Rustic Shelter, Prospect Park, unknown date.

Colony Inn, ca.1910. The buildings that housed the Colony Inn during the first few decades of the 20th century were originally constructed in the early 19th century as farm houses when the area was still rural. After the Civil War, Flatbush Avenue became a commercial thoroughfare, as well as a fashionable location for new large homes, interspersed with the older wood-frame structures. The Colony Inn was opened in 1910 by Charles F. Heineman. Heineman was a dry goods dealer and an investor in many ventures including horse racing, car racing, and real estate. The popular Colony Inn was a hotel and restaurant. Heineman was very involved in fundraising efforts during and after World War I, hosting events that generated money for the war relief, the Salvation Army, and veteran's services. The end of the Colony Inn is shrouded in some mystery. References to the place end in 1924. (Most of these newspaper references are advertisements for African American service workers; the Colony only hired African American maids, porters, cooks, and waiters.) During the 1920s this stretch of Flatbush Avenue was lined with the construction of five and six-story apartment houses with ground floor retail spaces. The Colony Inn was likely closed and demolished to make way for one of these buildings.

582-590 Flatbush Avenue, 1922. No. 582, at right, was a late 19th century two and a half-story wood-frame home. According to the photograph notes, the home was demolished in 1928 for the construction of the Patio Theatre. The theatre was the grandest of the Century Theaters circuit. Designed by the architect-designer team of R.Thomas Short and William Rau, the auditorium was ornately designed with gilding and chandeliers. The style was "Old World Spanish." The theatre opened in 1928 and had early competition from the nearby Flatbush Theatre, Kenmore Theatre and Albemarle Theatre. The opening of the King's Theatre in 1929 put the Patio at a serious disadvantage. Despite the movie house surge after World War II and a renovation in 1948, the Patio was sold and demolished by the early 1960s.

590 Flatbush Avenue, known as the Thatcher House; July, 1928. John Thatcher was born in northwest England and immigrated to New York in about 1863, at the age of 10. In 1875, he founded the eponymous construction firm that would go on to become John Thatcher & Son (with son Edwin H. Thatcher). Thatcher & Son won several high profile contracts in Brooklyn, including the Polhemus Memorial Clinic, Erasmus Hall High School, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Edwin Thatcher's obituary headline read "Edwin Thatcher Dies; Built Academy of Music). The elder Thatcher became the Superintendent of the Bureau of Buildings for Brooklyn, but met his early demise in 1912, in the line of duty: he was inspecting new buildings on New Lots Avenue with a colleague (identified as an "Italian apprentice"), when the scaffolding collapsed and he plunged 40 feet to the pavement below. He died shortly thereafter, of a spinal fracture and brain hemorrhage. Edwin Thatcher served as Commissioner of Buildings from 1934-38, and continued to oversee the family firm's operations until shortly before his death in 1953. The high-rise currently occupying this site on the west side of Flatbush Avenue was completed in 1962.

Wood-frame house at 598 Flatbush Avenue, opposite Rutland Road; 1922. In 1908, this was the residence of Charlotte Vanderbilt, daughter of John. J Vanderbilt and Margaret Stryker Vanderbilt. According to photographer Eugene L. Armbruster, the house was razed between 1922 and 1936. Charlotte Vanderbilt died in 1924, at the age of 89; she is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. In 1882, the Charlotte Vanderbilt, a steam ferry, sank on the Hudson River, south of Kingston and Rondout. This ferry was named after a different Charlotte Vanderbilt (likely a relative), the sister of ferry and rail magnate Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt.

The Cleft Ridge Arch, ca. 1890.

Mozart Statue Have you ever wondered why a bronze bust of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart resides in Prospect Park? The story of how the world-renowned Austrian composer’s likeness came to be in Brooklyn dates back to the year 1897. If you take a stroll through the southeastern side of Prospect Park in Brooklyn you will find yourself in Concert Grove. The area was originally designed for park-goers to leisurely enjoy live music in the nearby concert house and pavilion, surrounding themselves with the impeccable beauty of nature. In 1949, the concert house was demolished and the pavilion was turned into a snack bar, altering the landscape for more “modern times” as per City Planner Robert Moses. Years later in 1987, Concert Grove was restored back to its original splendor. The grove is home to a collection of busts, several depicting prominent world composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, and as seen above, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The bust of Mozart was created by German-American Sculptor Augustus Max Johannes Mueller and cast in 1897. That same year, The United German Singers of Brooklyn won the bust in the 18th annual National Saengerfest, a choral competition held that year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the last week of June. The group donated their newly prized bust of Mozart to the City of Brooklyn and a dedication ceremony was held in the park on October 23rd, 1897. Coincidentally, it seems the United German Singers of Brooklyn did quite well at their choral competitions. A few years earlier in 1894, the aforementioned bust of Beethoven had also been won by the group and donated to the park, as well as the bust of Weber some fifteen years later in 1909.

