The Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, better known as Bed-Stuy, has a long and rich history. Many historic buildings occupy the neighborhood, reminding residents and visitors of a not-so-distant past. Take a walk back through time and explore some of the historic buildings and sites in Bed-Stuy.

St. Mark's Congregational Church, October 24, 1940. In 1897 the newly founded Immanuel Congregational created through the merger of Rochester Avenue and Patchen Avenue Congregational churches. The new community commissioned Brooklyn architect Axel Hedman to construct a new building. Completed in 1898 the Renaissance Revival structure more resembled one of Hedman's apartment designs and less like a classic church style. The broad, largely flat front of the church showcases wide stained glass windows. Briefly St. Mark’s Congregational Church (captured here in 1940), the church became the United Baptist Church in 1945, which it remains today.

375 Stuyvesant Avenue, 1978. Architects Henry P. Kirby and John J. Petit designed this Renaissance Revival-style mansion was for Otto Seidenberger, a wealthy brewer, in 1914. Kirby and Petit had been the architects of the Coney Island's Dreamland amusement park and various residences in what is now the Prospect Park South Historic District. The Landmarks Preservation Report of the Stuyvesant Heights neighborhood, where the mansion is located, writes that the "handsome residence...seems to reflect the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright's 'Prairie Style' houses," referring to the unusually low pitched hipped roof with deep eaves. In the 1970s, Dr. Josephine English, the first black woman to open a private practice in New York, acquired the building. English was a gynecologist who helped deliver over 6,000 babies in her career, including the children of Malcolm X and his wife Betty Shabazz, as well as former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown's daughter. She opened her practice at Harlem Hospital but moved her practice to Brooklyn in the '50s to open two woman's health clinics in the neighborhoods of Bushwick and Fort Greene. Later in her career, she established various programs to benefit the lives of senior citizens and youth in Brooklyn. English was also a patron of the performing arts and converted an abandoned church into the Paul Robeson Theater in Fort Greene. When English passed away in 2011, ownership of the house was transferred to her family, who have honored her request to continue operating a community center in the mansion. 375 Stuyvesant is home to various community groups, such as the Brooklyn Movement Center and the Freebrook Academy and Educational Community.

The Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church began as part of the open-air congregation organized by Thomas Webb in 1766. The original congregation was a mixed group of both Black and White methodists who called their church the Sand Street Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church, named for both the street where the church was located and Joshua Sands, the man whom they purchased the land from. Over time, racial tension grew between African American and white members of the congregation, as church leaders began charging black members a fee to worship at the church. In response, a group of Black clergymen started to preach from their homes and in other locations. The former members of the Sands Street WME sought advice from the Philadelphia-based African Methodist Episcopal Church and shortly after formed the Bridge Street African Methodist Episcopal Church (AWME), located at 309 Bridge Street, in 1854. The church also formed an educational program that opened a school for African American Children called the African Free School. At this location, the church was a stop on the underground railroad. In 1938, the assembly moved to 277 Stuyvesant Street, in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant, where it remains. It is the oldest continually-open black congregation in all of Brooklyn.