My actual address that was given was Portland Avenue north of Myrtle in the year 1859 which is when “Where the Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” was written. The whole process of doing my own shopping for history through unknown databases, scrapbooks and catalogs was a headache. Not to mention I did not have a number to go along with my address. This was one of the more difficult parts of this whole exploration, but eventually with a lot of hard work and dedication I got through it.

The next time I went to the Brooklyn Historical Society, it was a little more successful with the help of Elizabeth, our tour guide. The first thing I did was look at an 1860 atlas and found the possible cross streets to be between Myrtle and Park or Park and Flushing. I found that I still needed more information to obtain the correct block and lot number, so I looked through the Microfiche City Directories between the years of 1858-1861. Looking through the directory I found that Walter Whitman, which I believe was Walt Whitman’s father lived and worked as a packer in those years. It does indicate that they moved up and down an avenue but that could be a mistake of the person that made this directory because the year was long ago and the original data may not be located or because back in the day people did not have secure ways to protect their findings and could be just an estimate of where Walter Whitman lived at the time. The directories did not really provide too much information about Walt Whitman, mainly just on his father and his occupation.

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