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Please add profiles of people who were born, lived or died in (or were notable for their ties to) Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
Clinton Hill is a neighborhood in north-central Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. It is bordered by the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Flushing Avenue to the north, Williamsburg to the northeast, Nostrand Avenue and Bedford-Stuyvesant to the east, St Marks Avenue and Prospect Heights to the south and southwest and Carlton Avenue and Fort Greene to the west.
"The Hill", as the general area was known - with a maximum elevation of 95 feet (29 m), the highest in the area - was believed to have health benefits because many people believed that disease was more prevalent in low-lying areas. The area is named after Clinton Avenue, which in turn was named in honor of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828). The main thoroughfare is DeKalb Avenue. The affluent neighborhood's mixture of apartment buildings, mansions, brownstone and brick rowhouses, and the Pratt Institute and St. Joseph's College, built at various times in a number of different styles, is a great part of its charm.
Clinton Hill is part of Brooklyn Community District 2, and its primary ZIP Codes are 11205 and 11238. It is patrolled by the 88th Precinct of the New York City Police Department.
Notable people with ties to Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, from Wikipedia:
- Asa Akira (born 1986), pornographic actress and adult film director
- Ted Allen (born 1965), writer and television personality
- Lester Bowie (1941-1999), avant-garde jazz (trumpet) musician owned Victorian-style home at 207 Washington Avenue for 20 years until his death in 1999
- Jay Critch (born 1997), rapper
- Charles F. Erhart (1821-1891), businessman who co-founded Chas. Pfizer & Co., Inc.
- James William Elwell (1820-1899), shipping merchant and philanthropist who founded James W. Elwell & Co., and built the historic house at 70 Lefferts Place
- KOTA the Friend (born 1992), hip hop artist and producer who mentions Clinton Hill in some of his songs
- Adrian Grenier (born 1976), actor
- Lev Grossman (born 1969), novelist and journalist
- Heems (stage name of Himanshu Suri), rapper
- Tehching Hsieh (born 1950), performance artist
- Letitia James (born 1958), incumbent Attorney General of New York
- Talib Kweli (born 1975), rapper
- Mos Def (born 1973), rapper/actor
- The Notorious B.I.G. (1972-1997), rapper, grew up on 226 St. James Place, near the Bedford–Stuyvesant border; the address was then regarded as part of Bedford–Stuyvesant
- David Paterson (born 1954), former New York Governor
- Rosie Perez (born 1964), actress
- Mary Pinkett (c. 1931-2003), first black New York City councilwoman, she served 28 years from 1974 until 2001 when she was term-limited out of office
- Antoni Porowski (born 1984), chef, actor, and television personality, lived in a studio with former partner, Joey Krietemeyer, that has been featured in interior design magazines
- Susan Sarandon (born 1946), actress, lives in a home described as "aesthetically ironic"
- Danny Simmons, artist
- Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe shared an apartment on Hall Street in 1967, after they first met
- Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990), actress, model and dancer, was born at 246 Classon Avenue
- Jason Sudeikis (born 1975), actor and comedian
- Conrad Tillard (born 1964), politician, Baptist minister, radio host, author, and civil rights activist
- John Thomas Underwood (1857-1937), entrepreneur and inventor who founded the Underwood Typewriter Company
- Walt Whitman (1819-1892), poet and editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1846 to 1848, formerly lived at 99 Ryerson Street while working on Leaves of Grass
- Olivia Wilde (born 1984), actress; lived in Clinton Hill from 2014 to 2019
- Jessica Williams (born 1989), actress and comedian
- Jeffrey Wright (born 1965), actor
- Bowen Yang (born 1990), comedian on Saturday Night Live
- Malik Yoba (born 1967), actor