South of Union Square logo
South of Union Square
Address
Near 221 Kingston Avenue

Posts & Stories(13)

Choveve Torah Simcha Hall image

Choveve Torah Simcha Hall
Post

Chovevei Torah Synagogue, 1932. For much of the 20th century this grand building housed an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. The building is currently used for weddings and family and religious events by the Lubavitch Hasidic community.
900 St. Marks Avenue image

900 St. Marks Avenue
Post

Thallon Mansion, 1930. Robert Thallon was a Scot who arrived in the United States in 1853. Over the next decade he became a pioneer in the field of food exporting and a founder of the New York Produce Exchange. After a decade aboard post-retirement, Thallon and family returned to New York. Thallon the elder bought a home in the tony community along St. Marks Avenue at no. 816. Robert Thallon Jr., an accomplished musician and music teacher, set up a studio in his own mansion, seen here at no. 900. Between 1885 and 1901, when the mansion was sold, Thallon Jr. presented more than 600 weekly morning concerts with the assistance of his students, family, and invited musicians. This private venue became an important center of musical life in Brooklyn. The concerts often featured the home's walnut-encased, custom-made pipe organ. The land what was once occupied by the Thallon Mansion is today the children’s playground inn Brower Park. While the house was lost, the organ that once delighted visitors had survived. It was purchased by the Methodist Church of Naugatuck, Connecticut, where it remains in use.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum
Post

The Brooklyn Children's Museum was first opened in 1899 located in two Victorian mansions on Brooklyn Avenue. Founded through the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, it was the first museum for children in the country and grew immensely popular. Eventually in 1975, the two mansions that housed the museum were demolished and its current building designed by architectural firm of Hardy Holzman & Pfeiffer Associates was constructed. Moreover, its 2008 renovation prompted another first: the first NYC LEED-certified Green museum. It continues to be one of the nation's premiere children's museum, boasting a permanent collection of more than 30,000 items.
Soviet Private School image

Soviet Private School
Post

The Soviet Private School was for children of Soviet citizens sent to the United States. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle the building "no longer exists, but no further information is available."
3 REVERE PLACE image

3 REVERE PLACE
Post

Short, mid-block streets inserted into the existing street grid, usually called “places” for through streets and “courts” for dead-end streets, were constructed in Brooklyn beginning in the late 19th century. The construction of these mid-block streets allowed developers to fit more houses onto a smaller parcel and created private enclaves desirable for home buyers. These three feature picturesque rows of houses of varied heights, many of which are lower rise than the rest of Crown Heights North. Revere Place, the earliest of the three, features houses in the Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles, while the houses on Hampton Place and Virginia Place were designed in the Colonial Revival style, perhaps to evoke their street names. The novelist Richard Wright and his wife Ellen lived at 11 Revere Place in 1941-42, when the neighborhood began to shift to a majority African- and Caribbean-American population. Revere Place, Hampton Place and Virginia Place are all located within the Crown Heights North III Historic District.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church image

St. Mark's Episcopal Church
Post

(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.
833 St. Marks Avenue image

833 St. Marks Avenue
Post

825-833 St. Marks Avenue, 1925. This series of Renaissance Revival rowhouses was constructed circa 1884 and designed by George P. Chappell, who designed many rowhouses and mansions in Crown Heights.The corner building (no. 833), along with its three neighbors, have all had their stoops removed and entrances relocated to the basement level.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum
Post

Brooklyn Children's Museum 145 Brooklyn Avenue Designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates 1977; expansion: Rafael Viñoly, 2008 Despite the Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s contemporary design, the institution itself is believed to be the oldest children’s museum in the country. It has been located on this site since 1899, when a mansion on this property – the William Newton Adams House – was converted into a children’s museum. It proved to be a huge hit, so at some point over the next two decades, the museum expanded into the L.C. Smith House next door. By 1967, the museum had outgrown both mansions and began planning for a new building on the site, which was completed in 1977. The current iteration of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum was mostly constructed in 2008, but its design is in fact an expansion of the 1977 structure, which was largely subterranean. The expansion, whose wavy design and primary color palette are in stark contrast to the character of the surrounding neighborhood, is clad in 8.1 million yellow ceramic tiles. The expansion roughly doubled the building’s size to 102,000 square feet.
St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church image

