5th Avenue - Berkeley Place, 1929. This corner building was one of the hundreds of James Butler' grocery stores opened by Irish immigrant Butler. The original store opened in 1882 in Manhattan with more stores added each year. In 1905, over a four month period, he opened 40 stores. Though this photograph is black and white, you should imagine that the storefront is green, as ALL of the James Butler stores were painted the same dark green. A 1910 advertisement of the store enticed with quip, "Thrift is the highway to prosperity and happiness, and every one of the James Butler groceries is an entrance to this pleasant road." By 1922 James Butler would have 577 stores open in New York, New Jersey and Long Island, and just before the business went into bankruptcy in 1935, there were more than one thousand. Butler himself died in 1934, perhaps precipitating the bankruptcy of the following year.

49 Eighth Avenue, 1960. The large building on the corner of 8th Avenue and Berkeley Place may only be 25 feet wide but has more than 6,500 square feet of space in its 4-plus stories. A fine example of Park Slope architecture with decorative metal work lining the mansard roof and the projected (oriel) window, the entire home has 42 windows. When the home was on the market in 2009 listings noted a ballroom on the parlor floor.

Brooklyn Riding and Driving Club, 1928. The Riding and Driving Club of Brooklyn, a fancy equestrian club, was established in 1889 by a group of elite Brooklyn men. The club commissioned the firm of McKim, Mead & White to design a Roman circus inspired building. Massive, with a curved front facade facing Prospect Park (fronting Plaza Street west of Vanderbilt Avenue), the facility was three interconnected buildings: the clubhouse, the riding ring and the stables. Here members had an indoor place to ride, practice dressage, harness and polo, and socialize with tony, like-minded neighbors. Aiming to create an exclusive community, the club originally limited membership to 200, but quickly doubled that number, a nod to its popularity and appeal (even though the $100 membership fee was not a paltry sum for most). The venture proved to be so successful that the buildings were reconfigured and added to by 1894. Frank Freeman was hired to design additions, pushing the club's campus all the way to Flatbush Avenue. The popularity of the club continued into the first two decades of the 20th century but the 1920s saw many changes for the club and its neighborhood. Interest in horse sports declined, as other entertainment pursuits flourished. The cost of upkeep to the now five buildings outpaced the revenue, particularly as the demographics of the community changes. With the wealthy leaving the neighborhood for the suburbs or Manhattan, the new apartment dwellers of the neighborhood were not interested in or could not afford this type of hobby. Finally closing in 1938, the facilities were sold soon after. The larger buildings were demolished for apartment houses, while the carriage house and motor garage were as garages until 1950s, before meeting their own end.

The city is home to more than one million school-aged children—at least an eighth of the population across the five boroughs. While there many distinct ways to be a kid in New York City, there are also some iconic experiences, places, and routines that most, if not all, city kids share as they grow up.

“90 Eighth Avenue, formerly the home of C. T. Christensen, and later of Timothy Lester Woodruff, Park Commissioner of Brooklyn and three times Lieutenant Governor of New York State. 1928.” Woodruff — a member of the Skull & Bones secret society at Yale — was major figure in the city’s Republican politics. As Park Commissioner, he was an advocate of bike paths, a full century before protected lanes along Prospect Park West became a local political flashpoint. The “for sale” sign advertises a “desirable apartment house site.” Indeed, the house was bought and razed later that year. Today, a ten-story apartment building occupies the site, which is part of the Park Slope Historic District.

St. Augustine, ca. 1890. When established in 1870, St. Augustine of Hippo was the 26th Catholic Church in the City of Brooklyn. The first service was held in a rented house at house at 43 Prospect Place, and 18 members were in attendance. The community's first church was dedicated March 19, 1871. In 1888 the original church property was sold to the Union Elevated Railway Company (due to plans for an elevated line along Fifth Avenue) and the cornerstone was laid for a new church on Sixth Avenue and Sterling Place. The design of the church was completed through an architectural contest. The applicants were given the freedom to depart from more traditional styles and to "introduce as much novelty as good taste allowed." Though no prize was offered for the contest, the massive $300,000 budget was considered highly motivating. The winning architects were the Parfitt Brothers who designed a transitional English-Gothic style church with a 26-foot-square tower. It was described upon completion in 1892 as "Brooklyn's finest church" by the New York Times.

