Van Dyke Houses, ca. 1950s First known as the Brownsville Houses Extension, the Van Dyke Houses were built in 1955 as an expansion of the neighborhood's first NYCHA Public Housing project. The Houses cost 18.5 million dollars to construct and consist of 22 high-rise towers that encompass over 1,600 units. Before the end of World War II, Brownsville was a largely Jewish neighborhood. According to Wendell E. Pritchett, author of "Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews, and the Changing Face of the Ghetto," the New York City Housing Authority was the only city agency to give the neighborhood any attention. Public housing developments went up in predominantly Black or "changing" neighborhoods, like Fort Greene, South Bronx, and Brownsville in the late 1940s. According to Pritchett: "these areas were chosen to relieve the pressure from other neighborhoods fighting black incursion." Brownsville Houses and their extension, the Van Dyke Houses, were a poster-child for what meaningful racial integration might look like in the early 1950s. The Brownsville Houses were the first and only public housing project that was not segregated. As principal, the demographics of the Houses reflected those of the area, and tenants were about 40% Jewish and 60% Black newcomers. Pritchett described this era as a moment of a "comity of interest between Jewish and Black advocacy groups." However, the optimism about what the project meant in terms of race-relations was short-lived. By 1963, "white flight," had reached Brownsville. Working-class whites of the Van Dyke Houses enjoyed upward mobility in the post-war years and left the area after reaching economic prosperity, meanwhile newer Black residents of Brownsville were not afforded the opportunities. Just seven years after the Van Dyke Houses were completed, nearly all of the Jewish population had left and 72% of its residents were Black and15% were Puerto Rican. The Houses experienced an increase in crime and violence in the 1960s. One such event ended in a "riot call," that brought dozens of officers on the scene and led to 23 arrests. Some tenants chalked up increased disorder to roaming youths who lived in Van Dyke and targeted elderly Jewish residents, though security argued the trouble came from residents who lived nearby but not in the projects. To quell problems, NYCHA assembled a team of social workers, tenant associations, and various other community groups to work on long-term solutions and "teach understanding for others." Today, the Van Dyke Houses are part of Brooklyn's Community District 16. Of this district, 20% of its population is housed in NYCHA buildings, and Van Dyke houses over 4,000 residents.

Stone Avenue Branch (former Brownsville Children’s Library), ca. 1915. Opened in 1914 as the Brownsville Children's Library, this Carnegie Library was established to relieve the overcrowding of the original Brownsville Carnegie at 61 Glenmore Street. Designed by William B. Tubby, the original plans for the library mirrored many of the other suburban style libraries: single-story, three-bay library with a center doorway. Instead the design was substantially changed, with the branch's first librarian, Clara H. Hunt, working with the planners to create a children's specific facility. It is believed to have been the first library in the world devoted exclusively to serving children.The branch was so popular among the largely Jewish immigrant population that nearby businesses were annoyed at the long lines of children waiting to go into the library who blocked their storefronts. The facade was rendered like a fairy tale castle, in a unique Jacobethan style with a heavy stone base and projecting tower with doorways (seen pictured here). The interior still includes wood paneling and a bench with carved bunny heads on the arm rests. A 2014 centennial renovation added new lighting and furniture, a "word wall" mural, and a life size chess set to the library which now serves all age groups.

Wood-frame house at roughly the northeast corner of Thatford and Lott Avenues in Brownsville, Brooklyn; January 11, 1959.

The first decade of the 20th century the population of Brooklyn exploded, particularly in the neighborhood of Brownsville which saw a significant influx of Jewish immigrants from the overcrowded Lower East Side. The Williamsburg Bridge opened at the end of 1903, and between 1905 and 1912 the city established four new schools in Brownsville to attempt to meet the demand of the new school-aged population. Public School 125 predated the opening of the bridge by two years but was heavily renovated in 1917 to add educational and "activity" spaces. The overcrowding never truly abated even as the demographics of the neighborhood changed by the mid-century. By the 1950s the school was predominantly African American (the nearby Brownsville Houses opened in 1948) and was over capacity by 30%. Strangely, the closing date for the school is unknown. The building long stood but was left to ruins, creating a somewhat creepy scene on Rockaway Boulevard. Scaffolding has been erected since late 2017 and work underway. As of late 2018, the work seems completed, but it is unknown what the building's use will be.

Wood-frame house at roughly the northeast corner of Thatford and Lott Avenues in Brownsville, Brooklyn; January 11, 1959. This house sits on the line dividing the town of Flatlands from the New Lots section of Flatbush, just west of the former right of way of Hunterfly Road. While the house does not appear on many historical maps of the area, its positioning suggests that a predecessor structure existed on its site, part of a farm owned by the Lott, Remsen, and Ryerson families.

Nanny Goat Park, pictured here, was a local term for this empty lot in Brownsville. The land was acquired by the City in the 1970s and given to the NYC Department of Parks to be developed using Federal Community Development funds. The ballfield, now properly surfaced, is named for Floyd Patterson (1935-2006) an American boxer.