Casino Theatre, Flatbush Avenue; February 27, 1928. The Casino Theatre was opened in 1909 in the heart of Brooklyn's theatre district. Twenty years later, it went the way of its vaudeville and burlesque revues: it was closed, torn down, and replaced by the commercial building that still occupies the site.

“Fulton Street, east from South Oxford Street, showing the B. M. T. elevated and the station at Cumberland Street. June 15, 1940.” The Fulton St. El had closed two weeks prior to the photo date. An entrance to its replacement, the then-new IND Fulton Street Line (A/C trains), is just out of frame to the right.

The St. Felix Street entrace of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, ca. 1931.

The Hanson Baptist Church at the corner of Hanson Place and South Portland Avenue, 1940. Built between 1857 and 1860, the stately brick and stucco structure has been the home to a Seventh Day Adventist congregation since 1963. Nearly a century earlier in 1864, the occasional minister of the then-Baptist church, Robert Lowry, composed the hymn “Hanson Place,” referencing the church. It was later featured in the Western films of director John Ford.

At the turn of the 20th century, Downtown Brooklyn had a theater district to rival Manhattan’s. In the space of a few blocks near the Flatbush Avenue Extension, a collection of grand multi-use ballrooms and smaller vaudeville stages proliferated. Just a few decades later, most had fallen into disuse and disrepair, but in many cases, the buildings themselves survive. Here’s a look at a thriving entertainment district of days gone by — and the contemporary adaptive reuse projects reinvigorating its legacy.

Borden's Plant, formerly Empire State Dairy. Founded by Gail Borden Jr. in 1857, the Borden Company began as a producer of condensed milk. By the 1920s, the company had come to sell processed milk, evaporated milk, ice cream, and a whole slew of dairy products. Borden eventually became a holding company, and their subsidiaries became divisions. They dabbled in rendering to produce adhesives and plastics and bought up food companies like Wise and Cracker Jack. After suffering financial strain in the 1990s, the company was acquired by Grupo LaLa of Durango, Mexico.

The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower under construction, 1929. At the busy intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush stands the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, dividing the low-rise Brooklyn neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, and Park Slope. At 512 feet, the building is the tallest in Brooklyn; once the tallest structure between Manhattan and Paris. Built between 1927 and 1929 for the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, the building boasts a four-sided clock face, the largest in the world until 1962. (It was surpassed by the Allen-Bradley Clocktower in Milwaukee.) Against the architect’s wishes, the client insisted on a golden dome, meant as a nod to the Bank’s pre-existing building in Williamsburg (the neighborhood is spelled without the ‘h’). Along with the copper dome, the Spanish detail gives the art-deco style a neo-Moorish flavor. Ownership of the building changed over the years through mergers and acquisitions, as Williamsburgh Savings first became a part of the Republic National Bank and was later acquired by Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Company (HSBC). “The Willie”, as it is affectionately known, has been converted into luxury condominiums by co-developers The Dermot Companies and Magic Johnson. The ornamented hall, with a mosaic mural of Brooklyn, 63-foot ceilings and 40-foot windows, was vacated on September 30, 2005 as new ownership took over and now serves as an event space. Although still the tallest building in Brooklyn (though perhaps not for long with the planned conversion of the Atlantic Yards), the Williamsburgh Savings Bank is not the tallest structure. This honor belongs to a 597-foot radio and television tower at nearby Brooklyn Tech High School.

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."

Pedestrians negotiate piles of snow on State Street, just west of Flatbush Avenue; March 15, 1888. No. 110 Flatbush avenue is the building in the foreground at right.

Aftermath of a cave-in that occurred during BMT Brighton Line construction at St. Felix Street and Hanson Place, April 17, 1917. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described the scene: "A sudden slide of sand, bringing a tremendous impact against the supporting timbers in the new Brooklyn Rapid Transit subway excavation...caused a collapse of the construction work there today, and at least six men were carried down into a hole 50 feet deep." The Eagle further noted that "an Italian, known only as Dominick, died," the only fatality from the collapse. Twelve years later, the Hanson Place Methodist Episcopal Church (out of frame at right) was declared structurally unsound, due to damage to its foundation. A new church was built on the same site.

