7. Henry C. Bowen Mansion, Brooklyn Heights
In the 1840s or 50s, newspaper publisher and dry goods merchant William C. Bowen moved into this Greek Revival mansion at 90 Willow Street. Bowen, who was an abolitionist, is reported to have entertained Abraham Lincoln in this home before he became president (though other reports say he declined the invitation to work on a speech which he was to give later that evening at Cooper Union). Lincoln did attend a service at Plymouth Church, which Bowen was a founder member of, to hear Henry Ward Beecher. Beecher had edited and contributed to Bowen’s paper, The Independent, and would become embroiled in a scandal when it was revealed that he was having an affair with another editor’s wife.
After Bowen’s death in 1896, his children continued to live in the house. In 1903, the interior furnishings of the house were auctioned off in a large sale. “Fine old mahogany and rosewood furniture, valuable paintings, etchings and engravings, chandeliers, mirrors, china, glassware, carpets, draperies, and the like,” were all sold “for a song” according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The mansion was sold to a developer who planned to knock it down and build a hotel. Many in the community mourned the loss of yet another grand home. One person who wrote in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called the destruction of the house a “source of great regret to many an old Heights boy and doubtless to many other old Brooklynites.” While plans for the hotel never came to fruition, a large apartment complex was built at the site.
