Lockwood’s original idea was to simply graft a new
chapter on the end of the original book to give more
detail on the later Victorian period and early 20th
century. They began to “aggressively research” the
new section of the book—part of a process Ciccone
calls “rebalancing the book,” akin to historic preservation—
before unforeseen circumstances put
the project on hold. But after the recession in 2008
stalled work on the book, and Lockwood passed
away four years later, Ciccone took over the project
at the urging of the estate. He had met Lockwood
while a student in Columbia’s graduate preservation
program, and helped him with another project he
was working on with his brother, John Lockwood.
They were friends, had worked together, and Ciccone
was well versed in the material, which made him an
obvious choice to complete the long-gestating new
version.
But the task in many ways was terrifying. “The book
is referred to as a bible,” Ciccone says, laughing.
“Updating the bible is not something most people
want to take on. It was really scary. How are you
going to live up to it?”
One of the biggest changes was in correcting the
sourcing. “For reasons that are not quite clear, the
original version of the book did not have footnotes,”
Ciccone says. With the book’s text being digitized,
they were able to track down around 80 percent of
the original material and add citations to the book.
In other instances, they were forced to leave the original,
vague references as they were originally written.
Preservationist Jonathan Taylor and photographer
Dylan Chandler also contributed to the expansive
reissue. It has new color photographs throughout,
historical photographs not in previous editions, more
about Brooklyn, and reconfigured and new chapters
that delve into the late Victorian and early 20th century
periods.
“Bricks & Brownstone,” Ciccone says, was so
wrapped up in Lockwood’s life and personality that,
in some ways, the work he did on the book could
only happen with Lockwood not around. All of the
changes were made with the intent of keeping Lockwood’s
original work alive for readers—as a narrative
guide, a reference book or even an object to keep on
your coffee table—for decades to come. “I hope he
would have been happy with it,” he says.
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