Clinton Hill Block Renamed For Walt Whitman Near His Former Home

CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN — A block in Clinton Hill will be renamed Walt Whitman Way to honor the Brooklyn poet, the City Council decided last week.

The City Council approved naming the corner of Ryerson Street and Dekalb Avenue after Whitman as part of a bill that renamed 86 streets and places across the city for significant people, the Brooklyn Eagle first reported.

The intersection is just a few blocks from Whitman's former home, which activists with The Walt Whitman Initiative have been trying to preserve for the last few years. Leaders of the initiative said the street co-naming is an important first step in honoring the poet in the neighborhood.

"'If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles,' Whitman encourages readers in the last lines of his epic poem 'Song of Myself,'" said Karen Karbiener, one of the initiative's leaders and a Whitman expert from New York University. "Thanks to the efforts of the Walt Whitman Initiative, particularly those of board member Brad Vogel, New Yorkers can actually find him there!"

Whitman spent much of his childhood and life in Brooklyn.

The 99 Ryserson Street house was one of more than 30 houses Whitman and his family lived in as they bounced around New York City in the early-to-mid 19th century. It is the last one standing in New York City where the poet lived and the home where he finished perhaps his most famous poem "Leaves of Grass." The home has since been nicknamed the "Leaves of Grass house."

"Our next step is to landmark the very house in which he realized these monumental achievements, preserving this simple, strong structure to inspire Walt's "Poets to Come," Karbiener said.

The efforts to designate the home a landmark were renewed this year by the initiative and other organizations as they celebrated Whitman's 200th birthday on May 31 and throughout the year. A petition about the designation has garnered about 5,700 signatures.

The home first landed on a list of significant sites in LGBTQ history that members with the Landmark Preservation Commission wanted to consider several years ago. But, those members ran into roadblocks from others who leaned more toward the belief that landmark status should be reserved for buildings that are architecturally interesting.

The supporters of landmarking the house argue, though, that its cultural and historical significance is still relevant to the commission's broad mandate to preserve the history, culture and architecture of New York.

Should the Ryerson Street house be landmarked, the coalition has discussed raising money to help return it to the way it was when Whitman lived there. But the main goal, advocates have said, would be to ensure it does not face a wrecking ball as Whitman's other homes have.