That very large famous and infamous borough of New York City, namesake of one of the country's most graceful bridges, Brooklyn, was perhaps the least likely of places for the development of a teaching center of international brilliance – and, at that, in the then little known field of X-ray diffraction. Such was the case, however. Where else, it has been asked, could a visiting lecturer on X-ray technique look out at his audience and, to his dismay, find in the front row, Paul P. Ewald, Herman Mark, Isidor Fankuchen and David Harker – respectively, a founding father of X-ray diffraction, a founding father of polymer chemistry, an entrepreneur par excellence in X-ray crystallography, and a major player in macromolecular (proteins) analysis. Only there at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. It was unique in its time and function as the pre-eminent school of learning for the rapidly evolving practices of polymer science and X-ray diffraction.