The Making of Boerum Hill

"Around 1964, the name Boerum Hill began to appear on maps of Brooklyn's old brownstone neighborhoods. The name, announcing a new residential area in downtown Brooklyn, was to be seen not on all maps but chiefly on those that had been drawn up in Boerum Hill itself. People living in such nearby areas as Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, and Park Slope-the establishment, so to speak, of Brooklyn's brownstone neighborhoods."

"That it was indeed wearing the borrowed plumes of a refined-sounding name not even its most faithful partisans would deny. But most of the people living there at that time could pretend neither to capital nor to much in the way of possessions. The only imposture of which they stood rightfully accused, then, was that of taking on a higher-sounding name than their circumstances justified."

Around 1964 the name Boerum Hill began appearing on local maps, mainly those produced within the neighborhood itself. Nearby established brownstone areas such as Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, and Park Slope initially did not recognize or accept the name. Residents and outsiders discovered that Boerum Hill was a made-up name and considered it inauthentic to the brownstone family. The name adoption was criticized as borrowed plumes, yet the neighborhood's inhabitants were largely poor and lacked capital; their only pretension was a higher-sounding name. The residents intended to improve their circumstances and to live up to the new name.

Read at The New Yorker