Brooklyn Historical Society’s Annual Library Dinner celebrates local history, embraces Brooklyn’s future
“We have so many great things to celebrate in Brooklyn,” remarked Councilman Carlos Menchaca last Thursday at the Brooklyn Historical Society’s (BHS) 10th Annual Library Dinner. Celebrating the 150th anniversary of BHS’s founding, the event began with a cocktail hour, after which a delicious dinner was served in the exquisite Othmer Library space. The event was sponsored in part by Goldman Sachs and Municipal Credit Union, as well as by Brooklyn Brewery, which supplied beer; New York Distilling Company, which provided the gin used in the signature “Othmer Gimlet” cocktail; and James Weir Floral Company, which provided the flowers.
Menchaca, who was elected co-chair of the City Council’s Brooklyn delegation just one day prior to the BHS event, told the crowd, “150 years…that’s an incredible amount of time for this amazing organization to be doing the work that the Brooklyn Historical Society has been doing […] I think about the history that is yet to be made […] It was Brooklyn that elected its first openly gay Mexican, and I’m the first Mexican elected to the city in its entirety, but it happened in Brooklyn. So I can’t wait for the next 150 years,” he said, drawing laughs and applause.