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.

The Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church was first founded in 1872 as First North River Bethel Ship Society. This congregation was a direct result of the first Swedish Methodist Church ever founded. That first church was actually founded in the United States, in New York, and on a ship. Immigrant Olof Gustaf Hedstrom started the Bethel Ship society in 1845 on a ship docked at a pier in Manhattan. They would move the ship to Brooklyn and then move the congregation to dry land a few decades later. In the 1920s the First Spanish Church was organized and in the 1960s, as the Scandinavian population declined drastically, the two churches merged. Today the building is the Immanuel & First Spanish United Methodist Church.

“Painless Parker” dentist, ca. 1896. Signs read “I am positively IT in painless dentistry.” This advertisement faces the triangular lot in the center of the three-way intersection of Flatbush, Atlantic, and Fourth Avenues. Edgar R. R. "Painless" Parker, "the wonderful wizard of painless dentistry," was the most flamboyant if not the best of all dentists. He employed dancing girls, a brass band, performing tigers and walruses, and a general circus setting to calm the masses frightened by dentistry. He arranged for a bugler to stand behind the patient and let fly with a mighty blast at the precise moment that Parker extracted the tooth..."painlessly." His enduring contribution may that he pioneered the concept of group dental practice: at his height Parker operated thirty West Coast dental offices, employed 75 dentists and grossed $3 million annually. When he died in 1952 the obituaries labeled him a "chain-store dentist." But he is remembered today principally for his stunts. After some years as a street dentist, extracting teeth at fifty cents per, he established spectacular headquarters in Brooklyn. He extracted 357 teeth in one day- on a vaudeville stage- and had a necklace made of them which he wore while practicing his trade.

147 St. Felix Street, April 17, 1917.

"Hanson Place Methodist Episcopal Church, with scaffolding being prepared for its demolition, ca. 1929." Dating to 1873, this was the second Methodist church built on the site, where it replaced a smaller structure built in 1857. In 1927, the Hanson Place church merged with Methodist congregations from Ridgewood, Queens and nearby Fleet Street with the intention of building a new structure in a different location. The newly united congregation was forced to reconsider their plans in 1929, when the Department of Buildings ruled the Hanson Place structure unsafe for occupancy due to subway construction beneath its foundation. Ultimately, they elected to build a new church next door to the nearly-complete Williamsburgh Savings Bank. In 1931, the new, red brick Neo-Gothic Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church was completed.

Times Plaza, September 13, 1913. Times Plaza, so-called for its proximity to the offices of the former Brooklyn Daily Times newspaper, refers to the Downtown Brooklyn intersection of Atlantic, Flatbush, and Fourth Avenues. Times Plaza has long been a hub of Brooklyn transit. This 1913 photo includes: the Atlantic Avenue station of the Fifth Avenue El; the Flatbush Avenue terminal of the Long Island Railroad (now Atlantic Terminal); local streetcar traffic; and, in the foreground, excavation for the new BMT Fourth Avenue subway line. At the time, Brooklyn Elevated Railway provided a connection between the Fifth Avenue El and Long Island Railroad's Atlantic Avenue Line (this service was discontinued in 1916). The Hanson Place Methodist Episcopal Church is visible in the background.

Times Plaza, viewed from Fourth Avenue, April 22, 1948. The view includes the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, Interborough Subway headhouse, and the Flatbush Avenue terminal of the Long Island Railroad.

Hanson Place Seventh Day Adventist Church ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: c. 1857-1860 STYLE: Italianate This building was originally erected as the Hanson Place Baptist Church, an outgrowth of the Atlantic Street Baptist Church, but has been owned by the Seventh-Day Adventists since 1963. Constructed of brick above a brownstone base and trimmed with wood, this Italianate church gives distinction that still retains of much of its nineteenth-century atmosphere.