Statue of Lincoln at its original location, the Prospect Park Plaza Entrance, ca. 1890.

General Warren Statue, date unknown. Gouverneur Kemble Warren was a New York-born Union Army General. After participating in a number of early Civil War battles, he was named Chief Topographical Engineer of the Army of the Potomac in 1863. Later that year, he was wounded at Gettysburg. Referred to as the "Hero of Little Round Top," he survived the war (and the humiliation of being relieved of his command during the 1865 Battle of Five Forks). His later career included building railroads near the Mississippi River in the Corps of Engineers. He died in 1882. He is one of three Civil War monuments in Grand Army Plaza. His statue was commissioned in 1896 by the G.K. Warren Post, No. 286, Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization. Created by German sculptor Henry Baerer, the memorial was dedicated on July 4, 1896. Baerer's likeness of the Warren is similar to an earlier statue erected at Gettysburg in 1888. The statue's pedestal is made from granite quarried at Little Round Top, the site of his heroic moment.

St. John’s Episcopal Church, 1960. The Victorian Gothic church was completed in 1869, becoming the permanent home of the St. John’s Episcopal parish, founded in 1826. At the time, the church building included only the transepts (left) of the current structure. The present nave and chapel (right) were added during the 1880s, by which point the corner of Seventh Avenue and St. Johns Place (renamed from Douglass Street in 1870) was home to three churches of three different denominations: St. John’s, Grace United Methodist, and Memorial Presbyterian.

New York City accommodates all juxtapositions. Spend enough time here and no two things paired together, however odd, will seem unusual. This is the city where nothing can be out of place however willy-nilly the arrangement may be: from the gently surreal sight of a coyote cowering beneath an SUV in Manhattan, to the more terrible and spectral image of ash-covered workers wandering the daytime streets of the Financial District. Whether it is welcome or not, the city will make room for it. But for all this open-armed receptiveness -- allowing this or that to suddenly and irrevocably appear and to become a new fact of city life -- the city remains a strange host and one whose ultimate indifference can seem a form of cruelty. (This story can be seen in its original context here)

Margret Apartment Building, 1921. William H. Reynolds was a Brooklyn-born real estate developer of Prospect Heights, Borough Park, and Bensonhurst. Not only known for his real estate dealings (he opened a broker's office at age 18), he was also a New York State Senator (the youngest senator at age 24), amusement park (Coney Island's Dreamland) and theatre owner, mayor of Long Beach, Long Island, convicted swindler, athlete, and all around lover of the good life. He built the Margret across from Prospect Park in the 1890s while also developing rowhouses on the surrounding blocks. In 1898 he was involved in a real estate exchange with the Cord Meyer Development Company of Queens. They got the plot the Margret was on and he got a 354 lots in Flushing, Queens. His later real estate projects included Laurelton, Queens and Long Beach, Long Island. The trolley seen at center is traveling along the Vanderbilt Avenue Line, which began service as a horse-drawn streetcar in 1869 and though a number of owners and name changes survived as a trolley through the middle of the 20th century.

Survey photograph showing the intersection of Plaza Street West, St. John's Place, and Flatbush Avenue; September 15, 1914. The photo was taken ahead of the construction of the IRT Eastern Parkway Line. Today, an there is an entrance to the Grand Army Plaza station immediately to the north of the fire hydrant in the foreground.

With its breathtaking façade, sweeping grand lobby and vast contemporary and historical collections, Central Library is a Brooklyn icon. To read on about the Branch's history, see this page on the Brooklyn Public Library's website.

This grand corner home within the Park Slope Historic District was designed by Lawrence B. Valk for Charles Pied. The corner home and the three buildings to the south were all designed in the same Romanesque Revival style. No. 21 is known as the Lillian Ward Mansion as it was once the home of Ward, a famous late 19th century singer. On the morning of December 16, 1960 two commercial airliners collided in the airspace over Staten Island. One of the pilots, attempting to land the plane in Prospect Park, came down instead at the corner of Sterling Place and 7th Avenue, directly in front of the Ward Mansion. All 128 people on both planes were killed, as well as six people on the ground. The debris scattered around the neighborhood and set more than 10 buildings on fire. A church on Sterling Place was completely destroyed while the building directly across from No. 21 had its cornice sheared off by the crashing plane. Somewhat surprisingly the mansion was left completely unharmed.

