James Madison High School, 1926. This Brooklyn high school was established in 1925 at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Quentin Road (Avenue Q) as the area, then considered part of Sheepshead Bay or Marine Park (today’s Madison neighborhood derives its name from the school), we experiencing a surge in new construction. Madison was to address school overcrowding built at a time of significant population growth in Brooklyn. The school continues to operate out of its original six-story building, which is less notable for its architecture than for the distinguished students who have passed through its halls. Madison graduates include no less than four Nobel Prize winners, two sitting U.S. Senators — Chuck Schumer (‘67) and Bernie Sanders (‘59) — and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (‘50). In a 1993 profile coinciding with Justice Ginsburg’s elevation to the nation’s highest court, the New York Times characterized Madison as “a rarity in American education -- an ethnic melting pot of scholastic overachievers,” noting Ginsburg’s personal record of overachievement: as a student, she was editor of the student newspaper and a cheerleader.

Nostrand Theatre, June 18, 1961. One of a number of theatres along Nostrand Avenue that used the same name at various times, the theatre at nos. 2817-2825 was constructed in 1938 in an Art Deco style. Designed by John Eberson, the well-known architect of movie palaces. The auditorium had seating for 1000. Its first two screenings were 'A Man to Remember' and 'That Certain Age.' The building housed the movie theatre until 1984. Today the building remains and is occupied by a gym.

In December 2018, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sat down with NPR’s Nina Totenberg for an exclusive interview presented by the Museum of the City of New York. During this sold-out discussion, Justice Ginsburg spoke about her love of opera, her New York City roots, and why, after years in Washington, she still considered herself a Brooklynite. Take a virtual look at RBG's NYC, through places she remembered fondly and those she would have frequented in her youth.

Kingsway Jewish Center, 1961. The Mid-century building is the home of a Modern Orthodox Shul that has served the surrounding neighborhoods since 1928. The building, designed by Martyn Weston and Herman Sohn and constructed between 1951 and 1957, includes a number of prominent mid century features, such as blocky massing and narrow vertically-oriented windows that frame the entrance. The building also includes 18 stained glass windows by well-known American Abstract Expressionist painter and sculptor, Adolf Gottlieb. The larger windows depict Jewish holidays, while the smaller ones include simple geometric motifs. Gottlieb's other major stained glass work (for the Milton Steinberg House in Manhattan) was dismantled in 1980 and reinstalled elsewhere, making his windows at Kingsway the only remaining example of his glass work in situ.