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.

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.

(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).