Montauk Club This club found its inspiration in the Palazzo Santa Sofia (Ca' d'Oro ) in Venice. It is built of brick and terra cotta, and a warm yellow color pervades the whole structure. Certain windows, reminiscent of the loggia of this Italian palazzo, are replete with flamboyant Venetian Gothic detail.

The House that Gum built! In the late 1860s, Thomas Adams carried out a series of experiments with chicle, which is extracted from Mexican Sapota trees, hoping he could make the rubber-like substance into toys, boots or bicycle tires. The trials were a failure. He was just about to throw the chicle into the East River when he remembered that his boss, who was the ex-dictator of Mexico, regularly chewed it. Experimenting by adding sugar, he created a better-tasting gum than any other available at that time. Adams and his son, Thomas Jr. began production of the gum in 1871 and in 1888 they opened a factory in Brooklyn, which was one of the largest of its kind in the world. With his gum fortune, Thomas Jr. built a mansion at 117 Eighth Avenue. This house, located across the street from the photo above, was designed as a double house in the Romanesque Revival style by C.P.H. Gilbert, with one entrance facing 8th Avenue and the other facing Carroll Street, it is decorated with stained glass windows and dragon ornaments. It was also the first on the block to have an elevator. The home pictured is similar in style and was constructed as its neighbor, though this building was demolished to make way for a new apartment building in the 1950s. The story around the neighborhood goes that one summer the family came home from vacation to find their calls for the servants went unanswered. When they went to look for them, it transpired that the elevator had stuck. The servants were all trapped, no one had heard their calls, and they were all dead inside the contraption! Residents of the building have claimed to hear voices crying in an Irish brogue, "Mary Mother of God help us!" Though there is little proof that this actually happened, it sure is an interesting tale. In 1897, Thomas Jr. sold his home for $75,000 and moved to New York City. Thomas Sr. retired from the business in 1898, leaving his sons in charge. On February 7, 1905, he died of pneumonia at the age of 87. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Public School 111 ARCHITECT: Samuel B. Leonard DATE: 1867-68 STYLE: Romanesque Revival Public School 111 has been a neighborhood institution in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn for 150 years. Prominently sited at the northwest corner of Sterling Place and Vanderbilt Avenue near Grand Army Plaza, it is a handsome brick school building in the early Romanesque Revival, or round-arched, style. When the building opened in 1868 it was known as Public School 9. The school building is a fine example of the early Romanesque Revival style, distinguished by round arches executed ln brick.

ST. AUGUSTINE’S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH & RECTORY, BROOKLYN Address: 116-130 6th Avenue, Brooklyn Architect: Parfitt Brothers Constructed: 1888 The Gothic Revival, High Victorian style church is known as "the Cathedral of Park Slope. When it opened,The Brooklyn Daily Eagle declared St. Augustine Church “one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in the country,” and later, “one of Brooklyn’s most picturesque church.” The New York Times headline the day after the dedication declared St. Augustine: “Brooklyn’s Finest Church.” The American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City (Harcourt Brace Publishing, 1988) says of the church: It was called “Brooklyn’s finest church” by the New York Times on opening day. The church’s architectural significance placed it as one of the first slew of properties heard by the then-new Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966. The Diocese of Brooklyn opposed any landmark designation and the church remains calendared ever since. St. Augustine’s is today a landmark of Brooklyn and Park Slope in all except official designation. LPC Statement of Significance: St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church and Rectory are an acclaimed pair of ecclesiastical buildings, located in the heard of Park Slope, just outside of the Historic District, the church, with its tall corner tower and conical steeple, is a prominent structure, visible from a great distance. The church and rectory were designed in 1888 by Parfitt Bros., one of the major architecture firms active in Brooklyn during the late 19th century. St. Augustine's Church is a Gothic Revival style structure designed with an eclectic combination of European elements. The most unusual feature of the church is its double apse, a form derived from German architecture. Also notable are the corner towers, elongated pointed-arched windows, steep sloping roofs with slate tiles, and the trumpeting angel perched on top of the Sixth Avenue apse.

Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, February 28, 1960. Founded in 1872 following a split with the nearby Hanson Place Baptist Church, the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church first occupied a wood-frame Sunday school mission on its present site. Construction on the current church building commenced in 1880 and completed just after Christmas of that year.

"East side of Sixth Avenue between Berkeley Place and Lincoln Place, looking north."

Walking in a winter wonderland… As the City continues to reopen there are many opportunities to enjoy the enchanting sights and sounds of the season. There are holiday train shows, ice skating, holiday markets, decorated department store windows, and more just waiting for you to discover and explore.

The Montauk Club, 1928. Described as “an architectural treasure on the slope” in the 1973 Park Slope Historic District Designation Report, the Montauk Club building was the headquarters of an exclusive gentlemen’s social club, whose founders included Gilded Age luminaries like Charles Pratt. The club was named after the Montauk Native American tribe, whose history is depicted in a continuous terra cotta frieze atop the third story, along the Eighth Avenue, Lincoln Place and Plaza Street facades. The massive Venetian Gothic clubhouse was designed by Francis H. Kimball, who took inspiration from the Ca' d'Oro, a 15th century Venetian palace on the Grand Canal. Kimball’s design includes Gothic Arches with intricate terra cotta ornamentation, surmounted by quatrefoils, and that most Venetian of features: a second floor loggia (covered exterior corridor), itself an element of a grand two-story bay facing Plaza Street. The Club was unusual for its acceptance of Jewish members and its inclusion of women in Club activities (though they were excluded from full membership until the 1960s). A separate “women’s entrance,” left of the main entrance led to a staircase to the second floor dining room. Today, that entrance leads to the residential portion of the building — the club continues to operate, but declining membership and rising costs forced members to convert and sell the upper floors and basement.

Crown Heights has a rich and diverse history. Though it began as farmland, it developed as a fashionable locale for the second homes of bourgeois Manhattanites. Eastern Parkway soon was studded with cultural institutions and mansions. Furthermore, the 20th century marked an influx of Jewish and later Caribbean immigration, with both communities infusing Crown Heights with new cultures and making their mark on the neighborhood.

“Beth Elohim Temple House. Temple exterior, September 16, 1929." Congregation Beth Elohim was founded in 1861 as a Reform breakaway from Congregation Baith Israel, first meeting on Myrtle Avenue, and later worshiping in renovated church buildings on Pearl Street (1862) and State Street (1885). In 1908, the congregation purchased land for a purpose-built and permanent home at the corner of Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue in Park Slope. The Classical Revival synagogue was completed in 1910, with a verse fragment from the Book of Isaiah carved above the sanctuary entrance: “Mine house shall be an house of prayer for all people.”

Grand Army Plaza, ca. 1903. Grand Army Plaza was built during the original construction of Prospect Park in the 1860s, one of the first features of the park to be designed and completed. The plaza was designed by park planners Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. Grand Army Plaza is also home to the Soldiers and Sailors Arch, which is similar in design to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. Dedicated to Union soldiers, the arch was designed by John H. Duncan, whose proposal was selected from 36 applicants who submitted their plans for the monument. Construction began in 1889, and the arch was unveiled in 1892. The bronze statues that adorn the arch were added beginning in 1898. On top of the arch is a statue of three women in a four-horse chariot, leading the soldiers to victory. On the inside of the arch are reliefs of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant on horseback. The two large groups of figures on the south face of the arch are meant to welcome the soldiers and sailors home from war.

"St. John's Place, west from Eighth Ave., showing Grace Methodist Episcopal Church at the right, and the Memorial Presbyterian Church at the left, in the background." This 1928 looking west along St. John's Place is unobstructed enough that the photographer could capture the steeples of the two church at the next corner at 7th Avenue. The greening of these residential streets of Park Slope have made that same view today certainly more verdant but also less far reaching. This current lush view was likely created by the Park Slope Civic Council, which in the 1950s and 1960s advocated against urban renewal demolition, for historic preservation, and for the greening of the neighborhood through the planting of thousands of trees.

Pillar of Fire Church, August 6, 1942.