Lefferts Avenue, south side, east from New York Avenue, 1929. A trio of wood-frame homes, hidden under late 20th century siding, that unexpectedly remain.

163-165 Midwood Street, 1924. Nos. 163 and 165 are two in a series of ten homes designed by George Lawton of the firm of Lawton & Field for William A.A. Brown in 1899. Brown was banker, real estate developer, avid horticulturist, and powerful in the local political community. He was also the head of the (Brooklyn-based) Budweiser Brewing Company. This series of homes is similar to a grouping down the block at 117-151, but has Romanesque Revival detail at the basement level, while the others are more neo-Renaissance .

1177 Nostrand Avenue, 1962. Notice the long gone gas tanks behind the blockfront on Nostrand Avenue.

403 Rogers Avenue, 1962. This Tudor style building was likely constructed in the early 1920s. In the ensuing century the large decorative parapets on the corner building (no. 403) have been removed.

North side of Rutland Road between Rogers Avenue and Nostrand Avenue, 271 Rutland Road at center, 1962.

451 Rogers Avenue, 1962. The corner building (no. 451) stands out by being one story taller than its neighbors. It does share many of the same decorative architectural elements of the other buildings that front Rogers Avenue on the wast side between Lincoln Road and Lefferts Avenue. The entire row was likely designed by the same person. Each of the windows on the blockfront have the same decorative lintel above the window with the geometric square patterns with center festoons (carved ornament depicting conventional arrangement of flowers, foliage or fruit bound together and suspended by ribbons). This building, along with the four-story building at the far corner (no. 429), bookend this block and are decorated with an additional stone plaque of torches and wreaths between the top two stories.

Kings County Penitentiary, ca. 1905. Built in the mid 1840s the Kings County Penitentiary was constructed on a large plot of land in what was then an extremely rural part of Brooklyn. The prison and adjacent workhouse was surrounded by a large stone wall (seen at front here). A facility for both men and women, the prisoners worked in a shoe factory on site or in chain gangs on the nearby streets (men only). Like so many of the 19th century detention centers, this one too was awash mismanagement, violence, cruelty towards inmates, and deplorable conditions. The penitentiary was torn down in 1907 after the land was sold to the Jesuits. On the plot they planned a large educational facility that would house a grammar school, high school, and college. The resulting campus was called the Brooklyn College and Preparatory School, though the college only lasted until 1913. Later called Brooklyn Preparatory School, the surrounding area (once the large plot belonging to the prison) was built out with educational facilities and athletic fields. In 1971 the school was sold to the city for a new CUNY location. Today the Brooklyn Prep buildings are part of a much large campus of the Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.

A walking tour of the "Pigtown" neighborhood, created by Rocco Cetera for #JanesWalkNYC.

Engine Company 249, August 7, 1962. Engine Company 249 was originally Brooklyn Fire Department Engine 49. It was established on January 20, 1896. After the consolidation New York City, to minimize confusion with the Manhattan firehouses, the Brooklyn and Queens engines had 100 numbers added to the names. So BFD 49 became FDNY 149. During a second reorganization in 1913 the engines were renumbered again, this time to with 200 numbers, making this one Engine 249. The firehouse on Rogers Avenue was the Engine's original building. The land was purchased for $1700 in 1895. The two-story, two bay, brick firehouse was designed by J. T. Lauretzen. A Romanesque Revival style structure of red brick and Indiana limestone, the dominating exterior feature is the rounded tower at tight. The back of the building originally featured six stalls for the horses that powered the trucks. The building underwent renovations in 1926 to modernize the space. In 1996, after 100 years of service, the building was once again renovated. This time the renovations included largely demolishing the structure (leaving only the front wall). A new three-story firehouse was constructed and attached to the original front wall.

This firehouse is almost the mirror image, although built with different materials, to the landmark Engine Company 40, Hook & Ladder Company 21 (1895) in Windsor Terrace. Lauritzen designed at least eight firehouses in the years just before the then-independent City of Brooklyn merged into Greater New York. This building originally had space for a steam fire engine, a hose truck, a ladder truck and six horse stalls. The projecting tower above the right corner was presumably for drying hoses. Architectural inspiration came from medieval and Jacobean England, particularly the ornate window surrounds and the ogee pediment above the left bay. In 1996 the building was essentially rebuilt, and a third story added, behind the historic façade.

Constructed on the foundations of the old Kings County Penitentiary in 1908, this large, Beaux-Arts style building was built as the Brooklyn Preparatory School by the Jesuits. The school complex then grew to include playing fields and supporting classrooms. The all-male institution provided a superior classical education to students who went on to careers in law, business and the arts. Graduates included William Peter Blatty, author of the Exorcist, and Joseph Califano, United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter. Brooklyn Prep’s final class graduated in 1972, after which the building was sold to the City University of New York (CUNY), which opened Medgar Evers College in the complex. The school has flourished and expanded to include a much larger campus along Bedford Avenue and the surrounding streets.