SJC Welcomes Francis Morrone, Author

October 21, 2010

BROOKLYN, NY - October 22, 2010 - In conjunction with the Brooklyn Historical Society, St. Josephs College is pleased to announce that it  will host a book event featuring Francis Morrone, author of The Fort Greene and Clinton Hill Neighborhood Architectural Guide on Wednesday, November 3 from 7 to 8 p.m in the Parlors, 245 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn. The College will provide copies of the book to the first 50 guests, and Mr. Morrone will present a talk and take questions from the audience. The event is free and open to the public.

The Fort Greene and Clinton Hill Neighborhood and Architectural History Guide is a wide-ranging social and cultural history of the part of Brooklyn bounded roughly by Flatbush, Classon, Atlantic, and Flushing Avenues. The book includes extensive material about the development of the Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Wallabout neighborhoods; the history of Fort Greene Park; notable neighborhood personages including Walt Whitman, Marianne Moore, Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, Richard Wright, William C. Kingsley, Susan Smith McKinney-Steward, Charles Pratt, and Spike Lee; and the histories of local institutions such as Pratt Institute, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Colored School No. 1, St. Joseph's College, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. The guide is illustrated with contemporary architectural photographs by Etienne Frossard as well as numerous older and archival photographs.

Francis Morrone is a writer and historian who has published extensively on 19th- and 20th-century social and architectural history. A 30-year resident of Brooklyn, he was the first to lead walking tours and to conduct detailed research on buildings in several Brooklyn neighborhoods. The author of ten books include, Morrone was an art and architecture critic for The New York Sun for six and a half years, and has written for many publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Humanities, and The New Criterion. He operates a business in historic buildings research for a range of clients including architectural firms, real estate firms, government agencies, preservation advocacy organizations, museums and historical societies, and individual homeowners, and is currently working on a comprehensive survey of Brooklyn Heights buildings, a history of Cobble Hill, and a cultural resources survey of Manhattan's East Village.