Aaron Copland grew up on Dean Washington

Aaron Copland wrote: To any boy living there it would have seemed like an ordinary Brooklyn street. There were our neighbors: a baker, a painter, a butcher, a candy store across the street, a large grocery store down the block (no chain stores yet), and of course, the corner saloon with its occasional neighborhood drunks. Culture could hardly be said to be a familiar word on our street, yet it wasn’t entirely absent from the area. A 10-minute walk up Washington Avenue brings you to Eastern Parkway where you will find the Brooklyn Museum. (It was there, aged ten, that I suffered my first ‘cultural’ shock at the sight of a nude statue.) Ten minutes in the opposite direction from our house was the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where I heard my first symphony concert when I was 16.

Brooklyn Eagle wrote: In 1897, Aaron’s father, Harris, moved his business, H.M. Copland’s Department Store, from 626-628 Washington Ave. at Dean Street to a new building at 630-632 Washington built expressly for the store with living quarters above and to the side in the same building. The store dealt mainly in drygoods, shoes, toys and household items. “Corsets and ribbons were big” sellers. From 1906 on, the store had a telephone. Aaron remembered the number as Prospect 4666.

A horse and wagon was kept in a local livery for deliveries and was used for family weekend trips to Brighton Beach. Business was good and the store expanded to include 771-773 Dean Street in 1907.