greg and chanda didn't want to drive into brooklyn heights for my friend's orchestra concert so since i still insisted we take the car, i was pleased when we were able to find a parking spot just one block from the church in very little time. in fact, we found a spot in front of one of the prettiest houses . . see the stairs going up to the blue house with the windowboxes? chanda and i found it incredibly pretty. well, all the houses in brooklyn heights are worth exclaiming over. chanda hadn't been in years. she was surprised at the beauty of the neighborhood, in part because it has been protected from unchecked development since 1965, and has been a prominent, affluent area of the city since 1834.
brooklyn heights has one of the most breathtaking views of manhattan from it's esplanade . .
which runs along the waterfront and above the brooklyn queens expressway.
i used to bring the girls to the pierrepont playground when they were little. it's nice that chanda does still remember this (she was only two and a half years old).
we walked along the esplanade to the playground and then to montague street to find a place to eat.
we settled on "pinto," a thai restaurant which chanda was very pleased with.
it was really nice and we sat at the table i had seen from outside . .
greg had garlic chicken and vegetables . .
chanda and i shared curried vegetables and curried chicken . . it was spicier than i thought it would be, but very good.
my friend's concert was at plymouth church, a congregational church founded in 1847.
waiting to begin . . the brooklyn conservatory community orchestra played khachaturian's masquerade suite (1941) which was my favorite. they also played brahms' symphony no. 2 in d major (which was jeanette's favorite) and ravel's tzigane for violin and orchestra (with an amazing emerging violinist named alice ivy pemberton, who is currently in her first year at julliard's four year program).
jeanette and her husband tony, whose mom was also at the concert. it was nice to meet her after hearing so much about her delicious cooking!
after the concert, i went upstairs with jeanette to get her coat and viola case. i had never seen the sanctuary before. it was very large and old and dark! and very new england. it felt much like the quaker meeting house on 15th street and third avenue where greg and i used to go in the 90's. of course it might feel very different in the daytime.
henry ward beecher was the church's first minister and spoke openly against slavery (the church was a stop on the underground railroad), also hosting speakers such as sojouner truth and frederick douglass. in 1860, abraham lincoln attended church twice during his campaign to be president. a plaque marks his place on a pew.
the aeolian-skinner organ installed in 1904 and restored in the 1990's.
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