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.

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

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.

Saint George’s Protestant Episcopal Church ARCHITECT: Richard M. Upjohn DATE: 1886 STYLE: Victorian Gothic Gravesend was an unusual example of early town planning in America; its village patent was the first land document in New York written in English. Occupying a 1.6-acre lot, this cemetery is one of the smallest in the city. Many of the headstones are brownstone. Among the legible gravestones are those of Revolutionary War veterans, most of the original Gravesend patentees, and many prominent families of the community. The Van Sicklen family maintained their own burial plot in the northwest corner, which is separately fenced

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.

Enoch Grand Lodge 423 Nostrand Avenue Designed by Heins & LaFarge, 1890 This exuberant building features a dominant corner tower, contrasting brick and terra cotta, finials, stylized capitals and stained glass from its days as the Reformed Episcopal Church of the Reconciliation. The building is notable for its architects. George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge met while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and both trained under the renowned architect H.H. Richardson. A year after this church was completed, they won the design contest for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. They later became the designers of stations and buildings for the city’s first subway system, the IRT, in 1901.

Boys High School, undated postcard. Rendered in a stately Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style, Boys High School was the work of Brooklyn Superintendent of School Buildings, James Naughton (who designed ALL of Brooklyn's schools for nearly two decades). This ornate architecture style of complex massing, repetitive arches, and soaring towers was popular in Brooklyn at the time. The main post office and fire house, social clubs, and private residences were all Richardsonian, though Boys High School is considered the epitome of the style in the city. Fully enrolled by the time it opened in 1892, the school had a number additions in the early 20th century. Famous alum of the school include Norman Mailer, Isaac Asimov, Aaron Copland, Man Ray, and architect Morris Lapidus. Boys and Girls High Schools were combined in 1975 in a new building and this one was left to deteriorate. Through the advocacy of the community and a landmark designation (in 1975) the building was kept from what might have been a likely demolition and eventually restored once again for use. Today it is home to charter schools and recently made a guest appearance as Knickerbocker Hospital in the TV show "The Knick."

The Boy's High School 832 Marcy Avenue Designed by James W. Naughton, 1891–92 The monumental Boys’ School was designed in the Romanesque Revival style and features quintessential design elements, such as rounded-arch windows and doors, dormer windows, gables, terra-cotta ornament, smooth brick façades and a rough-cut ashlar stone foundation. The imposing corner towers create a picturesque silhouette between this massive structure and the sky. Along with the Girls’ High School, it was the first public secondary school in New York City, and both were designated New York City landmarks in 1983.

Puritan Congregational Church, not dated. The history of this church dated 1863 when a group of teachers from the Wallabout Presbyterian Church established a Sabbath school. Within a year the school had grown while located at a storefront space on Myrtle Avenue. Originally named the East Brooklyn Congregational Church, the community broke ground for a place of worship in 1864 at DeKalb Avenue and Walworth Street. The congregation supposedly moved here to the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Marcy Avenue in 1869. Much of the later history of the parish is unknown. A 20th-century newspaper article noted that this building was constructed in 1890. The congregation may have disbanded or merged with another. In 1924, the building was sold to St. Augustine Protestant Episcopal Church. The church and neighboring school were sadly lost to a fire in 1969.

Boy’s High School, Brooklyn Located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and built in 1891-92, this Romanesque Revival building is one of former Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn, James W. Naughton’s masterpieces. Considered to be the one of the most important public schools in Brooklyn, the building was designed to be an architectural statement, richly adorned with terracotta and accented by a round corner tower, gables and dormers. Landmarked in 1975 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, Boy’s High School remains “one of Brooklyn’s finest buildings”.

Townhouse at the northwest corner of Tompkins Park, October 25, 1957. This corner townhouse was built 1888 and 1904, and features intricate cornice detail, decorative terra cotta spandrels, a rock-faced brownstone belt course at the parlor floor, and a rusticated brownstone base. It’s possible that the house was built for John M. Wolf, the owner of a stove repair business, whose address was listed as 660 Lafayette Avenue at the time of his death in 1909.