New Utrecht Avenue, east side, looking north, between 53rd Street and 52nd Street, March 25, 1914. The neighborhood here surrounding the Brooklyn, Bath and West End Railroad (an electric trolley line by 1900), began to develop in earnest in 1905. That year a real estate developer purchased a plot of farm land just to the south of this streetscene. Over the next six years the company constructed streets, avenues, sidewalks, as well as, installed water, gas, and sewage infrastructure. They partitioned the land into individual lots for sale to builders, and more than 500 structures were constructed by 1911. The structure under construction is at the northwest corner of 52nd Street. It was the West End Theatre, which originally showed silent films. In 1921, the Boro Park Theatre was constructed directly behind this theatre at the corner of 12th Avenue and 51st Street for the B.F. Keith Circuit. Both theatres were purchased 1923 by Loew's and plans were made for the West End to show movies while its neighbor produced vaudeville. Within a couple of years the West End had closed. It became a bowling alley in 1942 for some unknown length of time. In recent years it has functioned as a banquet hall and today it is a Talmudic college that serves the large Orthodox Jewish community of Borough Park.

1147 49th Street, 1958.

Looking north at the intersection of 50th Street, New Utrecht Avenue, and 12th Avenue, March 25, 1914.

Borough Park Club House, ca. 1912. The neighborhood now known as Borough Park, was once called, for a short period of time in the 19th century, Blythebourne. It was the creation of a developer named Electus B. Litchfield. He had established a small cottage community in 1887 from the sprawling farmland that dominated this part of Brooklyn. A different developer, William H. Reynolds, arrived on the scene in the 1880s and bought, schemed, and constructed a new, larger community around Blythebourne, calling it Borough Park. The community had a suburban feel, with small wood-frame homes as well as large Queen Anne and Colonial Revival detached houses. The Borough Park Club House was conceived by Reynolds and designed by Benjamin Dreisler 1898. The Queen Anne/Colonial Revival building with a large wraparound porch was the center of activity for the neighborhood. It hosted events organized by fraternal organizations, church and synagogue, scouts, teachers, sports clubs, social clubs, union organizations, and political clubs. The clubhouse survived in its original form until World War II, after which it was converted in to a Jewish Center and then school, serving the booming Orthodox Jewish community that had moved into the neighborhood mid century. During these years the large porch was removed, two-story wings were added to the building, and the surrounding grass was cemented over. In the 1980s the building was demolished and replaced.

Blythebourne Postal Station, 1933. The Postal Station (which no longer functions in that capacity) was named after the original community that became Borough Park. A developed established Blythebourne in 1887, a small cottage community. Within a decade or so another developer constructed residential and civic buildings and renamed this larger community Borough Park; he thought Blythebourne was too English sounding. The current Blythebourne Station is located in a late mid century (almost brutalist) building on 51st Street and 12th Avenue. This building at no. 5608 13th Avenue is Kollel Mateh Efraim, a Jewish religious organization.