Public School 84, 1931. Constructed in the last decade of the 19th century, with an additions added early in the 20th century, Public School 84 originally served the large Jewish population of Brownsville. In 1916 it was the location of the first district teachers council in the city, when faculty of more than 15 district school met to discuss their work and to present the Board of Education with issues and concerns. The school has had a number of well-known alumni, including Max Fleischer, a pioneer of animation and Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress (and to run for president).

Brownsville Branch, June 25, 1942. The Brownsville Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library was designed by Lord & Hewlett and completed in 1908. The Brownsville Library was one of the original independent libraries that constituted the core of the Brooklyn Public Library established in 1902. The two-story, five-bay, brick building has seen a number of renovations in its history including work completed following a fire in 1922.

Provident Loan Company, Brownsville Branch, ca. 1905. This simplified Beaux-Arts style structure was built in the first decade of the 20th century. Designed by architect, Arthur G. Stone, the building was erected to house the Jenkins Trust Bank. After that firm collapsed in the financial Panic of 1907 the branch was closed. In 1909 the building was sold to the Provident Loan Society, a non-profit loan firm that provided short-term cash loans, in direct competition to the shady loan sharks and pawn brokers of the day. The Loan Society moved out in the 1960s, after which the structure was occupied by various retail stores. At some point between the early 1980s and the 2007 the facade was reclad with marble tiles at the base and had a large concrete band installed over the tops of the large windows (some of which have also been bricked up). The Beaux-Arts ornamentation just under the roofline remain, as does the lovely tiled Mediterranean style roof.

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.