543 Atlantic Avenue Built ca. 1855 This now stucco-covered structure has had many lives. It was originally constructed as the Atlantic Street Baptist Church, a brick building dedicated in 1855. The building was subsequently home to St. Matthew’s English Lutheran Church, the Metropolitan Mission (Independent African Methodist Episcopal Church), the Swedish Baptist Church, the Salvation Army and the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Today it is home to the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Library. This fascinating turnover of cultures and denominations makes this seemingly insignificant building a great example of Brooklyn’s rich religious heritage. In fact, Brooklyn has long been known as the “Borough of Churches” for the many steeples that dot its landscape. Just west of this building, on the north side of the Avenue, note the row of brightly painted commercial buildings with intact storefronts.

Rex Cole appliance showroom, Fourth Avenue and Pacific Street. January 2, 1934. Cole, a Michigan-born lighting designer, became a leading name in appliance retail thanks to his distinctive General Electric-affiliated showrooms, designed by architect Raymond Hood. Cole’s innovative showrooms included model kitchens featuring signature GE products, making it easy for customers to envision their own homes with gleaming new appliances. By the early 1930s, Cole had over 15 showrooms in the five boroughs, but his success was to be short-lived: he was forced to close several showrooms after a 1935 bankruptcy filing.

178-180 Ft. Greene Place, ca. 1970s. For the first quarter of the 20th century, this building housed a wholesale meat market owned by Julius Dahlman. In 1921, the New York-based meat newsletter "The Butcher's Advocate" announced Dahlman's engagement, only to retract it in the next issue and apologize for the mistake, saying, "Dahlman, it seems, already has one wife and does not contemplate taking on another." The building was demolished in 1978 as part of the Atlantic Terminal urban renewal.

Pacific Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, May 30, 1958. The first Carnegie Library built in Brooklyn, the Pacific Branch opened its doors on October 8, 1904. The library, deigned by Raymond Almirall, suffered structural damage from subway construction, and multiple fires, leading to its near closure in 1973. Following a preservation campaign, and the renovated branch reopened in 1975.

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 traffic swarmed square outside of Barclay's may seem newly developed, but in fact, it was first established in 1860 when the Brooklyn Jamaica Railroad established a stop simply named "Brooklyn."

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

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.

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.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, from St. Felix Street, ca. 1931. Founded in 1861 in Brooklyn Heights as the Philharmonic Society of Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s original building was destroyed in a 1903 fire. The present building was designed by Herts & Tallant and opened in the fall of 1908 with a Metropolitan Opera performance of Faust.

Y.M.C.A Central Branch, ca. 1915. Funded by luminaries including John D. Rockefeller and designed by the Trowbridge & Ackerman firm, the Neo-Georgian Central Branch of the Y.M.C.A opened in 1915. After years of declining membership, the State of New York bought the building in 1967. It was converted into office spaces and in 2011 was named the Shirley Chisholm Building, in honor of the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress, and first African American woman to run for President of the United States.

Rear view of the Brooklyn Central Branch YMCA at 55 Hanson Place, from Fulton Street. The street in the center of the photo is Fort Greene Place, 1930.

Pacific Branch, BPL 25 Fourth Avenue Raymond F. Almirall, 1903 Brooklyn’s first Carnegie library, the Pacific Branch (named for its location at Pacific Street) was heralded upon completion for its dignified Beaux-Arts design. The interior of the building, which has retained its original two-story stacks, was also praised for its light, air and efficient use of space. The building’s brick façades feature prominent limestone trim, including keystones above the arched door and window openings and oversized torches and swags supporting the cornice. The building has had a difficult history, including early damage in 1914 during the construction of the nearby subway, as well as a number of fires. Murals completed in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration graced the second floor for a number of years, but are no longer extant. Despite widespread support, the branch is not a designated city landmark. In 2013, it was under threat of being sold to a developer, but public outcry and political pressure led the BPL to reconsider these plans.