The Old Flatbush Toll Gate, unknown date. Originally located along the old Flatbush Turnpike, this Old Flatbush Toll Gate dates to an era when travelers were obliged to pay a small fare when they passed from the Village of Flatbush into the City of Brooklyn. While the 19th century turnpike no longer exists, the route generally followed what is known as today’s Flatbush Avenue. It stood along the Turnpike until 1925, when the toll gate was relocated to Prospect Park’s Willink Entrance. Residents who sought to avoid the toll were known to reroute to Port Road, also called Shinpike Road, which was a narrow and stony street that led to Gowanus and Red Hook Lane (now Court Street).

Flatbush Avenue toll gate, ca. 1880. Before 1894, when the various towns of Kings County were consolidated into the City of Brooklyn, the Village of Flatbush (roughly coextensive with the contemporary neighborhood) and Town of Flatbush (covering a larger swath of southeastern Brooklyn) were distinct political entities. This toll booth, situated on the west side of Flatbush Avenue — long a route between Brooklyn, proper, and points south — between Fenimore and Hawthorne Streets, marked the border of the Village of Flatbush.

Music school at Flatbush Avenue and Parkside Avenue (formerly Ocean Parkway, Franklin Avenue); ca. 1908. According to Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt's 1909 "Social History of Flabush," this house was built by Mrs. Jane Rhodes (sometimes spelled 'Rhoades'). In Eugene L. Armbruster's photo, ca. 1908, the late Mrs. Rhodes' home has been converted to the "School of Accompanying," described in a 1911 Brooklyn Daily Eagle advertisement as a resource for pianists to "largerly increase" their income.

Garret L. Martense mansion, Flatbush Avenue; 1922. This Greek Revival mansion was the home of Judge Garret L. Martense for a portion of the mid 19th century. He was an early landowner in Flatbush. According to the photographic notes the home was razed in 1923. The building which now occupies the northwest corner of Flatbush Avenue and Westbury Court looks to have been built within the decade after the home was taken down, considering its architectural style.

Shops at Nos. 805-811 Flatbush Avenue, opposite Caton Avenue; May 11, 1929. These wood-frame structures were demolished in 1930, as Caton Avenue was extended east from Flatbush Avenue, along the path of the alley at right. Prior to the extension, the alley led to stables and further storefronts.

The home of Dr. Homer L. Bartlett, No. 88 Fenimore Street; 1910. Bartlett, described in his 1904 New York Times as "one of the most prominent physicians in Brooklyn," was born in Vermont in 1830, and came to New York to complete his medical training in the 1850s. His trade brought him to Kings County in 1856, where he treated an outbreak of yellow fever in the town of New Utrecht before settling in Flatbush. In Flatbush, Bartlett was involved in a wide array of civic institutions, including the Health Board, of which he was founder and commissioner; the Police Department, where he became president of the the board; and the gas and water utilities; in addition to a stint as schools commissioner. In his medical practice, Bartlett enjoyed a long association with the Kings County Hospital and the Kings County Penitentiary, as well as affiliations with trade associations like the American Medical Association. In what spare time he had left, Bartlett was an active member of his local Masonic Lodge and wrote fiction based "on the Indian legends of Long Island." Bartlett's wife, Margaret Scott Bartlett, asserted a different sort of influence on the town's development: at her suggestion the street adjacent to her home was named for the novelist James Fenimore Cooper, a family friend.

View west along Fenimore Street, from Bedford Avenue; 1914. The large house at center is No. 115 Fenimore Street. According to the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Historic District designation report, No. 115 was completed in 1896, and is one of the first two houses constructed in Lefferts Manor, the development established in 1893 by James Lefferts on the grounds of his family's farm. The wood-frame house is still standing today, albeit in rough shape following a 2010 fire.

