“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.

Cuyler Gore, 1942. A “gore” is a small triangular park often found at diagonal intersections. Cuyler Gore is named for the abolitionist minister Theodore Cuyler, of the nearby Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. The city of Brooklyn purchased the western portion of the park in 1845 for the sum of $1. In 1983, the park was expanded to include an area between Cumberland Street and Carlton Avenue, as Cumberland Street was closed to vehicular traffic between Fulton Street and Greene Avenue.

"West side of Clinton Avenue between DeKalb Avenue and Lafayette Avenue, 1974." No. 320 (right) is a Second Empire house built in 1867-8 for John O’Mahony, a liquor dealer. The mansard roof, entranceway, and lintels survived a 1920s-era remodel. No. 324 (left) is a larger and more imposing Second Empire structure, built in 1869 for the willow ware pottery manufacturer Lambert Heyniger.

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.

Attached Greek Revival row houses, 1958. The homes were built in 1853 for the developer Samuel I. Underhill, along with a matching pair at 297-299 Cumberland Street (at right). Before Italianate brownstone townhouses came into vogue, Greek Revival row houses were a popular choice for Fort Greene builders and homeowners. The four wooden row houses were built with a shared colonnade porch, each with its own stoop leading to a parlor-level entrance.

Clinton Nursing Home, 1958. The Italianate brick home at 415 Clinton Avenue is believed to have been constructed in early 1860s by the owner of the lot, a man named Frederick A. Platt. The building changed hands a few times and in 1894 it was purchased by the founder of the American News Corporation, Samuel Johnson (though he had been living in house since 1882). Johnson likely had the larger porch and main entrance vestibule added. Before these alterations, the home likely looked very much like no. 401 (two houses to the north), which is believed to have been constructed by the same unknown architect. Both lots are enclosed in the front by the same cast iron arrow-shaped fencing. In the mid 20th century the home was occupied by what seemed to be a private nursing home. Today the large building, which is 25 feet wide by 65 feet deep, houses 11 units.

Cuyler and the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church In 1860, Brooklyn's Park Presbyterian Church, then building a new church on Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene invited the celebrated Pastor Theodore Richard Cuyler to be its pastor. When the church was completed in 1862, the congregation changed its name to the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. There Cuyler spent the next 30 years. In 1860, when he became pastor the congregation numbered 140 people; when he left, in 1890, it had grown to 2,330 and was the third-largest Presbyterian congregation in America. He wrote 22 books and more than 4,0000 articles. Cuyler and Henry Ward Beecher were wary friends and sometimes shared a podium. In 1872, Cuyler invited the Quaker leader Sarah Smiley to address his congregation. He was criticized by the Presbytery of Brooklyn for inviting a woman to address a mixed-sex assembly. Cuyler's vociferous opposition to slavery is a large part of what commended him to Park Presbyterian Church, which was founded by abolitionists. "On the Sunday when fire was opened on Fort Sumter," said the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "the American flag was raised on the steeple of the Lafayette Avenue Church and it stayed there until Lee surrendered and the confederacy collapsed." "During the Civil War riots in this city," wrote the New York Tribune, "his church, with that of Henry Ward Beecher's, was closely guarded by the authorities" Two thousand people crammed into Lafayette Presbyterian Church for Cuyler's Funeral on March 1, 1909.

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.

141 Greene Avenue, 1958. The brick house at 141 Greene Avenue dates from circa the 1870s. The Clinton Hill Designation Report stated that the ground floor commercial space likely dates to the construction of the building. In the last nearly 60 years this building has changed very little, including the look of the commercial space; what was once a grocery store is now a dry cleaner. And its neighbor at 373 Waverly Avenue (at left) is no longer a liquor store, but a pizzeria.

Church of the Messiah at Clermont and Greene Avenues, ca. 1910. After a fire destroyed the steeple of the Greene Avenue Presbyterian Church (as it was called in the early part of the century), it was rebuilt with its distinctive beehive tower. A five-alarm fire in February 1969 rendered the building unsalvageable.

“Clermont Avenue, south from Lafayette Avenue, showing St. John's Roman Catholic Chapel (white building) and the Church of the Messiah (cone-shaped Steeple). June 21, 1941.” Today, St. John’s is the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, named for the first Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn. In 1868, Loughlin and the diocese of Brooklyn purchased land on Clermont Avenue with the intention of building a massive cathedral. He was ultimately unable to finance the project, but did build the Bishop’s residence at the northeast corner of Clermont and Greene Avenues. The Church of the Messiah was razed after a five-alarm fire in February 1969. The distinctive “beehive” steeple was added after a previous fire in 1910 destroyed the original steeple and belfry.

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.

