1408 President Street, 1932.

(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.

St. Gregory's R.C. Church and Convent, 1931. St. Gregory's church is an example of a basilican church inspired by early Christian architecture, and specifically modeled on two 5th century Roman churches. The church features a front portico (not visible in this photograph) and a seven story campanile (bell tower). Completed in 1916, the terra cotta-trimmed building was designed by Frank Helmle. Helmle, a prolific Brooklyn architect who mostly worked in Renaissance inspired styles in the early 20th century, designed banks, churches, and a number of landmark civic structures (such as the Boat House in Prospect Park) as the Superintendent of Public Buildings of Brooklyn. The structure seen in the foreground is the church's rectory (no. 224). Also designed by Helmle, with his then partner Harvey Corbett, in 1922, the building is a modest three-story neo-Classical structure.

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.

(Church: Frank J. Helmle, 1915-16; School: Helmle & Corbett, 1921; Rectory: Helmle & Corbett, 1922) This magnificent church has a strong presence in the neighborhood due to its richly decorated, seven-story campanile. Frank J. Helmle, was a prominent Brooklyn architect who also designed the Prospect Park Boathouse (1905), the Shelter Pavilion in Monsignor McGolrick Park (1910), and the Brooklyn Central Office, Bureau of Fire Communications (1913). Harvey Wiley Corbett, with whom Helmle collaborated on the church’s school and rectory, is well-known for his work in developing designs for setback, streamlined skyscrapers. The design of St. Gregory is inspired by Rome’s oldest basilicas, the fifth-century San Clemente and Santa Maria in Trastevere. While its bell tower dominates the rear of the church, the front is graced with a portico entrance of Ionic columns topped by a setback story that features a wheel window and shell niches housing sculpted figures. The school and rectory are far simpler, designed in the neo-Classical style to complement the church

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.