St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church
Post

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.
Placeholder image

Commercial High School
Post

Commercial High School, ca. 1928. The former Commercial High School is a classic H-shaped facility designed by the proponent of this layout and New York's most influential school builder, C.B.J. Snyder. Constructed sometime between 1898 and 1906, the Beaux-Arts school followed Synder's modus operandi: multi-level facility with courtyards that allowed for light and air in all rooms, large windows for the same purpose, all built around a strong steel skeleton. The school went through a number of names, reputations, and closings over the last 100 years. It was Commercial, then Alexander Hamilton Vocational HS, then Paul Robeson High School. It was closed again around 2006 and was re-opened in 2011 as Pathways in Technology Early College High School, technology-based public school with funding from IBM.
814 St. Marks Avenue image

814 St. Marks Avenue
Post

Ludwig Nissen Mansion, 1932. Ludwig Nissen was a German immigrant and son of aristocratic German family, who arrived in New York alone and poor in 1872. He went on to find much success as a leading diamond dealer. He also was a Mason, president of a number of Brooklyn social clubs and professional associations, and served as a Civil Service Commissioner of Brooklyn. In 1904 he bought a plot of land on St. Marks Avenue which included a mansion, built in the 1870s, for sugar refining executive John G. Searles. Nissen had the original mansion razed and erected his own huge house, modeled after a palace in Potsdam, Germany. The house went through a number of owners after Nissen, including the Russian (Soviet) consulate and Abraham Shapiro, a local developer of mansion-replacing apartment houses. In the early 1970s the mansion was one of the last homes still standing on what was known as "Millionaire Row." in 1976 it was demolished for the construction of the Marcus Garvey Senior Residence.
221 Kingston Avenue image

221 Kingston Avenue
Post

Former Shaari Zedek Synagogue 221 Kingston Avenue Designed by Eisendrath & Horowitz, 1923-25 Formed in 1902 and originally located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Shaari Zedek Synagogue relocated here after the congregation merged with the Brooklyn Synagogue of Eastern Parkway in 1922. The synagogue and community house were completed in 1925 to the designs of Eisendrath & Horowitz, who had also been responsible for Temple Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Temple Beth Emeth in Prospect Park South, and Temple B’nai Israel in Sunset Park. All of these, like Shaari Zedek, were designed in the Colonial Revival style, which was popular for American synagogues in the early 20th century. The limestone and light grey brick building features a grand entrance portico with Ionic columns, a triangular pediment, and an entablature that reads “Gates of Righteousness,” the English translation of “Shaari Zedek.” An impressive standing-seam metal, octagonal dome sits atop the structure. When it was completed, the synagogue bore the distinction of housing the city’s largest Conservative Jewish congregation. In 1969, the building was sold to the First Church of God in Christ of Brooklyn. The Former Shaari Zedek Synagogue is located in the Crown Heights North III Historic District.
St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church image

St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church
Post

(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

Photos(96)

221 Kingston Avenue image

221 Kingston Avenue

221 Kingston Avenue image

221 Kingston Avenue

221 Kingston Avenue image

221 Kingston Avenue

25 HAMPTON PLACE image

25 HAMPTON PLACE

1095 St. Johns Place image

1095 St. Johns Place

Brooklyn Home for Aged Colored People Exterior view of Brooklyn Home for Aged Colored People, a large, three-story, brick building, located at 1095 St. John's Place.
 1095 St. Johns Place image

1095 St. Johns Place

Negro home for aged Caption: "Negro home for aged--At rehearsal for fashion show to benefit Brooklyn Home for the Aged, 1095 St. John's Place, 16-year-old Beverly King takes time off to swap dreams with Mrs. Josephine Anthony, 83. ..."
195 BROOKLYN AVENUE image