The Queen of All Saints Chapel and School at Lafayette and Vanderbilt Avenues, ca. 1913. Designed by Reiley & Steinback, construction of the elaborate Gothic Revival Catholic church began in 1910 and was completed in 1913. When opened it was lauded by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as "one of the two or three most beautiful specimens of Church architecture in the United States."

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.

Facade detail: Queen of All Saints Roman Catholic Church, 1928.

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

The Brooklyn Masonic Temple, from Clermont Avenue, 1927.

“The Pouch Gallery. This building was erected by Robert Graves in 1888 for his home; William A. Mundell was the architect. Alfred J. Pouch, after purchasing it, remodeled it to be suitable for assemblies and public gatherings. 1922.” Pouch was a prominent philanthropist and art collector who, like many of his Clinton Avenue neighbors, made his fortune in oil. After an 1891 gala and gallery show, the Pouch Mansion home became well-known venue in Brooklyn’s elite circles, and continued to host charitable events, lectures, and meetings. Pouch later added a wing to the original structure, where selections from his art collection were available for public viewing. The house was demolished to between 1941-1943, to make room for the Clinton Hill Apartments (today “co-ops”) development for Navy families and war veterans.

“Lafayette Avenue, at the northwest corner of Clermont Avenue. September 19, 1941.” Three 1857 wood-frame houses on Lafayette Avenue and an unusually narrow brick building at the northwest corner of Clermont Avenue.

457 Clinton Avenue, a Second Empire villa, built in 1869. Originally owned by Nason B. Collins, a flour merchant, the house has a number of striking architectural features: a three-story tower, mansard roof, and front porch supported by fluted Doric columns.

Christoper Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, aka Biggie, aka Notorious B.I.G., aka Big Poppa, was raised by his mom, Voletta Wallace, at 226 St. James Place. In front of 226 St James. Clarence Davis/NY Daily New He went on to become one of the greatest rappers of all time. Smalls was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles in 1997. He was just 24 years old. His only two LPs, whose titles eerily bookmarked his death, were Ready to Die and Life After Death, which came out just 16 days after his murder. In 2019, the corner of St. James Place and Fulton Street was named "Christopher Wallace Way." The Orient Temple Masonic Lodge, the site of some of Biggie’s first gigs In a sign of how the neighborhood has changed, the "one-room shack" that Biggie rapped about in his hit single "Juicy" was recently listed for rent at $5,100.

Service buildings on Vanderbilt Avenue, 1941. Center-left is the carriage house for the 1882 Cornelius N. Hoagland mansion at 410 Clinton Avenue. Center-right is the garage and chauffeur’s residence for the mansion of Clara Van Vleck, completed in 1919. Most of these type of service buildings have survived and are highly sought after as residences.

\#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 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.

Wood-frame row house at 333 Adelphi Street, 1958. This Greek Revival house dates to 1855 and appears in advertisements for boarders in the late 1860s. In the 1880s, it was home to a kindergarten, where “special attention \[was] given to timid or backward children.”

200 Lafayette Avenue (Vanderbilt Avenue facade), 1957. The (now) bright yellow wood-frame house is arguably the most photographed house in Clinton Hill. Purchased in 1903 by the Skinner family, the home was still in their care in 2010 and likely still today.

The Joseph Steele house, built around 1850 — likely as an extension of the smaller wing on its east side — is a wooden building in the Greek Revival style. During the 1850s, this part of Brooklyn still had some farmland and open space; the cupola atop its roof would have provided a sweeping downhill view of more-urban Brooklyn Heights, Wallabout Bay, and the land in between.

The southeast corner of Adelphi Street and Lafayette Avenue, 1941. At the corner is 329 Adelphi, which, along with its near neighbor at 333 Adelphi (third from the corner), are the oldest wooden houses in Fort Greene, according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

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.

John Arbuckle House, October 25, 1957. Arbuckle, a Pittsburgh-born coffee magnate, had his factory and roasting operation in today’s DUMBO. He commissioned the young architect Montrose Morris to build his family a new home on the fashionable Clinton Avenue in 1888. Morris, then just 25 years old, designed an elaborate Romanesque Revival brownstone mansion with an open piazza entrance, prominent oriel window, and Tiffany stained-glass windows.

The house at 200 Lafayette Avenue is what the landmarks commission calls “the largest and best remaining example, of a wooden suburban mansion in the transitional Greek Revival/Italianate style now standing in any of the five boroughs of New York City.” Throughout its 179-year history, the house has only had three owners. The Skinner family, who currently own the home, have owned it since 1903.

