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.

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

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.

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.

“Lafayette Avenue, north side, east from St. Felix Street to Fulton Street, showing a row of old houses, Nos. 39 to 53. The second building bears the inscription: ‘Morrison Dining Saloon.’ 1922." The rowhouses on this site were demolished between 1982-1986, creating a small green space known as “BAM Park” for the Brooklyn Academy of Music campus nearby. A 2012 study showed high levels of contaminants in the park’s soil, and it is currently slated for remediation and redevelopment.

Underneath the tracks of the Fifth Avenue El, over Flatbush Avenue, south of Fulton Street, August 1941. Elevated service on the Fifth Avenue line was discontinued in June 1940, but the remaining tracks weren’t demolished until September 1941. In the background is the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower at 1 Hanson Place, completed in 1929, and until 2010 the tallest building in Brooklyn. At left is the Corn Exchange Bank Trust Co. at 19 Flatbush Avenue.

Times Plaza Hotel, c. 1931. The Times Plaza Hotel was built in 1931 by architect Murray Klein in the Art Deco style. The building was a marker of Brooklyn's ability to overcome the Great Depression, it offered low-rate rooms for men only, much like the nearby YMCA. The hotel was named for Times Plaza at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenue. It boasted a circulating library and elaborate dining room, and in the 1940s and 50s, the press reported it to be a prospering home for single men, both retired and working. For the decades following, the hotel rapidly deteriorated. In 1995, the building was acquired by the Lutheran Social Services who updated the facilities and still operate the Muhlenberg residence in the building, a home for the formerly homeless, the disabled, and the elderly.

Rogers Memorial Building of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; February 28, 1960. Founded in 1866 by Henry Bergh, the ASPCA's first offices were in Manhattan, but the organization soon established a Brooklyn chapter and expanded nationwide. Bergh, a Lower East Side native who attended but did not graduate from Columbia, was inspired by England's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals during his travels abroad. Among Bergh's primary concerns in founding the organization was the treatment of the city's horses, a class of work animals then powering the city's transportation and commerce. This mission is reflected in the granite trough still evident on the Butler Street sidewalk (obscured in Morrell's photo by the Chevrolet in the foreground). The ASPCA's Butler Street building was designed by the acclaimed Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker firm, and completed in 1913. The Renaissance Revival structure was funded by donations from the prominent Bowdoin and Schermerhorn families, and, when completed, had greater square footage than the Society's Manhattan headquarters. The building doubled as a shelter facility for some animals, and was the Society's base of Brooklyn until 1979, when the building was sold. While the entablature identifies the structure as "The Rogers Memorial" building, it is unclear to which "Rogers" this dedication refers.

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.

In 1917, a New England Society committee organized what was then called " the Colony House Guild" in order to take care of the children of factory girls and women. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle documented the Colony House’s work with the borough’s children.

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.

Harriet Judson Y.W.C.A. Building, November 25, 1929. Designed in a Renaissance Revival/Colonial Revival style by the architect Frank Freeman, the Harriet Judson YWCA Building was completed in 1913. The Young Woman’s Christian Association in Brooklyn was founded in 1888 and offered a meeting place for young working women. The women had access to lectures, concerts, a reading room, Christian education classes, and later more skills-based classes such as sewing, millinery, and office skills. This building was the second purpose-built YWCA in the area, the first was a 1892 Montrose Morris structure on Flatbush Avenue. This building was planned when the need for more residential space became apparent. Named for the first president of the YWCA, the building could house more than 200 women, and did for more than 50 year. The proximity to mass transportation was critical to the working women who lived in and used the services here. The YWCA sold the building in 1969. In 1998 it was purchased by the Institute for Community Living, a supportive housing organization, which continues to used the building as a residence today.

The Brooklyn Strand, a 1918 vaudeville theater on Fulton Street at Rockwell Place, 1941. Next door (right) is the Majestic Theater, vacant and listed for rent. Today, the Majestic building is home to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater (which maintains many interior details of the original theatre), while the Strand is now the BRIC house, a non-profit arts performance space.

