Sitting in Eastern Brooklyn, Brownsville has a long history. But how did the neighborhood develop? Its story begins with a small church in East New York.

New Lots Schoolhouse, ca. 1900. This schoolhouse was originally constructed in 1810 (1806, depending on the source) on a lot on the north side of New Lots Avenue at Schenck Avenue, across from the New Lots Dutch Reformed Church. In 1888 the building was moved a block up and a block over to a lot on the east side of Barbey Street. It is unclear when this wood-frame schoolhouse was eventually demolished. The plot it vacated in 1888 has since been occupied by Public School 72 and, more recently, a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

East New York once had a thriving Jewish community. Immigrants and second generation populations moved east as they left the early Jewish enclaves of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg. By the middle of the 20th century though, they were moving away from East New York as well and leaving behind their many religious buildings. This former Orthodox synagogue was Congregation Sons of Judah, a community organized in 1908. The building housed the short lived American Theatre between 1914 and 1916. The synagogue moved in by 1916 after the structure was converted for religious uses. In 1918 the congregation had 60 members though the building could hold more than 400. The synagogue moved out by 1965 and the building has been used as a church since then. The Jewish iconography on the exterior has been removed and Christian crosses now dominate the facade.

The pastor's house of the New Lots Dutch Reformed Church, September 8, 1963. The adjacent clapboard church was completed in 1832, while parts of the cemetery date to the 17th century. The pastor's house — variously referred to as a rectory, Sunday school, and community center — was added later in the 19th century. It was razed ahead of the construction of the present-day New Lots Family Center, completed in 1972.

New Lots Reformed Church ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1824 STYLE: Gothic Revival New Lots Reformed Church is a small rural clapboard church. Constructed during the late Federal Period and displaying Early Gothic Revival details, it is provincial in character and as a wood church of this period is architecturally unique in New York City. Volunteer workers and well wishers, from far and near, came to help build the church and through their united efforts, this building was erected for a sum reported to have been about $35. The building, with timbers notched, jointed, and secured by pegs, stands today in its original form, and is a tribute to the soundness of its construction and the quality of its craftsmanship.

Van Siclen House, ca. 1905. This home was built in 1730 and was known as the Abraham Van Siclen House. It was owned for more than a century by the early Brooklyn Van Siclen family. Lasting into the 20th century just barely, the home had a bitter sweet end of life when it was used as a gas station before being torn down in the early 1930s.

New Lots Library was established in 1942 by the WMCA. It was incorporated into the Brooklyn Public Library system in 1949. The library moved in 1957 to a storefront on New Lots Avenue.

"New Lots Reformed Church and Parsonage, showing side and rear of church and cemetery, as seen west from Jerome Street."

(Charles B. J. Snyder, 1906) Public School 149 was one of the roughly 400 schools constructed during the tenure of the notable architect/engineer C. B. J. Snyder, superintendent of school buildings for the Board of Education from 1891 to 1923, when the city’s population was growing and new laws mandated children’s education. Snyder was known for his innovative “H-plan” design, inspired by the medieval Hôtel de Cluny in Paris, which allowed for improved ventilation, advances in fireproofing, better lighting, larger classroom sizes and the incorporation of two courtyards for recreation. Public School 149 initially housed kindergarten through ninth grade classes, but in the 1920s was downsized to offer only sixth, seventh and eighth-grade classes when the city adopted a Junior High School system in an effort to relieve overcrowding. At that time, it became known as either Junior High School 149 or East New York Junior High School. In 1967, the city opened another junior high school nearby, I.S. 292, and P.S. 149 became an elementary school. The school is named for famed actor, dancer and musician Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky), one of the school’s most illustrious alumni (he attended from 1919 to 1927), who also attended Thomas Jefferson High School (site 14).

"642 Jerome Street, west side, between New Lots Ave., and Ropose Place. July 5, 1934." Many ethnic communities made their home in East New York during the late 19th and early 20th century. One of those communities was Italians, many of whom settled near Livonia Avenue. Though it can not be known for sure if the man standing in front of 642 Jerome Street in 1934 is Italian, the arbors of grapes seem like evidence. Italian immigrants in the United States were well known for building small arbors and growing grapes for personal wine making.

"Postcard showing the New Lots Reformed Church and cemetery on New Lots Road (now New Lots Avenue) and Schenck Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York." Constructed in 1823-1824, the wood-frame clapboard structure sits on a rough stone base. The community of New Lots was a large and humble farming community in the early part of the 19th century. The wood used for construction was cut from a vast number of oak trees that fell during a hurricane in the early 1820s. Construction of the structure was undertaken by the local community using notched and joined timber, and wooden pegs instead of nails. Similar to most churches built in the city before the 1840s, the New Lots Church has an attached cemetery. The cemetery is separated into two sections. The older section dates to the 18th century and includes graves of the Van Siclen family who donated the land for the church. The newer section was established in 1841 and continues to be an active place of burial today. It is one of only a few private cemeteries left in the entire city.

View of Livonia Avenue beneath the elevated trestle of the IRT New Lots line, September 8, 1963. The building with storefront at center right is No, 889 Livonia Avenue, at the northeast corner of Warwick Street. The stairway to the New Lots Avenue station — the last stop on the line — is visible at far right.