195 BROOKLYN AVENUE

Brower Park
1090 St. Johns Place image

1090 St. Johns Place

\[Kingston Avenue and St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, NY] Kingston Avenue and St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, NY. Intersection of Tompkins Avenue (# 7) and St. Johns Place (# 5) trolley lines. Tompkins Avenue trolley car in right of image. Automobiles and pedestrians are also in view as is Riveara Theatre on St Johns Place.
900 St. Marks Avenue image

900 St. Marks Avenue

1107 PROSPECT PLACE image

1107 PROSPECT PLACE

940 St Marks Avenue image

940 St Marks Avenue

940-948 St. Marks Ave Facade of large four-story (apartment?) masonry house (appears to be vacant) at 940-948 St. Marks Avenue with man standing in front yard, iron and wood fences along front, residential buildings on both sides, and sidewalk with two pedestrians, several trees, and street in foreground.
907 ST MARKS AVENUE image

907 ST MARKS AVENUE

Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - Prospect Place (1) Brooklyn Ave., east side, between Prospect Place and Park Place. The view shown is the Children's branch of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. May 29, 1929. P. L. Sperr. (2) Same; showing rear, facing park. October 1928. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection. (3) Same, another angle. October 1928. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - Prospect Place (1) Brooklyn Ave., east side, between Prospect Place and Park Place. The view shown is the Children's branch of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. May 29, 1929. P. L. Sperr. (2) Same; showing rear, facing park. October 1928. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection. (3) Same, another angle. October 1928. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - Prospect Place (3) Brooklyn AVe., east side, between Prospect and Park Places, showing the Children's hranch of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Scienoes. Octcher 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (2) The same, another angle. Octcber 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - Prospect Place (1) Children's Museum (Branch Museum of Arts and Sciences) Brooklyn Ave., east side, between Prospect and Park Places, showing the N.W. corner of the building from Brooklyn Ave. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (2) The same, from a different angle. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (3) The same, showing the east side of the building from Brower Park. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - St. Mark's Avenue (1) New Children's Museum etc., (Branch, Museum of Arts and Sciences) Brooklyn Ave., east side, between St. Mark's Ave., and Prospect Place, showing the west side of the building from Brooklyn Ave. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (2) The same, from a different angle, also showing part of the north side. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. t3) The same, from another angle, showing the east side of the building. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - St. Mark's Avenue (1) New Children's Museum etc., (Branch, Museum of Arts and Sciences) Brooklyn Ave., east side, between St. Mark's Ave., and Prospect Place, showing the west side of the building from Brooklyn Ave. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (2) The same, from a different angle, also showing part of the north side. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. t3) The same, from another angle, showing the east side of the building. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Buildings, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Brooklyn Ave. & Park Place. The Brooklyn Children's Museum, situated on a site landscaped with grass, trees and bushes. Its location was Brooklyn Avenue & Park Place.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - Prospect Place (1) Children's Museum (Branch Museum of Arts and Sciences) Brooklyn Ave., east side, between Prospect and Park Places, showing the N.W. corner of the building from Brooklyn Ave. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (2) The same, from a different angle. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (3) The same, showing the east side of the building from Brower Park. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - Prospect Place (3) Brooklyn AVe., east side, between Prospect and Park Places, showing the Children's hranch of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Scienoes. Octcher 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (2) The same, another angle. Octcber 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - Prospect Place (1) Brooklyn Ave., east side, between Prospect Place and Park Place. The view shown is the Children's branch of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. May 29, 1929. P. L. Sperr. (2) Same; showing rear, facing park. October 1928. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection. (3) Same, another angle. October 1928. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection.
Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn Children's Museum image

