Go East, Sick Man!

I've often passed an unusual, dignified building on the northwest corner of Clinton and Livingston in Brooklyn Heights that bears some plaques outside indicating that it is a doctors office. But the doctors' names have often stopped me in my tracks. The top of four plaques is for Horace Greeley M.D. The other three all have "Greeley" as part of their name. Could they be related somehow to the great, 19th-century publisher, statesman and politician, Mr. New York "Go West Young Man" Tribune himself? Or was it some whopping coincidence?

Determined to get to the bottom of it, I made a nuisance of myself, going into the office and bothering the receptionist with several questions. Yes, the four doctors listed are all of the lineage of the Great Man. Since the original Horace died in 1972, every succeeding namesake has gone into the medical profession. Their pictures line a corridor of the office.

Interesting and encouraging that the descendants of such an iconic New York figure should have remained in the city all these years later.