Walking Brooklyn. Adrienne Onofri

to 1876, when it was constructed for a Democratic clubhouse. A row of charming bay-windowed houses is also on that side of 9th Street, but the building you really want to watch for is on the left, current home of Slope Music school. This photogenic 1856 Second Empire villa features iron-crested end pavilions and a cupola. The family that built it lived here only five years; later it would serve as the offices of Higgins Ink, whose 8th Street brick factory you can see behind the house.

      Turn left on 5th Avenue, a commercial street of Park Slope (whether the Slope–Gowanus border is 4th or 5th Avenue is a matter of debate) that was predominantly Latino and working-class into the 2000s. Evidence of that may still exist, but it’s getting crowded out by higher-end new shops and eateries. Some of them sell unique merchandise. Where else, for instance, can you buy X-ray glasses, canned antimatter, and a secret-identity kit besides the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., on your left between 6th and 5th Streets? All sales benefit a youth writing program.

      The middle school on the next block is named for the commander of the Maryland 400, General William Alexander, aka Lord Stirling. Past that, enter Washington Park and proceed to the Old Stone House, a 1930s replica of the Dutch farmhouse that had been constructed about a hundred feet to the east in 1699. It was at that house in the middle of the night on August 27, 1776, that a volunteer regiment of 400 Marylanders engaged a much larger force of British and Hessian soldiers in a battle—a tactical maneuver to allow the Continental Army to evacuate Brooklyn. The diversion succeeded, but nearly 300 of the Maryland men were killed. A small Battle of Brooklyn museum is inside the Old Stone House. As if that’s not enough history, these grounds would become the first home field, from 1883 to 1891, of the baseball team eventually known as the Brooklyn Dodgers.

      Today, in addition to celebrating its Revolutionary, sports, and agricultural heritage, the Old Stone House presents musical and theater performances, crafts and fitness classes, children’s activities, and other cultural and social events.

      Exit the park on 3rd Street and go left. As you near 3rd Avenue, the Old American Can Factory is on your left. This complex of six adjoining buildings constructed between 1865 and 1901 is yet another home for artists and creative businesses. These tenants are “curated”—interviewed and specially selected by the landlord. How about the artistry outside? The corner building especially is striking, with diamond-shaped windows facing 3rd Avenue.

      Go to the right on 3rd Avenue but only as far as the whitish wall on your right. This is a remnant of the outfield wall of the second Washington Park, built for the Dodgers in 1898 by their new owner, Charles Ebbets, who’d started working for the club as a ticket taker. The Dodgers played at this park until they moved to Ebbets Field in 1913.