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Avenue - St. Mark's Avenue (1) New Children's Museum etc., (Branch, Museum of Arts and Sciences) Brooklyn Ave., east side, between St. Mark's Ave., and Prospect Place, showing the west side of the building from Brooklyn Ave. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. (2) The same, from a different angle, also showing part of the north side. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr. t3) The same, from another angle, showing the east side of the building. October 11, 1934. P. L. Sperr.
176 Brooklyn Avenue image

176 Brooklyn Avenue

Industrial artists in the making Caption: Industrial artists in the making--Painting flower vases absorbs a group of young students in the Industrial Art Class of Froebel Academy, 176 Brooklyn Ave. Left to right are Barbara Pond, Joan O'Keefe, Janet Rogers, James Steffens and Larry Lewis."
176 Brooklyn Avenue image

176 Brooklyn Avenue

Hot news Caption: "Hot news--Jay Nussbaum inspects a copy of The Lantern, school paper of Froebel \[Academy located at Brooklyn Avenue and Prospect Place].
176 Brooklyn Avenue image

176 Brooklyn Avenue

Graphic history Caption: "Graphic history--Students in the art class of Froebel Academy, 176 Brooklyn Ave., at work on a mural which depicts historic events. The youthful artists are Patty Root and Paul Hichborn."
176 Brooklyn Avenue image

176 Brooklyn Avenue

Who stole the tarts? Caption: "'Who stole the tarts?'--A drama festival at Froebel Academy \[located at Brooklyn Avenue and Prospect Place] finds John Hayman portraying Little Tommy Tucker, of Mother Goose fame, regaling in song the King, Queen, Little Bo Peep and her maidens."
176 Brooklyn Avenue image

176 Brooklyn Avenue

Builders of tomorrow Caption: "Builders of tomorrow--\[Three kindergarten] children at Froebel Academy \[located at Brooklyn Avenue and Prospect Place] give serious thought to the housing shortage as they solve the problem in miniature."
860 St Marks Ave image

860 St Marks Ave

Brooklyn: St. Mark's Avenue - Brooklyn Avenue 860 St. Mark's Ave., south side, between Brooklyn and Kingston Aves. March 29, 1932. P. L. Sperr. NE5 ~ 3817
St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church image

St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church

St. Gregory's R. C. Church Interior, St. Gregory's Church, Brooklyn Avenue and St. John's Place: two women wearing hats kneeling at altar holding two seven-candle candelabras, two small floral bouquets, three rectangular documents, crucifix, and life-size statue of Virgin Mary; Behind altar is tiled (?) wall; votive candles on stand at far right. Caption: "...perpetual prayer to Our Lady."
St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church image

St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church

St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church image

St. Gregory's the Great Roman Catholic Church

1298 Bergen Street image

1298 Bergen Street

\[Bergen Street between Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues, Brooklyn, New York] Image of trolley tracks on Bergen Street between Brooklyn Avenue and Kingston Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Trolley #8303 is shown on the tracks. A number of cars line the street, including one car with a sign on top that reads "patrol."
Crown Heights image

Crown Heights

Crown Heights image

Crown Heights

Crown Heights image

Crown Heights

Kingston Avenue and Eastern Parkway image

Kingston Avenue and Eastern Parkway

\[Kingston Avenue and Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York] View of intersection of Kingston Avenue and Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York looking west on Eastern Parkway. An entrance to the Kingston Avenue Station of the Interborough (IRT) subway is in view on the southside mall. Pedestrians can be seen crossing the street.
837 St. Marks Avenue image

837 St. Marks Avenue

Brooklyn: St. Mark's Avenue - Brooklyn Avenue (1) 837 St. Mark's Ave., at the N.E. corner of Brooklyn Ave. May 19, 1929. P L. Sperr. NO REPRODUCTIONS. Nled. t I9 : (2) A further view; between Brooklyn and Kingston Aves. May 19, 1929. L. Sperr.
837 St. Marks Avenue image

