1005 Bedford Avenue, ca. 1960. This monolithic structure built in the Byzantine Romanesque style was originally the first temple for the Congregation of Temple Israel. The massive synagogue was constructed by the Parfitt Brothers, known for lavish townhouses, mansions, churches, and commercial buildings across the borough, including St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church in Park Slope and 6 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights. The synagogue was dedicated in 1891 and completed in 1893. After years of catering towards the surrounding area's German Jewish population, membership dwindled in the 1920s, with many members moving to Manhattan or out of Brooklyn. The congregation joined K.K. Beth Eloheim, Brooklyn's oldest Jewish congregation, in 1929, thus vacating their synagogue at 1005 Bedford Avenue. Seeking to alleviate the crowded conditions of the Clermont Avenue Traffic Court, the city purchased the building and converted the temple into the Brooklyn Traffic Court, as seen in this image. Much of the interior was likely gutted to make way for courtrooms, detainment cells, and office cubicles. The Brooklyn Traffic Court later moved to the Downtown Department of Motor Vehicles Office. The building then became a Bergen Tile store. The building was demolished in 1969.

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

"Madison Street (right), at the northeast corner of Nostrand Avenue. The buildings on Nostrand Avenue extend to Monroe Street, 1941."

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

Bedford Y.M.C.A. ca. 1923 In 1853 the first YMCA in Brooklyn opened its doors. Back then, the mission of the Young Men’s Christian Association was more evangelical than anything – but they did have a swimming pool and other such facilities. The Bedford Avenue branch opened in 1888 at its original location of 420 Gates Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. As the population of the area expanded in size, so did the need for an even larger space to accommodate everyone and by the turn of the century in 1901, construction was underway for a new space at 1115 Bedford Avenue. The new location (as seen above) officially opened its doors in 1905 offering amenities such as a state-of-the-art (at the time) gymnasium and swimming pool. Over the next several decades, the neighborhood’s changing demographics along with the continued segregation of YMCA facilities through the mid-1940s caused the Bedford Avenue YMCA’s visitors and memberships to dwindle. As a result, classes were permanently canceled, funding was reduced, and the property fell into a state of neglect. In 2007, instead of receiving much-needed renovations, the building was demolished and a new building was erected in its place. Now residing at 1121 Bedford Ave on the corner of Monroe Street, it has become one of the busiest locations in Brooklyn, with a membership roster of over 8,000 people.

260 Quincy Street, 1911. Built by a trio of English-born architect brothers, the Parfitt Brothers, the Nostrand Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church was completed in 1881. The parish had been founded here on the corner of Quincy and Nostrand Avenue in 1870. The church building is ostensibly Gothic Revival but also features details of the Shingle and Stick and English Arts and Crafts styles. The architects took advance of the corner plot to play mirrors facades that meet at the corner, rendered in brick, wood trim, terra-cotta, and glass. The current congregation is the John Wesley M.E. Church, a community founded in 1916 of mostly Caribbean parishioners. The parish moved to this location in 1947 from a former Greek Orthodox church on Pacific Street, as much of congregation already lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

186 Quincy Street, 1913. J. C. Hoagland, Civil War veteran, wholesale grocer, and baking powder mogul, built this home circa 1874. Designed by an unknown architect, the Second Empire residence housed the Hoaglands for less than 20 years. By 1909 the home was occupied by a music school, and within the next decade, it became a multi-family residence. Today the once single family house has 11 units. The building has been maintained very well, though the owners removed the iron cresting at the roofline during renovations in 2015.

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