A dog's day Five children under sprinkler playing with dog on empty street before vacant lot; two boys behind sprinkler looking on; buildings and street behind lot. Caption: "A dog's day at Dean St. and 6th Ave."

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.

Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew ARCHITECT: John Welch DATE: 1888-91 STYLE: Romanesque, Northern Italian The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew on Clinton Avenue (once the “Gold Coast” of Brooklyn) is the masterpiece of Brooklyn architect John Welch, who established himself as a church architect, designing a number of notable Greek Revival and Gothic Revival churches. Welch’s designs for the church are loosely based on twelfth-century Romanesque churches of Northern Italy but adapted for use by a nineteenth-century urban congregation in America.

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)

Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew ca. 1914 The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew is the largest Episcopal Church building in the Diocese of Long Island. Architect John Welch was commissioned to design the church after a fire in 1887 destroyed much of the structure. Welch drew inspiration from the churches built during the Italian Renaissance, particularly those in Modena and Verona. The current interior decoration is the fourth reworking of the inside of the church. The romanesque design and elaborate plaster work were completed in 1915. Almost all of the stained glass was produced for the church by the Tiffany Studios of New York. The first pair of lancet windows were installed in 1897. Our Rose Window was given by the children of the Sunday School at the time of the rebuilding in 1890. It is 28 feet in diameter and one of the larger windows of this type in Brooklyn. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission considers the Church to be "one of the grandest 19th century ecclesiastical buildings in Brooklyn" and in 1981 designated it as a landmark.

Fire rages at the Fulton Flatbush Storage Co. warehouse, just south of Fulton Street; December 6, 1917.

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.

The headquarters of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, 1931. The big house the school occupied was sold to the Visiting Nurse Association of Brooklyn who razed it and in 1929 constructed a Colonial Revival (alternately referred to as neo-Federal) headquarters designed by the firm of Clark & Arms. The non-profit organization, founded in 1888, provided home and community-based health care services. In 2000 the building was purchased by the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York. The Alliance offers office, rehearsal, and performance spaces for more than 20 performing arts organizations.

The same location, May 17, 1940. "The building is No. 177. The parking space replaced the houses numbers 161 to 175. On the right, at Fifth Avenue, is a gasoline station, where stood houses numbers 179 to 181." - P.L. Sperr

In 1935, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia ordered for the seizure of all pinball machines. They were considered gambling machines, like slots or roulette, which had been made illegal the year prior. Pinball was supposedly a culprit in corrupting the morals of America's youth.

Dubious Camel advertisement at the northeast corner of Carlton Avenue and Fulton Street. The north side of Fulton Street (right) was formerly home to a vibrant commercial strip, since razed and redeveloped, with lunch counters and a variety of merchants. In the background, the beehive steeple of the Church of the Messiah at Clermont and Greene Avenues.

Fulton Street storefronts, January, 5, 1958. From left to right: Rialto Barber Shop (No. 887), Hall's Fine Foods (No. 895), and Precision Radio Lab and Television Service (No. 899). Upstairs from Hall's is the Local Chapter of the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE), chartered by the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

78th Precinct, ca. 1928 Brooklyn’s 78th precinct was built in 1925 in a Renaissance Revival style. This building is more elegant than many of the other precincts in New York City, which are constructed to look like fortresses. But the 78th was built in the post-World War I, pre-Depression era of success that America enjoyed throughout the Roaring 20s, and resembles an upscale bank more than a police station. The building, like a few other New York precincts built in the early 1900s to the late 1920s, was constructed from limestone. The green lamps on either side of the main entrance, which can be seen on every precinct in New York, are a result of a tradition that dates back to the 1650s in New Amsterdam, when night watchmen would carry green lanterns for identification. The NYPD still uses the lanterns as a symbol of their vigilance.

The Lockwood Academy on South Oxford Street, May 1925. Opened in 1870 by Quaker educator John Lockwood, the Lockwood School operated here until 1928. For the final three decades the school was owned and run by a pair of well-loved sisters, Emma and Mary Carr. The Carrs had been early teachers at the school and were gifted the institution by Lockwood upon his retirement. In 1928 when the school closed, Emma Carr was nearly 80, dressed like she had stepped out of the 1860s, and credited her spryness and vitality to a long time vegetarian diet.

Prospect Heights - Sprinkler at the Dean Street Playground between 6th and Carlton Ave. Prospect Heights - Sprinkler at the Dean Street Playground between 6th and Carlton Ave.

161 to 181 Flatbush Avenue, east side, south from Pacific Street to Fifth Avenue; July 23, 1934. The buildings occupying this block, with the exception of No. 177 Goodyear Sporting Goods, were later demolished.

Pillar of Fire Church, August 6, 1942.

Triangular block bounded by Fulton Street, Gates Avenue, and Vanderbilt Avenue. June 15, 1940. The small park that occupies this location today is the result of the neighborhood's desire for a peaceful and beautiful space to replace the detritus that was created during the chaos and destruction of the Blackout of 1977.

The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew is the largest Episcopal Church building in the Diocese of Long Island.