Do you remember the subway line or what the name of the waterfront was? What stop you exited upon? Can you look at the NYC subway map to jog your memory? Did you cross the Brooklyn Bridge? You could look at Google street view once you’ve narrowed down some options, a la “A long Way Home.”

Also, can you edit the post to include NYC as a tag/category? Don’t know if that’s even an option, but would likely bring more people to your post.

I grew up in NYC but not Brooklyn. I’ve had these kind of moments, too. Maddening!

Hi Anna,

Many thanks for your reply and useful suggestions. We've had a little family pow-wow to see what we remember and looked at Google Maps! We think we got off the underground at Clarke Street Station. We then set off walking and went to a pharmacy close by with an Italian restaurant nearby. We think there was a bridge or fly-over here. We then saw some court / law buildings and headed towards the waterfront. We ended up in a little park where I seem to remember there were some small sculptures. I remember there being lots of pre-school age children here with their nannies. We then walked towards the Brooklyn Bridge beside what I think was the Brooklyn Bridge Park. We then had pizza at the famous pizza restaurant before walking back along the Brooklyn Bridge.

The garden in question was in the section between the pharmacy and the park. I remember walking through what I would escribe as traditional Edwardian type town houses with small but very neat front gardens.

Good idea re editing /tagging the post but I don't seem to be able to do that for some reason.

Thank you again and kind regards,

David

We then set off walking and went to a pharmacy close by with an Italian restaurant nearby.

This describes half of New York City, ;-) However, from what you describe, you were somewhere in Brooklyn Heights, which is filled with brownstones (typical NYC townhouses). Narrowing it down further, without a street name, will be very difficult.

You didn't by chance have Google maps turned on your phone while you were there, did you? If so, it will have tracked every place you went. (There are some small upsides to the surveillance state!)

As an aside, if you want to see what this area looked like 30+ years ago, watch the movie Moonstruck. It's delightful.

Have you tried a google image search, or pinterest? If it caught your eye, it may have caught others', as well, or been featured in a magazine spread or other place. Lots of brownstone gardens on pinterest and you might be able to narrow it down to those with water features.

https://www.gardenista.com/get-inspired/?t=brooklyn#search

https://www.gardenista.com/posts/best-of-brooklyn-the-winner-is/

https://www.gardenista.com/posts/the-most-beautiful-block-in-brooklyn/

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/this-brooklyn-backyard-has-a-two-story-treehouse-and-a-natural-pool-curbed-219067?crlt.pid=camp.PSFdv1IHaUAz#.3einge:Xpwq

https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/brooklyn-brownstone-modern-renovation.html

One last idea is to post on the city-data forum and see if someone knows

http://www.city-data.com/forum/new-york-city/

Many thanks to everyone for your interest and useful suggestions.

Party_music50... I thought about Street View and have given it a go but since I don't really know the area and the route we took, I didn't get very far I'm afraid. I may come back to it though and hope for a bit of 'divine intervention'!

Bookwoman… fair comment re the Italian restaurants and pharmacies but I suppose I just hoped with them being close to Clarke Street station, it may just narrow it down a bit and it might help someone with detailed knowledge of the area to work out where we were. Unfortunately, the family members with me have either changed their phones or weren't using Google Maps. We've tried to look for this feature (tracing an historic route) and couldn't see how it could be accessed? Thanks for the recommendation re 'Moonstruck'!

Olychick - Thanks for the links and useful suggestions re Pinterest etc... I'll certainly give it a go and see if I fall lucky!

Thank you again... my search goes on... I just hope if I ever do find a photo, it's as beautiful as I remember lol!!

David