1408 President Street, 1932.

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.

(Henry M. Congdon & Son, 1907; additions: 1937) This Romanesque Revival style building was designed as the community center for a large church planned for the lot next door that was never built. The building included a basement gym, kitchen, auditorium and classrooms. Interestingly, the firm had recently designed the homes on the opposite side of Union Street (site 13), thus allowing for a certain continuity and design harmony on the block. Thirty years after designing the original structure, the architectural firm of Henry M. Congdon & Son returned in 1937 to permanently transform the building into a church, adding Gothic details with a new sanctuary, steeple, entrance and stairway. The corner structure benefits from being set back by grassy lawns from both Union Street and Brooklyn Avenue, lending it a pleasant stature in addition to its architectural charm.

1345 President Street. S. Epstein residence, ca. 1923.

Brooklyn Jewish Center, 1924. This synagogue and community center had its cornerstone laid in 1920 and was established to cater to the needs of Jewish life. The building when completed had a sanctuary, wedding ballroom, a day school, a swimming pool, and a health club. A kosher restaurant and a robust adult education program rounded out the center which was imagined as a single institution for educational, religious, social, and recreational activities. It has earned the descriptor of "a pool with a school and a shul." In the 1960s a the surrounding neighborhood was changing (white Jewish and Catholic populations were moving away, while African American and Chassidic Jewish communities were arriving) the building adapted to the transition. It became the home of the Educational Institute Oholei Torah, the flagship school of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

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

1275 President Street, July 15, 1962. President Street between New York and Kingston Avenues is known as Doctor's Row (and also Millionaire's Row). The block of classic mansions, built in the early part of the century, were occupied by the 1930s largely by doctors. Most of these men worked in one of three nearby Brooklyn hospitals (House of St. Giles the Cripple, Kings County Hospital, or Brooklyn Jewish Hospital). No. 1275 was built in a pair with no. 1277, and when first advertised in 1913 each boasted seven rooms, steam heat, and gas and electric lighting. By the mid 1920s the house was home to a Mrs. Ross whose daughter married a surgeon at the Jewish Hospital. That family lived in the home through at least the 1950s. The architects of Doctor's Row mansions included William Van Alen (who went on to design the Chrysler Building), Cohn Brothers, William Debus, and Henry M. Congdon, though it is not known exactly which architect created this attached pair.

Empire Boulevard, south side, west from Lamont Court to Brooklyn Ave, 1929. Though difficult to see in this faded photograph, all of the buildings visible here remain today. The three wood-frame single story homes seen mid block (the middle one is slightly more raised then the others) remain with new facades of brick or siding. The taller building in the middle and its neighbor to the west both still have what looks to be their original cornices.

1237-1297 Carroll Street Designed by John Wandell 1913 The mixture of Renaissance Revival and Colonial Revival style details in these alternating bow- and flat-front houses is unique to Crown Heights South. To visually link these different stylistic elements, which were not typically found side-by-side or on the same structure, architect John Wandell designed some of them to have a common cornice line and a molded belt course over the first floor. Unlike earlier rowhouses, many of the houses have English style stoops, which rise to only a few steps above street level, rather than the classic high stoops of the late 19th century.