489 Washington Avenue is a property that has worn many hats. Before it was a Pentecostal Church, this Second Empire mansion was a dance studio, a Grand Army Republic meeting hall, and a private family home to a descendant of the father of Irish Republicanism. With every new inhabitant, a piece of the building's architecture was changed. Lascelles and Grace Maxwell, the original owners of the home, raised their seven children in this house. The Maxwell's children sold the house in 1904 after both of their parents had died. It was then acquired by the Grant Chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1906. The old boy's club was a fraternal organization that supported veterans of the Union Army who fought in the Civil War. The ground floor was converted into a museum to display military memorabilia, which touted all sorts of firearms, uniforms, and possessions of Ulysses S. Grant, whom the chapter was named for. The second story had its walls removed to be converted into a large meeting room, where a variety of social events were held. The groups' membership had dwindled by the late 1920s, and the Hall was sold. Weber Studio operated out of the space, teaching ballroom, Foxtrot, and the waltz led by A.J. Weber. The hall was still rented out for meetings and other events until 1940 when the property was sold to the Evergreen Church of God. The white stucco was removed and covered with a false brick facade, revealing the original brick in certain areas.

These ten buildings, designed by Harrison, Fouilhoux & Abramovitz, were built during World War II as housing for Navy personnel at the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard. The north complex housed enlisted men, while the south was primarily for officers. Several of the large mansions on Clinton Avenue were torn down during construction of the towers. After the war, the buildings became a private development. The availability of affordable housing in the Clinton Hill Coops, and later the St. James Towers, as well as the solidifying presence of large institutions like Pratt and St. Joseph's University, are the reason Clinton Hill was able to stave off much of the urban blight that plagued other Brooklyn neighborhoods in the 60s, 70s and 80s. In 2017, residents of the St. James Towers voted to remain in the Mitchell-Lama program.

We have freedom of speech, religion, press, and assembly. What about freedom of accessibility? The freedom to use public transportation. For anyone to use public transportation. Yet in many of the major cities across the world accessibility is a struggle especially when it comes to subway transportation. New York City in particular is dealing with a huge accessibility crisis. The New York Times reports hust 126 of its 472 stations, or 27 percent are accessible. And to make matters worse many of the stations are extremely far from one another making it difficult for someone with a disability to get to their destination in a reasonable time. A focus upon college students who are trying to navigate the subway system demonstrates the scope of the issue. Pratt Institute, a leading art school in the heart of Brooklyn, is a case in point. Two of the closest nearby subways stations, Classon and Clinton Washington Avenue, are used by many students to get around the busy city. hat's shocking is that neither station is wheelchair accessible. In fact the next closest G train station that is accessible is Greenpoint Avenue which is a 23 minute drive. In 2019 Cheyenne Leonard, a Las Vegas native moved to Manhattan to attend graduate school at NYU. Leonard states, “I quickly realized that my prior visits to the city were filled with tourist activities, all of which were built for a wide variety of people and therefore, offered better accessibility.” Leonard is just one of the many students who struggle with a disability in the city. Blair-Goldensohn, another wheelchair user in the city stated that using the subways are extremely hard for someone with a disability. Why is this still an issue? Why isn't this a priority? NYC’s subway system predates the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. As many of the subway stations were already constructed, it is not easy to rebuild in keeping with contemporary accessiblity standards. “Though there will be progress made to many of the stations. The New York Times states, Under the settlement, the transportation authority will make an additional 81 subway and Staten Island Railway stations accessible by 2025. It will then make another 85 stations accessible by 2035, 90 more by 2045 and then 90 more by 2055.” Stations like Canal Street Station is a major hub in Manhattan yet it’s only partially accessible by certain trains. Will these stations become modified to be fully accessible? At Jay St. Metro-Tech when asking the question, “ what are your opinions on the new york city accessibility and how they affect people with disability?” Student at Pratt Institue, Brooke Miller stated, “I can name a couple locations, Columbus Square, where we are right now. It's a really good point because you never really notice it. I think it's important because how else are people going to get down.” While many who do not have disabilities may not notice, the issues of accessibility are starkly and obvious for those who are trying to navigate the subway stations in NYC. The issue of accessibility is the subject of a settlement with the MTA that would add elevators and ramps to 95 percent of the subway’s stations by 2055 - in 33 years! A more recent class action lawsuit brought by NYPIRG on behalf of wheelchair users and the blind addresses the issue of the gaps between trains and subway platforms . Overall, the accessibility in subway stations is a major problem in NYC that affects not only people with disabilities, but everyone who has a mobility issue, including parents with strollers, for exampleClinton Washington Ave, Canal Street, and Jay Street Metro-Tech subway stations are all examples of how accessibility can vary.