Cleft Ridge Arch, unknown date. Completed in 1871, Prospect Park's Cleft Ridge Arch is a small béton-Coignet bridge that is celebrated as the first concrete arch to be built in the United States. The slabs used to build the archway were amongst the first concrete products to be mass-produced. When a financial “panic” came upon the country in 1873, the builders of Prospect Park shifted to alternative construction materials. Sitting directly in front of the park’s Camperdown Elm, the Arch was fashioned from molded blocks of concrete that were comprised of sand, gravel and Portland cement. Today, the Arch is crossed by Wellhouse Drive, connecting paths to the Lullwater and Music Grove area.

Patio Theatre, 1929.

Mozart Statue, Prospect Park, ca. 1900.

Farmhouse on Flatbush Avenue, opposite Fenimore Street; ca. 1920. The house is said to have been built by Samuel Gerritsen in about 1796. The Gerritsen family were early Dutch settlers of Kings County, and operated a mill on the creek separating the towns of Gravesend and Flatlands as early as the 1690s. The mill burned in 1935, and today its former site is included in Marine Park, just east of the Gerritsen Beach neighborhood. The farmhouse on Flatbush Avenue passed through many owners during the 19th century, and was at one point "famous for its ivy and garden." The house was demolished in 1926.

Greenhouse of William Brown, father-in-law of photographer Adrian Vanderveer Martense, in the aftermath of the blizzard of 1888. Brown was a player in the Brooklyn brewing business. In 1884 he led a group of investors in the purchase of the Bedford Brewery in present-day Crown Heights, and proceeded to upgrade its equipment and practices. Following a research and development trip to Europe, Brown returned to Kings County with the perfect recipe for lager beer, and the perfect name for his new brew: Budweiser. Unfortunately, the Anheuser-Busch corporation had already trademarked the name, following their own delegation's trip to the brewing city of Budweis in Bohemia. (Brown backed down, and the business was renamed Nassau Brewery.) An avid horticulturist, Brown commissioned the Lord & Burnham architectural firm to design a pair of heated greenhouses straddling the planned right of way for Robinson Road (now Parkside Avenue), east of Flatbush Avenue.

Streetcar on Flatbush Avenue, at Caton Avenue; ca. 1910. Photographer Eugene L. Armbruster's view is facing southward, from a point near Lenox Road. The spire of the Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church is visible in the distance.

Concert Grove, Prospect Park, unknown date. Concert Grove was designed in 1887 as a place for park goers to enjoy musical performances, as evidenced by the 1890s busts of Beethoven and Mozart. The pagoda was converted to a snack bar in 1950, and damaged in a 1974 fire. Its present restoration was completed in 1987, marking the Grove's centennial.

75 Maple Street, ca. 1924. Designed by Albert Morton Grey in 1922, this simple neo-Georgian home was built for Jeanne M. Reynolds. The facade is English-bond brick and the projected bay entrance (which is unusually on the side of the house) remains.

Gas station at Flatbush Avenue and Chester Court; April, 1923. This 1842 farm house was the home of Cornelius Jeremiah "Corneel" Vanderbilt, son of the shipping and transportation magnate Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, during the late 19th century. Corneel, who was said to suffer from epilepsy, was held in ill-regard by his wealthy father, an opinion compounded by his repeated business errors. The junior Vanderbilt, then living in Connecticut, died by suicide in 1882. According to photographer Eugene L. Armbruster, the house was converted into a gas station with an attached storefront in 1922 and razed in 1926.

Former Concert Grove House; unknown date. One of the original features of the Concert Grove area was the Concert Grove House. The structure stood as a shelter until 1949, when Parks Commissioner Robert Moses demolished it and converted the nearby Concert Pavilion into a snack bar.

Lincoln Statue in the Concert Grove, ca. 1907.

Bust of Irish poet Thomas Moore, ca. 1975. This bronze bust of Irish poet Thomas Moore was designed by American sculptor John G. Draddy and installed in the Concert Grove of Prospect Park in 1879. Moore's bust is not the only artist likeness in the Concert Grove, other famed artists depicted here include composers Beethoven, Mozart, and Carl Maria Von Weber.

Oriental Pavilion, Prospect Park, unknown date.