospital. I left the year I got married which was in 1980; it was too expensive already. When the kids were in college I had a conversation with my husband and said, “Would it ever be possible to come back downtown?” and he said, “Yeah, I think we can do this.” So we started on my quest to find a house in this area. We came back in 2005, so it has been another ten years.

What was it like growing up in Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens? When I grew up here we lived in what is now Cobble Hill, but it was not called Cobble Hill or Carroll Gardens–the divisions were by parishes. There was Sacred Heart parish, which is now Carroll Gardens, and I was in Saint Paul’s parish, which is now Cobble Hill. Each area had a different demographic because Saint Paul’s parish was mostly Puerto Rican and Sacred Heart was all Italian. To be honest the Sacred Heart people had a little attitude about Saint Paul’s people–they felt they were purer or more secluded since there were only two kinds of Italian people in this area. (more…)

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