iStoreGreen history

The growth of Myrtle Avenue in the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn was stimulated by its proximity to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, commissioned in 1801.

Originally designed by Calvert Vaux, Tavern on the Green was built as a sheep fold in the 1880’s to house the 700 Southdown sheep that grazed in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.

Robert Moses transformed the building in to a restaurant in 1934, as part of his park renovation.

Due to the resulting demand for housing, the New York City Housing Authority built the Walt Whitman and Raymond V. Ingersoll Houses on Myrtle Avenue in 1944 to house Navy Yard wartime workers.

Despite many natural advantages and a surrounding neighborhood of historic importance, Myrtle Avenue began to lose some of its vitality in the early 1970’s.

References: Fort Greene Park Conservancy, The Museum of the City of New York, New York Newsday.com, nycsubway.org and “The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn” by Kenneth T. Jackson and John B. Manbeck (Yale University Press, 1998).

Sitt’s green self-storage company, iStoreGreen, which opened in Brooklyn in 2008, can help with that too.

Tea pilgrims making one last visit to Ito En will find about 200 kinds of loose teas, including hoji cha, a roasted, vanilla-flavored green variety, and a 50 percent discount on all teaware and accessories. Ito En, named in the 2010 Zagat Survey as the city’s “best tea emporium,” has decided after eight years to vacate its minimalist, gallery-like Madison Avenue flagship store and upstairs restaurant, Kai.

The duo renovated the restaurant with inviting décor and wood paneling reminiscent of the original sheep fold, and, with a seasonal menu more reflective of Greater New York, reopened Tavern on the Green in April 2014.