Lafayette Gardens Nursing Home, 447 Clinton Avenue,1958. This Italianate mansion is nearly 170 years old! It is one of the earliest structures of this style in New York City. Constructed circa 1850, the brick and brownstone was originally the home of a local auctioneer. After being owned by a furrier, the house was purchased by William Wade, a manufacturer of printing ink, in 1866. The Wade family owned the home until 1920. In the middle of the 20th century the building was owned and occupied by the Galilee Baptist Church; perhaps the Lafayette Gardens Nursing Home was a project of that institution (very little evidence of the history of the nursing home exists). The church occupied the home until the early 2000s, though during its tenure and after the building continued to deteriorate drastically. The windows were boarded up by plywood and cement blocks and the facade and interior were in terrible shape. The home was extensively renovated and restored in 2010 and now houses four rental units. In March of 2017, a 1,800 square foot unit was for rental market for $6,000.

941 Fulton Street, 1958. This four-story brick building was the home or workshop (it is unclear) of inventor Burton H. Cook from at least the 1890s until the 1910s. Cook invented and patented a number of mechanical products including a rotary ash sifter, a new and improved percolator, and a culinary grater and slicer. According to a search of his patents, he also worked on new types of suspenders and hair pins. The building listed on his advertisements still stands, though the twin double height projected bay windows, interestingly set back in the facade, have been removed. The ground floor commercial space has also converted into additional residential units.

A collection of churches across New York City from the New York Public Library.

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.

The architecture of the church, which opened on March 12, 1862, is noteworthy. It is one of the finest examples of early Romanesque Revival church architecture in New York (the mode had been inaugurated in the 1840s by the architect Richard Upjohn at the Congregation Church of the Pilgrims on Remsen and Henry streets in Brooklyn Heights.) The simplicity and, some would say, primitivism of the Romanesque style commended itself to dissenting Protestant sects that objected to the Gothic style embraced by high Episcopalian and Roman Catholic congregations for whom sacramental ritual rather than preaching was the main point of the worship service. Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Chruch adopted a semi-circular, "theatrical" seating plan, influenced by that of Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church (1849), which was felt better to serve congregants of a gifted preacher. In 1976, under the Reverend George Litch Knight, who was Lafayette's pastor for 33 years, the church interior was significantly altered by the incorporation of murals, "Mighty Cloud of Witnesses," painted by Hank Prussing, who was then 27 years old and a graduate of nearby Pratt Institute. For the Lafayette Avenue commission, he took 500 photographs of neighborhood scenes and residents as preparation for a mural sequence that depicts vividly observed vignettes of neighborhood life and characters. Its a startling thing to see when you enter the church, but the murals proved popular with many congregants, who even recognized local faces among Prussing's subjects.

The Brooklyn Masonic Temple at Clermont and Lafayette Avenues, ca. 1910. Built between 1906-1909, the imposing Neo-Classical structure is notable for its polychrome terra cotta ornamentation. The details of the facade are rendered in rich green, yellow, blue, brown, and cream.

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.

“Lafayette Ave., south side, east from South Portland Ave. At the left, is the Lafayette Presbyterian Church, undergoing repairs. April 4, 1932.” Built in 1862, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church was known for its abolitionist pastor, Theodore L. Cuyler, and its distinguished congregation of prominent Reconstruction-era political figures, including President Benjamin Harrison and British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone.

937 Fulton Street, ca. 1928. Originally home to the Rubel Coal and Ice Corporation, this building was erected in 1928 by architect Edward M. Adelsohn. The company was started by Samuel Rubel, who got his start selling ice and coal from a pushcart in East New York, Brooklyn. In its heyday, the company was very prosperous because coal and ice were two commodities that were in great demand. As the coal and ice business floundered, he invested in the Ebling Brewery of the Bronx. Rubel was said to be worth $8,000,000 at the time of his death – quite a considerable sum for that era.

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.

313 Clinton is “one of the finest neo-Grec residences in New York City.” Prominent Brooklyn architect George Morse designed it for lace manufacturer A.G. Jennings. Who knew lace gloves could be so lucrative? The white paint job really raises the hackles of the Clinton Hill Historic District report writers who say it “destroys the romantic intensity of the original deep red hues.” Right next door is 315 Clinton, built in 1888 by famed architect Montrose Morris for John "Mr. Coffee” Arbuckle. The coffee merchant’s big breakthrough was figuring out a way to keep roasted beans fresh by coating them with a sugar and egg glaze to close the pores of the bean. Though it sounds pretty gross, coupled with technology Arbuckle pioneered in automatically packing and sealing bags, it made shipping beans across the country possible. Arbuckle’s real genius, though, was in marketing. Every bag of coffee contained a peppermint stick, a collectible card, and a coupon. The coupons were redeemable for everything from handkerchiefs and straight razors to wedding rings. Arbuckles’ Ariosa Coffee was particularly popular with cowboys who referred to their campfire-brewed beverage as “a cup of Arbuckles.”

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.