Atlantic Avenue and Bond Street, looking west along Atlantic, May 17, 1945. Belgian blocks once lined the streets of New York (and still do in some small sections of DUMBO and Red Hook). Atlantic Avenue was once one of those streets. In the 18th century the road that became Atlantic Avenue (so named between 1855 and 1870) was a private street in the Dutch settlement near to the East River. As the settlement turned into village, the road became the village's southernmost boundary. As the City of Brooklyn grew, the street developed into a busy thoroughfare that stretched from the East River to Nassau County. In the 1830s the Long Island Railroad laid their fenced in tracks down the middle of Atlantic Avenue from Boerum Place all the way to Jamaica, on the strip of land they actually owned. (West of Boerum Place the railroad went through the Cobble Hill or Atlantic Avenue Tunnel to the waterfront.) Because most of the street was occupied by the railroad tracks, the rest remained unpaved by most accounts. The section of the LIRR line between the East River and East New York became grade level horsecar and later streetcar service after the City of Brooklyn banned steam locomotives in the late 1850s. It was likely during this transition that the pavers seen here were laid and here they remained for decades. Once again as transportation changed, so, too, did the look of the street. In the 1950s after the discontinuation of trolley service and the removal of the trolley tracks, Atlantic Avenue was paved over smooth. It is unknown what remains of the pavers under the current asphalt of the Avenue.

362 Schermerhorn Street c. 1840 Designed by Weary & Kramer, 1894-95; Dodge & Morrison, 1917-18 – National Register Albert Kahn, 1929 1894 North and south of Atlantic Avenue on Third Avenue are grand civic buildings across from equally grand churches. 362 Schermerhorn Street was originally the Brooklyn Boys’ Boarding School. It later became Public School 15 (a sign on the Third Avenue façade still bears this name) and served as an infirmary during the Civil War. It now houses the Metropolitan Corporate Academy High School. Across the street is the former Baptist Temple (now the Recovery House of Worship), a brick and brownstone, Romanesque Revival style church rebuilt after a fire in 1917-18. Cross Schermerhorn Street for nice views of both of these buildings. South of Atlantic Avenue, at 59-75 Third Avenue, is a neo-Classical, limestone structure with Art Deco details built as the printing plant for The New York Times. The building still bears the newspaper’s name, and has retained its large windows, meant to display the printing, collating and folding of newspapers going on inside. Today it is part of The Math and Science Exploratory School (M.S. 447), Brooklyn High School of the Arts and the Kahlil Gilbran School. Across the street, at 72 Third Avenue, is a brick church with a prominent tower and lovely rose windows. It was built as the Swedish Evangelical Bethlehem Lutheran Church to serve the area’s significant Swedish population.

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.

In 1917, a New England Society committee organized the Colony House Guild in order to take care of the children of factory girls and women. First renting a house on Atlantic Avenue and then purchasing a home on Dean Street, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle documented the Colony House’s work with the borough’s children. The facilities of the colony house included classrooms, a gymnasium, an infirmary, a billiards room, and a library, and more. The directors and volunteers would teach classes, lead activities, and organize clubs. This included everything from cooking classes to dance to violin lessons. Students from nearby universities like Pratt would lend a hand and older children would set up basketball games. Serving children from kindergarten through high school, each child would initially bring a cent every day for admission. While this would later grow, the vast majority of the Colony House’s budget came from donations as well as some from state and federal funding. A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from 1943 described glowingly what happened when a young child entered the center: “A visit to Colony House will answer the question, “what happens to the child when of a working mother when she leaves him at the door of the child care center?” The answer is that the child has wonderful care, sometimes better care than he gets at home. After the child’s arrival at Colony House he is given a serving of fruit juice or perhaps if he needs building up cod liver oil. Some of the nursery children will rest a bit before the supervised period of play. The period is always out of doors if the weather permits. Colony House has an excellent roof, carefully screened for younger children to play in, and there is an adjoining school yard ideal for school-age youngsters. Luncheon is a complete meal and is followed by one to two-hour naps. Freshened by their sleep the children will be given fruit juice or milk, after which they again play out of doors. Shortly after 4 o’clock they are brought inside for a quiet time, which means music, story-telling, or a quiet game. In the very hot weather they will have a shower on the roof. From 5 o’clock on the parents start arriving to take their children home.” “At Colony House the children learn useful habits, such as hanging up their clothes, neatly putting away their toys after play, washing up before meals. They have dancing, singing, games, dramatics and all kinds of craft work to amuse them. Colony House provides the children with weekday excursions, such as a trip to the Brooklyn Museum or a picnic to Prospect Park. IN pre-war days this settlement sent Is children to its own camp, but because of difficulties in procuring proper supplies in a small town, other agencies are used to give the youngsters of the settlement days in the country.”