837 St. Marks Avenue

Brooklyn: St. Mark's Avenue - Brooklyn Avenue (1) 837 St. Mark's Ave., at the N.E. corner of Brooklyn Ave. May 19, 1929. P L. Sperr. NO REPRODUCTIONS. Nled. t I9 : (2) A further view; between Brooklyn and Kingston Aves. May 19, 1929. L. Sperr.
991 Sterling Place image

991 Sterling Place

Brooklyn: Sterling Place - New York Avenue 987-991 Sterling Place, north side, between New York and Brooklyn Avenues, showing the home of Rose Cahill in two views. View No. 1 shows a closeup. About 1924. Views 1 and 2 W. B. Vernan
St. John's Orphan Asylum image

St. John's Orphan Asylum

To each his own Caption: "To each his own--Orpahs from St. John's Home for Boys reach for presents at Christmas party in auditorium of R. C. Shrine Church of St. Bernadette, 13th Ave. and 82d St., sponsored by the parish Holy Name Society. Handing out the presents are, left to right, Monsignor Francis P. Barilla, pastor; the Rev. John P. Gallagher, moderator of the society, and Joseph Jascewski, chairman of the society's party committee." Image includes Christmas tree in background.
St. John's Orphan Asylum image

St. John's Orphan Asylum

\[St. John's Home for Boys] Image represented is one of a related set (SWEL 0577, SWEL 0580, SWEL 0578, SWEL 0579), some of which may also be described in this new record; Five exterior views, in two different sizes, of St. John's Home for Boys, an orphanage located at Albany Avenue and St. Mark's Avenue. Four of the images are not dated.
St. John's Orphan Asylum image

St. John's Orphan Asylum

Stars of the show Caption: "Stars of the show--the famous Peanuts Quartet of St. John's Home who will entertain at the fourth annual dance of the Bonnie Boys, Inc., Friday night. The pint-sized vocalists are, left to right, Richard Blas, Charles Meyers, Arthur Mangual and Robert Fiumara ..."
St. John's Orphan Asylum image

St. John's Orphan Asylum

\[St. John's Home for Boys] Image represented is one of a related set (SWEL 0577, SWEL 0580, SWEL 0578, SWEL 0579), some of which may also be described in this new record; Five exterior views, in two different sizes, of St. John's Home for Boys, an orphanage located at Albany Avenue and St. Mark's Avenue. Four of the images are not dated.
St. John's Orphan Asylum image

St. John's Orphan Asylum

St. John's Home for Boys Caption: "Father Eugene Carlin, director of St. John's Home for Boys accepts check from Lou Karstendiek, Post Americanism chairman, to establish orphan's birthday fund at home in name of Floyd Bennett Post." Image includes many other men, all seated.
St. John's Orphan Asylum image

St. John's Orphan Asylum

Last solemn high mass Caption: "Last solemn high mass at St. John's Home for Boys was celebrated yesterday in the old chapel. Mons. Lawrence H. Bracken is shown blessing the congregation. He is assisted by the Rev. Adrian McCarthy, S.M., and the Rev. Joseph Tetzlaff, S.M., chaplain at the home." Image includes two altar boys in right background. Location is presumably Crown Heights before home relocated to Rockaway Beach, Queens.
St. John's Orphan Asylum image

St. John's Orphan Asylum

St. John's Home dedicates new athletic field Caption: "St. John's Home \[located in Rockaway Beach] dedicates new athletic field--Photo shows \[on platform] David Soder holding mascot Jerome Murphy, Fatts Bodie, and Jack Dempsey." Image includes several other unidentified men and a group of boys, some of whom are wearing baseball uniforms.
St. John's Orphan Asylum image

St. John's Orphan Asylum

\[St. John's Home for Boys] Image represented is one of a related set (SWEL 0577, SWEL 0580, SWEL 0578, SWEL 0579), some of which may also be described in this new record; Five exterior views, in two different sizes, of St. John's Home for Boys, an orphanage located at Albany Avenue and St. Mark's Avenue. Four of the images are not dated.
Privacy PolicyTerms of Service