Prior to European settlement, Atlantic Avenue was an unpaved trail ending at the East River. By 1816, when the Village of Brooklyn was incorporated, the road became the village’s southernmost boundary. Originally called District Street, it was renamed Atlantic Street in 1855 (at 75 Atlantic Avenue, an engraved street sign marked “Atlantic Street” is still extant) and designated an Avenue in the 1870s. In 1825, District Street developer Charles Hoyt and his associates petitioned the City to establish a ferry between Manhattan and Brooklyn, but Manhattan landholders feared real estate development competition with Brooklyn, so it was not until 1834, the year Brooklyn was incorporated as a city, that a lease was granted for the “South Ferry” between Whitehall Slip and District Street, for which an ornate ferry house was built. In 1832-36, the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was built to connect District Street to Long Island, with its terminal at the present intersection of Flatbush Avenue. The line was operated by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), incorporated in 1834. The world’s first subway was constructed at this time underneath Atlantic Avenue to provide steam train service between the railroad terminal and the South Ferry. After steam trains were outlawed in Brooklyn in 1859, the subway tunnel was abandoned and horse car service was introduced above ground (the brick-vaulted tunnel was long forgotten, but in 1980, many decades later, it was rediscovered by a historian named Bob Diamond). Thus, in the span of just a few years, District Street became the conduit for business transactions and the transport of goods between Long Island and Manhattan. The street was poised for major change and the surrounding area became desirable as a suburban community due to its newly acquired access to Manhattan. The earliest development began in the 1840s to take advantage of the commercial waterfront. Mercantile and industrial buildings included the Flint Glass Works, producers of gaslight probes, and the original Benjamin Moore Paint Factory at 55 Atlantic Avenue. The transfer and importation of goods was a major enterprise, and businesses like The Fruit Cleaning Company at 14 Atlantic Avenue, prospered. Many commercial buildings from this period are extant on the blocks from Hicks to Clinton Streets. In the late 19th century, the waterfront to Court Street became a premier commercial boulevard with a bank, small shops and a large dry-goods store called Journeay & Burnham. In 1933, bridges and tunnels had surpassed ferries as a means of entering Manhattan, and the South Ferry was terminated. Beginning in the 1940s and completed in 1964, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) significantly altered the character of western Atlantic Avenue, resulting in the demolition of all structures from the waterfront to Columbia Street. In order to promote economic vitality, attract and retain businesses, create jobs and improve residents’ quality of life, the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District (AABID) launched in early 2012. The AABID is also committed to marketing and advocating for the street’s roughly 300 businesses and to making capital improvements, such as street beautification, as well as celebrating and preserving Atlantic Avenue’s history and architecture. The western end of the Avenue is protected by the Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill Historic Districts, designated in 1965 and 1969, respectively.

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.

“South Elliott Place (left foreground), south of Hanson Place to Atlantic Ave. This view is also general and shows the southern section of Brooklyn. It was taken from atop the Y.M.C.A. Building located at 55 Hanson Place. At the left, beyond the Long Island freight yards on the S.E. and S.W. corners of Sixth Ave. respectively are the Sheffield Farms Co. and the A.G. Spalding Co. Manufacturing buildings. At the right beyond the triangle is the Fifth Ave. Elevated Line on Flatbush Ave., which turned sharply and continued southward on Fifth Ave. June 1926.”

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.

The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, from Atlantic and Fourth Avenues, 1929. The tower was designed by Halsey, McCormack and Helmer and opened in April 1929. The original plans had not included a dome at its top, but the dome was added at the insistence of the bank’s owners, and over the objections of the architects.

1 Hanson Place, the future site of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, in 1927. Construction on the 37-story building would begin later that year.