Public School 613 on State Street, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn; March 6, 1960. The school building dates to around 1930, having replaced the previous P.S. 15 at State Street and Third Avenue. P.S. 15 closed in 1942, following declining enrollment. During the 1950s, it became P.S. 613, one of the city's so-called "600 schools" — programs for disabled, mentally ill, violent, or pupils otherwise considered unfit for enrollment in the public school system. The system operated into the 1970s, and was decried as a "dumping ground" for children from poor families who might have otherwise benefitted from specialized instruction.

Subway construction on Ashland Place, north of Lafayette Avenue, January 30, 1911. The excavation underway was for the BMT Fourth Avenue line, which runs under Ashland Place between Fulton Street and the start of Fourth Avenue at Flatbush Avenue. The elevated line in the middle ground is the Fulton Street El.

401 Atlantic Avenue ca. 1942 The Church on this corner is St. Cyril’s of Turau Parish of the Belarussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church. The Gothic-inspired building features pointed arch windows, intricate brickwork and buttresses. The church was originally home to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

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.

Workshops and storefronts on Atlantic Avenue and Nevins Streets, ca. 1940s. The view is northward along Nevins Street. The large advertisements at left promote the "home of Ex-Lax." The laxative was, in fact, produced in that very building on Atlantic Avenue. In the era of animal testing, monkeys used to test the product were housed in an enclosed structure on the roof. The building was sold for condo conversion in 1979.

Schermerhorn Street, north side, between Third and Flatbush Avenues, 1920. Who knew that dentistry could be such a cut throat business! Here at the corner of Schermerhorn Street, Third Avenue, and Flatbush Avenue, the Ritter Painless Dental Company doled out "painless" teeth extraction. In the same era, another "painless" dentist, a Dr. Parker, located around the corner at 124 Flatbush Avenue, offered similar services. The Ritter building included attention-grabbing, bold signage, akin more to an amusement venue than a doctor's office. Brooklyn historian Suzanne Spellen has suggested that the Painless Parker signage, while oversized, was more tasteful and sedate, in response to the gaudy display of his competitor.

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.

Our Lady of Mercy Church, ca. 1915. This circa 1915 photograph depicts the third structure that housed Brooklyn Height's Our Lady of Mercy Church. In 1904 the parish was informed that their church building on Debevoise Street (constructed 1869) was to be demolished for the approach to the new Manhattan Bridge. In 1906 the cornerstone was laid for a new building with frontages on Schermerhorn and State Streets. The new church, dedicated in 1908, was designed as a mixture of Romanesque and Renaissance styles. The construction included not only the church but also a school, rectory, and a residence for the nuns, who were the school's educators. Once again the parish found itself in the path of the city's infrastructure process, this time the construction of a subway station and the widening of the street. The church closed and was demolished in 1930.

Recently while digging through the BPL Archives, an archivist found a really outstanding clipping about the Fox Theatre. "Wired Seats at the Fox Help Deaf Hear Talkies"; assisted listening devices in 1930! And how cutting edge! “A number of choice seats in the mezzanine,” reads the article, “have been equipped with the device, which consists of a telephone headpiece and receiver and an adjustable hand switch by which the person using it can control the volume of the sound coming through the instrument.” What other innovations did the Fox champion? What other cool stuff was showing at the Fox?

