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.

ca. 1938 This two-story, wood-frame school was Public School 3, later known as Old Public School 3. The school was founded in 1855. The Board of Education was able to replace the school and move it to the site of Public School 3 on Jefferson and Hancock Avenues. The Old Public School was converted into a library in 1897 through a contribution of $1.6 million from Andrew Carnegie.

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.

Church of the Nativity, ca. 1941. The Church of the Nativity was built in 1915 by Raymond Almirall who, over the course of his career, designed many hospitals, libraries, and buildings for the Catholic Church in Brooklyn. The building's design references those of the early churches of Italy, with running arches, classical columns, and a very early Christian basilica style interior. In its earliest days, the Church of the Nativity served the area's large Irish Catholic population. While there was little mixing with Germans and Italians, the church was known to turn other ethnic Catholics groups away. In 1921, Rev. Bernard Quinn, who had spent his career petitioning for a church where black and white Catholics could worship together, built St. Peter Claver Church only three blocks away. His service became so popular that it drew people from all over Brooklyn, including the Church of the Nativity. With time, St. Peter Claver continued to grow and the Church of the Nativity began to shrink. Finally, in 1973, the diocese closed the Nativity and merged its congregation with St. Peter Claver. By the turn of the twenty-first century, the parish sold the church to a Pentecostal church, Elim Gospel Tabernacle, which still occupies the space today. The Elim congregation considered the Catholic iconography in the building to be a "heathen," and tore down anything that was overtly Catholic. As such, the Almirall Church that stands today is only Catholic on the exterior!

Bedford Branch, August 24, 1941. The Bedford Library was the first branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system, which opened in 1897. It was originally housed in a series of non-purpose built structures, including the old P.S. 3 on Bedford Avenue. Between 1904 and 1905 a new Carnegie Library building was constructed to the designs of the architectural firm of Lord & Hewlett, who designed seven of the Carnegies in total. Similar to other "suburban" style libraries, Bedford is set back from the street, surrounded by a small lawn, and rendered in a Classical Revival style of red brick with simple limestone ornamentation. The lampposts visible flanking the entrance in this 1941 photograph have been restored.

"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.

\#179-181-183 St. James Place, 1958. Designed in the Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles, ca. 1892 by William Tubby, no. 181 is the crowning centerpiece of three rowhouses designed and constructed as a trio. Both the exterior and the interior retain original design and details.

The Vendome is Brooklyn’s oldest surviving multi-unit apartment building. When it opened in 1887, the building’s 17 apartments were serviced by an elevator and had access to the billiard room, a caterer, and a shoeshine. Eventually, the building fell into decline, and after being abandoned for several years, it was taken by the city for failure to pay taxes. In 1980 a fire gutted the building and its demolition was imminent. At the last minute, thanks to local efforts, state and city grants were secured for rebuilding the apartment.

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.

218 Gates Avenue, 1919. In the late 1860s, the wealthy lace merchant John Gibb built is massive Second Empire mansion for his growing family (he would eventually have 13 children by two wives). He also owned much of the surrounding land, so for its first few decades, no other buildings stood between this house and Classon Avenue. (Gibbs was a bit of a curmudgeon who did not wish to be bothered on his quiet property.) In the late 1880s, Gibb and two of his sons got even richer when they went into business with Frederick Loeser. Frederick Loeser & Company became one of the largest department stores in Brooklyn. Gibb moved out to his Long Island estate at the turn of the century, and the large house cycled through several well-heeled owners. Owing to its enormous square footage, the house was converted into a convalescent home following the first World War. Later it was the Long Island Motor Club, a social club before becoming Hopewell House, a residential space for underprivileged women and children. In the second half of the 20th century, the homes became Plaza North Hotel, a hotel and event venue. This use ended in the 1980s after the activities here and in the more recently constructed outer building devolved in the illegal sphere. It then sat empty and in ruins. The Pratt Area Community Council bought the house from the city in 2000. They restored and reworked the mansion offices, meeting rooms and public spaces, while demolishing the outbuildings and constructing new edifices with studio apartments on the Monroe Street side of the lot. Today the complex includes more than 70 units of affordable housing.

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.