In a sentimental return to the past, the Brooklyn Heights Association has obtained public funding to spread replicas of early 20th century “bishop’s crook� lampposts around the neighborhood. Montague Street is already lined with the replicas. (Resembling the hooked shafts used by shepherds to snare stray sheep, bishop’s crooks are symbols of a bishop’s role as “shepherd� to his flock.)

City and federal money totaling $650,000 is becoming available to launch Phase 1 of the $2.7 million Historic Lighting Project advocated for many years by the Heights Association. It provides for the replacement of “cobra head� silvery aluminum light poles with black cast-iron poles in the “bishop’s crook� and “M-pole� (two crooks on one pole) designs. Poles in those styles were installed on Montague Street a few years ago.

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) announced late last week that $400,000 is being allocated to the BHA in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriation to help communities promote small businesses and tourism. Congress passed the bill 256 to 168 and it now awaits expected Senate passage, she said.

Already provided is $250,000 in funding allocated to the city’s Department of Transportation by City Councilman David Yassky, the BHA spring newsletter reported.

Replacement of about 65 of the aluminum lampposts is contemplated in Phase 1 of the project, Judy Stanton, the BHA executive director, said. The ultimate aim is to install 229 of the replicas.

Stanton said she will suggest to the DOT that the installation of the bishop’s crooks begin on streets nearest to Montague Street. For example: begin on Pierrepont Street and spread north, she explained. A starting date has not been indicated by the DOT.

An article on the BHA’s Historic Lighting Project in the May membership newsletter noted: “At the time of its designation as the City’s first Historic District, Brooklyn Heights retained intact its early 20th Century cast iron ‘Bishop’s Crooks’ and ‘M-Poles.’ Thereafter the City converted to the Cobra Heads on aluminum poles that you see now.�

(For anyone who would like to see an actually functioning reproduction of a mid-19th century gaslight, pre-bishop’s crook, there are a pair of them outside 236 Henry Street, corner of Joralemon.)

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