College of Immaculate Conception, c. 1915. The College of Immaculate Conception was a preparatory school and seminary established by Bishop Charles E. McDonnell in 1914 in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. In the first year of the program, a class of 110 young men met in the vestry of Saint John's Chapel. Construction broke ground for their own school at 555 Washington Avenue in December of 1914. The program consists of a four-year high school program followed by a two-year college program. Students who wished to continue the priestly vocation were then assigned to a major seminary, where they would study for an additional six years. The program moved to a new Elmhurst campus in 1963.

Clinton Hill's namesake avenue was once known as the Gold Coast of Brooklyn. Oil tycoons and baking powder magnates built lavish mansions here in the late 1800s. Charles Pratt, who kicked off the architectural gold rush, founded the Pratt Institute just a few blocks from his home. Clinton Hill was also home to Mollie Fancher, AKA “The Brooklyn Enigma,” who was famous for spending 50 years in bed. The Enigma was said to see through walls, read books by touching them, and survive on minuscule amounts of food. During one seven-month period, she reportedly consumed only “four teaspoons of milk, two teaspoons of wine, one small banana, and one cracker.” In 1967, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe moved into an apartment on the second floor of a townhouse on 160 Hall Street with walls smeared with blood and psychotic scribbling, an oven crammed with discarded syringes, and a refrigerator overrun with mold. They paid $80 a month. Today, that same townhouse rents for $8,000 a month—used syringes not included. Clinton Hill was also where Biggie Smalls, one of the greatest rappers of all time, grew up. He was raised in a “one-room shack” by his mom at 226 St. James Place.

"The building formerly housing the exclusive Lincoln Club of Brooklyn is a striking Queen Anne style structure designed in 1889 by Brooklyn based architect Rudolph L. Daus. The club is located in the Clinton Hill area, once the home of some of Brooklyn’s wealthiest citizens. It is one of a number of large, sumptuous clubhouses erected in Brooklyn in the last two decades of the 19th century, and it is one of the few to retain its architectural integrity. Founded in 1878 by a small group of men who banded together for social purposes and to further the interests of the Republican Party, the Lincoln Club was dissolved in 1931 as many of Brooklyn’s elite moved away."

983 Fulton Street, ca. 1958 The northwest corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place featuring what was formerly a drugstore (no. 983) and candy-store (no. 985). Part of no. 983 (at left) was substantially redeveloped into a Met Food supermarket in 1964. The grocery, now a Key Food, has been something of a community landmark since its opening. Known for hiring youth from the community, the famous rapper, Biggie Smalls, was once a cashier there.

Classon Avenue, east side, north from Prospect Place, showing the Jewish Hospital, 1941. Brooklyn Jewish Hospital was organized 1901 and its building was dedicated in 1903. The original building seen here dates (at least in part) to 1894 when the Memorial Hospital for Women–a homeopathic hospital–moved to this location from a pair of houses on Pacific Street. That hospital, originally organized in 1881 as the Brooklyn Women’s Hospital and Dispensary, was cofounded by Susan McKinney Steward, the first African American doctor in New York State. The Memorial Hospital (whose mission was to "furnish medical and surgical advice and treatment by women physicians to women and children") was sold to the Jewish Hospital for debt in 1903. This structure was only the first of a number of buildings constructed for the hospital. Most of the other facilities were built in 1927 and a few in the 1950s. Einstein was a surgery patient here in the 1950s. By 1979 the hospital was bankrupt and merged with another neighborhood hospital, St. John's Hospital in Bed-Stuy, becoming Interfaith Medical Center. By 2000 the buildings had been purchased by a developer and were being converted to housing. The Classon Avenue building was converted first but the sign for the hospital still remains over the door. The structure seen emerging from the top floor window is likely just a garbage chute.

Grand Avenue, north from and across St. Marks Avenue, showing a W. P. A. sewer project,1936.

"Bergen Street, north side, west from Franklin Avenue, showing the old H. J. Heinz buildings, 1941." H.J. Heinz Company moved into the large red brick building that can be seen at the far left of this photograph in 1920. They had purchased the building from the Nassau Brewing Company, which has brewed beer from 1860 until 1914 in a series of buildings (including the later Heinz building), under a variety of names. A reminder of the factory's history of producing canned goods can be seen in the faded type on the facade, which still reads Heinz.

This lesser-known Brooklyn armory was built in 1884 by Robert Dixon. It was first occupied by the Third Gatling Battery until the group moved to the Clermont Armory in 1895. The Gatling Battery stored all of their weapons (and horses) in this masonry fortress. After the first occupants moved out, architects Robinson & Kunst renovated a great portion of the building. The battery underwent so much remodeling between the years 1909 and 1911 that by the time the Second Company Signal Corps moved in, the building was unrecognizable. The Second Company Signal, whose name is still inscribed over the entrance of the building, stayed at the armory until 1964. Since then, it has seen a number of different occupants from the Crown Heights Boxing Association to the Nigerian American Muslim Integrated Community.

Pacific Street, west from Franklin Avenue, passing underneath the BMT "El," 1941. Though the BMT elevated infrastructure (seen in the distance) remains, a number of other details in this photograph are streetscapes one would never see in Brooklyn today. Long gone are the street level trolley tracks and since 1999 cigarette billboards have been banned.

Public School No. 42, 1929. Likely designed by C.B.J Snyder, Public School 42 was first occupied by students in 1907.