Horse-powered excavation for the BMT Fourth Avenue line on Ashland Place, north of Lafayette Avenue, January 10, 1911. The Brooklyn Academy of Music is visible at the edge of the frame, upper left.

View west on Fulton Street, beneath the Fulton Street El, during construction of the IRT Eastern Parkway Line (2/3), April 30, 1908.

“Nevins Street, south from Flatbush Ave. Also Flatbush Ave., west side, east from Nevins Street. This view is no longer existent. The buildings were razed, to make way for the new Fox Theatre, a motion picture house. June 1926.” The Cowperthwait Furniture Company building was demolished in 1927, along with the rest of the buildings on the triangular block between Flatbush Avenue, Nevins Street, and Livingston Street.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the coolest cat of all? We're actually not quite sure we're fully qualified to award that title...but here is a collection of our favorite historic photos of felines from our partners!

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 Majestic Theater and storefronts on Fulton Street, 1959. The Majestic marquee lists two current showings: The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) and The Mole People (1956). Fulton Street restaurants include Lotus Inn Chow Mein (no. 655) and Cafe Copa Bananas Cocktail Lounge (no. 659).

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."

View of Ashland Place, looking north toward the Brooklyn Academy of Music (center-right, in the distance), October 19, 1910. This photograph was taken as part of a survey ahead of the construction of the BMT Fourth Avenue Line, which today runs beneath Ashland Place. The photographer's vantage point is outside the former No. 149 Ashland Place (Ashland Place has since been extended to include the former Raymond Street, at which point addresses were renumbered). At left, on the west side of Ashland Place are storefronts for the Long Island Bird Store — advertising poultry and pigeons — and a hay and grain supplier. Today, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower (One Hanson Place) stands immediately to the right of this vantage point.

Subway construction beneath elevated trains on Fulton Street (left) and Flatbush Avenue (right), September 10, 1907. This photo captures the past and present of Brooklyn public transit: the Fulton and Fifth Avenue elevated trains (the latter over Flatbush Avenue); streetcars running on both streets; and reinforcements in place to brace the elevated trestles for excavation associated with the IRT Eastern Parkway line, beneath Flatbush.

Commercial strip on the north side of Fulton Street, east of Ashland Place, 1941. Tenants include a barbershop, Italian restaurant, hardware store, and “permanent linoleum floors.”

In 1893 the August Busch Bottling Company called this building (nos. 435-443) on Atlantic Avenue home. During this period beer was shipped in barrels to defray freight charges and needed to be bottled near where it was sold. This facility bottled Budweiser for the decade between 1893 and 1903. Years later the building (and its slightly taller addition) became "the Home of Ex-Lax," the chocolate-flavored laxative developed in the early 20th century. Today, the newer building at no. 423 (left of this shot) houses 57 co-op residences, while the building seen here still stands (sans most of its ornamentation) and had commercial tenants.

Industrial building at the corner of Butler and Nevins Streets, February 28, 1960. The mansard-roofed corner building appears to have been incorporated into a later industrial building — termed a "strange marriage" in a 1977 Archaeological Report prepared ahead of the construction of a new sewage pipe. The report further ventures that the structure "appears to be the oldest building along the length of the proposed sewer construction." The 1977 report also included the following remark from John H. Lindenbush of the Long Island Historical Society: "Men fought and died here as part of our American Revolution. To date, we have honored them with our sewage. We can as a nation do better than that and I sincerely hope that this subcommittee will give serious consideration to including at least a few hundred acres of land around the former creek bed in the Gateway National Recreational Area." (His proposal did not come to pass.) The building, later the site of a Consolidated Edison sub-station, was demolished prior to 2009.

Shoveling snow from the entrance to the Ex-Lax Building, December 30, 1947. Though 423-443 Atlantic Avenue seems quietly residential, the "Ex-Lax" written above its entrance reveals its original purpose. In 1906, Max Kiss invented and started producing a chocolate laxative so palatable that he named it Ex-Lax. (Excellent Laxative) By 1925, the product was selling so well that he built a new factory and headquarters on Atlantic Avenue between Bond and Nevins. This proved a good investment, the following year, Ex-Lax became America's favorite over-the-counter laxative. Though Ex-Lax still serves those in need to this very day, the factory does not; it was converted to loft co-ops in 1983.

