So Long, Brooklyn.....Hello, Brooklyn. A Farewell post from Tara.

It feels bittersweet that my time in Brooklyn is coming to an end, as I am moving to Australia with my husband to have a child and begin a new life chapter. I will certainly miss my job as the Research Assistant in the Brooklyn Collection, and the pleasures of discovering fascinating Little-Known Brooklyn Residents in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Morgue. My days of unearthing photos of cats dressed up in princess outfits, pipe-organs in apartments, and youthful treasure hunters are behind me, and I will remember these days fondly. 

Happy days working in the morgue 

Although there is some regret about leaving the borough I love and have called home for many years, there is one small reassuring factor -- that is, the place I am moving to in Australia happens to be right up the road from a small Australian town -- also named Brooklyn. Admittedly it is not a great idea to compare the town with the borough, as Australia's Brooklyn has fewer than 700 residents, and the local pizza is far, far less divine. But some general comparisons are fair enough for those moments of nostalgia, as Australia's Brooklyn is also surrounded by water, has a locally renowned bridge, and coincidentally is just a stone's throw from a "Long Island."

View of Brooklyn, NSW, from Hawkesbury River station bridge by Adam J.W.C. 

There are varying reports as to why Australia's Brooklyn was named as such; folklore attributes the name to the locally renowned bridge that was built by the Union Bridge Company of New York, in 1889. However, local historians have uncovered records that show that Brooklyn was named by the Fagan brothers--area landowners who were thought to have had relatives living in Brooklyn, New York--well before the building of the bridge. 

View of Brooklyn's bridge, aka Hawkesbury Bridge. Image from Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

So for now it is time for me to say "So Long" to the borough of Brooklyn, so that I may say "Hello" to the town of Brooklyn. I fondly bid farewell to the Brooklyn Public Library and the terrific Brooklyn Collection -- a trove of endless fascinating stuff. Thanks for the memories, Brooklyn Collection -- you will indeed be missed. 

So Long...

Farewell...

Goodbye...

 

Editor's note: Tara Cuthbert and Stuart Solzberg are creators and curators of the Bushwick Farms conceptual art project, which will now enter a new phase in a new land. We wish them every happiness.