Brownstone is a brown Triassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. While brownstone is often popularly associated with New York City, the stone was used widely, around the world, until it fell out of favour around 1900. The quarries used for the early brownstones of New York City were in New Jersey, and in the Connecticut River area.

The Avondale section of Nutley, New Jersey was home to one such quarry. Jobs at the quarry supported a sizeable portion of the Italian and Irish immigrants in Nutley at the turn of the century. This quarry was later home to the Nutley Velodrome.

In New York City, a "brownstone" is understood to be a terrace or rowhouse clad in brownstone. New York City brownstones tend to be found in certain older neighborhoods, which are perhaps most common in Brooklyn. Many brownstones have been renovated in recent years, leading to gentrification in areas like Park Slope, Bedford Stuyvesant and Fort Greene. On the popular 1980's-'90s American television program The Cosby Show, the affluent Huxtable family, the show's central characters, lived in a Brooklyn brownstone.

The term Brownstone may also be used as slang for heroin, particularly in the United States.

External links

• Website devoted to the Apostle Island brownstone quarries in Wisconsin.

New York City cultureMasonryStone