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.

Swedish Evangelic Pilgrim Church ca. 1930 This church was commissioned by the Svenska Evangeliska Pilgrimskyrkan (Pilgrim Swedish Evangelical Congregational Church) in 1893, another reminder of Atlantic Avenue’s once vibrant Swedish community. The beige brick structure was designed in the Romanesque Revival style with banded brick arches and a square tower with a pyramidal turret. It is now home to the House of the Lord Pentecostal Church.

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.

Fulton Street, west from St. Felix Street. In the background is the tower of the Smith, Gray & Company Building, August 1941.

Orpheum Theater, 1941. The Orpheum Theatre opened on December 31, 1900, and presented live performances to an auditorium that sat nearly 2000 people. The B.F. Keith-Albee chain took over the venue between 1912 and 1929 and hosted mostly vaudeville. For the last 24 years, RKO operated the theatre. This photograph captures the marquee in June 1947 as the nearby elevated train infrastructure was being removed. In 1953 the theatre closed and the building demolished. After decades of functioning as a parking lot, a new building was erected on the site in the mid-2010s.

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.

Corn Exchange Bank, 1937. Constructed sometime between 1910 and 1930 the Corn Exchange Bank was one of a number of branches of the highly successful bank its most well-known branch is on 125th Street at Park Avenue). Like most NYC-based banks, the institution cycled through a number of names. Called Chemical Bank by the 1960s and Chase by the 1990s, the building has been owned by environmental designer and activist, Al Atarra, since the 1970s. The bank vacated the building around the turn of the 21st century and it remained largely empty, though was used for occasional film shoots. One of those shoots changed the name on the facade to Metropolitan Exchange Bank (a fictional institution) and Atarra kept the name, creating a business called M Ex, the Metropolitan Exchange, which was a start-up incubator for creative ventures. One of his wishes, according to a 2010 New York Times article, was to rename the project: "I want to rename it the Brooklyn Arts and Design Area or BADA. Since we're in the BAM District, it'll be BADA-BAM." Though the creative hub is still housed in the building, it seems that his syllabic abbreviation has not caught on.

The Smith, Gray & Company Building at the intersection of Nevins Street, Fulton Street, and Flatbush Avenue. Completed in 1888, the building featured two 210 foot towers, one which housed a large illuminated clock. In 1892, a fire destroyed much of the building, causing the clock tower to collapse on the Flatbush Avenue Station of the Fulton St El. Pictured here in 1941, the rebuilt clock tower is being scaled down to its current seven story height, sans clock. At left is the Fox Theater at 20 Flatbush Avenue.

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.

Majestic Theater ca 1940 The Majestic Theater opened in 1904 and was known for a variety of theatrical performances, including opera, musicals, and vaudeville. By 1942, the Majestic Theater became a first-run movie theater, and later a church. Not long after this photograph was taken (in 1968), the Majestic Theater closed its doors permanently and remained that way for two decades. Harvey Lichtenstein, Brooklyn Academy of Music President and Executive Producer, raised funds to renovate the theater and it re-opened in 1987 with many of the original elements and details. Today, the former Majestic Theater is the Harvey Theater at BAM, showcasing a variety of creative performances and productions.

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.

The northern end of the Gowanus Canal, February 28, 1960. The Brooklyn chapter of the ASPCA is visible across Butler Street.

The Baptist Temple, ca. 1910. The Romanesque Revival Baptist Temple is home to Brooklyn’s oldest Baptist congregation, founded in 1826. After two churches in present-day DUMBO were destroyed by fire, the congregation enlisted architect George Kramer to a massive new structure at Third Avenue and Schermerhorn Streets. Kramer’s auditorium-style building was completed in 1894. A 1917 fire caused extensive damage, destroying the original rose window and elements of the interior; the subsequent reconstruction enlarged the sanctuary space and included the installation of a new pipe organ. Today, the church is listed for sale, despite its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.