Literary Brooklyn: A Real Life Tour of 10 Fictional Brooklyn Places
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
The Nolan family moved around quite a bit during young Francie’s childhood. But they lived for the longest stretch on Lorimer Street, right in the middle of East Williamsburg. Francie describes running her errands on Manhattan Avenue and passing all the streets with their beautiful names. Although there is no mention in the novel of Francie’s exact cross street on Lorimer, we found the brick houses below to be the only remaining possibilities for the fictional family. The almost total makeover of Lorimer Street (in stark contrast to Miller’s Fillmore Place) calls to mind another quote from Smith’s classic: “Besides, in years to come, there would be no old neighborhood to come back to. After the war, the city was going to tear down the tenements and the ugly school where a woman principal used to whip little boys, and build a model housing project on the site; a place of living where sunlight and air were to be trapped, measured and weighed, and doled out so much per resident.” Even a hundred years ago, everyone knew gentrification was coming.