While the fighting of World War II remained on the other side of the ocean, the effects of the war were deeply felt in New York City. Wartime ramifications included serious food shortages, as much American-grown food was being shipped overseas for troops and allies abroad. By 1943, the government had created a push for the cultivation of private lands for locally grown crops. These "victory gardens" sprouted up (pun intended) all over the city. The statistics for New York victory gardens were impressive: 400,000 victory gardens on 600 acres of private land which, over the course of the war, produced 200 million pounds of vegetables! Check out the bounty of New York's wartime farmers!

"Flatbush Ave., west side, between Aves., M. and P. The view shows the old St. Thomas Aquinas R.C. Church, 1931." This small church building opened in 1885 as the mission church of the larger nearby Holy Cross Church. The surrounding area was still very rural, dotted with family farms. By 1901 the parish had 150 members, but with the development and urbanization of the borough happening quickly, by 1909 the parishioners numbered 700. The church functions were moved out of this building in 1930, when a larger church was completed on Hendrickson Street. For a time this building served as a gymnasium for the parish school, but services returned in the 1940s and continue today.