The Friends Meeting House, seen at right, was completed in 1857 and is attributed to architect Charles T. Bunting. In 1867 the building, which served as the religious home of the community, also became the home to a Quaker school. The school began with one teacher and 17 students. The educational operations moved into a new building next door at 112 Schermerhorn in 1902. Today the meeting house is still in regular use as a house of worship.

The Sharon Hall Hotel, formerly The Montrose. June 5, 1961. Montrose Morris, a leading late 19th century Brooklyn architect, built the fifteen-unit, Romanesque Revival apartment building in 1888. The Montrose, to which he lent his first name, functioned as a preliminary study for the Alhambra apartment building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a larger development and an extension of the Hoyt Street building’s floorplan. Each of the Montrose’s fifteen units had entrance hall illuminated by a street-facing stained glass window, parlor, library, and three bedrooms. The building was converted to the Sharon Hall Hotel during the 20th century, and later demolished, likely in the late 1960s or later.

View north along the east side of Bridge street from the top of contractor's platform at Willoughby Street, May 28, 1923. Less than five years after this photograph was taken during the construction of the BMT Broadway line, this entire block looked drastically different. Between 1929 and1930 the New York Telephone Company constructed their Long Island headquarters here at the northeast corner of Bridge and Willoughby Streets. The 27-story Art Deco building was designed by Ralph Walker (the architect of number telecommunications buildings in New York). In 2008 the first apartments of a condo conversion came on the market for $1 million.

Exploring foodways in Brooklyn, historic and contemporary, offers up a unique cross-section of considerations around why we eat what we eat, where it comes from, and what that means. What Brooklyn consumes is defined by its plurality and variety. The borough’s access to waterfront shipping ports and proximity to upstate farmlands adds an additional layer to the near-endless number of restaurants, bodegas, grocery stores, delivery options, food trucks, farm stands, and home-cooked meals we enjoy today. Looking back over Brooklyn's peak industrial period in the 19th and 20th centuries, we can also see how businesses such as sugar refineries, breweries, and poultry farms shaped the social and cultural landscape⁠—and indeed, the landscape itself⁠—of Kings County.

“31-39 De Kalb Ave., at the northwest corner of Flatbush Ave. Extension. Also seen, is Flatbush Ave. Extension, west side, north from De Kalb Ave., to Fleet Street. July 22, 1934.” Today, the northwest corner of DeKalb Avenue and the Flatbush Avenue Extension is home to the original location of Junior’s, the restaurant chain known for New York-style cheesecake. In 1934, the building’s tenants included clothing retailers, a storefront doughnut shop, and the Enduro sandwich shop, owned by Junior’s founder Harry Rosen.

Eastward view along Willoughby Street towards Flatbush Avenue Extension, March 18, 1915. The building seen at right is the Brooklyn Department of Health. Today that corner remains a city health building but early 20th century structure has been replaced with a 1940 red brick, subtle Art Deco building. None of the buildings that lined the south side of Willoughby Street remain extant. In the distance stands the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park.

Entrance to the New York Telephone Company Building, ca. 1995.

“336 Atlantic Ave., south side, west of Hoyt Street, showing a home bought by Mrs. Pruize from Samuel J. Krooks of No. 421 East 11th Street.” Eugene L. Armbruster, 1922. The brick, shingle-roofed house appears on Brooklyn maps as early as 1855. In Armbruster’s 1922 photograph, the Coca-Cola placard visible above the ground floor storefront may indicate a grocery or lunch counter operating in the space. Today, the shop window and entrance have been mostly enclosed while the building remains intact.

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.

A.I. Namm and Sons Department Store, ca. 1925. Adolph I. Namm, a Polish immigrant, moved his Manhattan-based upholstery and embroidery trimmings store to Brooklyn in 1891. His first Brooklyn location opened at 452 Fulton Street, at a moment when this section of Fulton Street was developing into a commercial center. With great success, the store expanded to become a department store, which by the 1920s was one of the largest in the city. The section of the building depicted in this circa 1925 was the penultimate construction for the Fulton Street complex (the final section would be constructed at the corner, at right, a few years after this section was finished in 1925). Designed by Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler, the department store was built with a steel frame and reinforced concrete floors. The facade was rendered in a modern style with sculptural masonry piers and decorative bronze panels. (The later corner annex created a lovely curved corner facade.) In the 1950s the business merged with a neighboring department store to become Namm-Loeser’s. In early 1957 the downtown Brooklyn store closed, when its parent company made the decision to focus on its suburban locations. Later that year the full block complex of Namm buildings were purchased by the parent company of Abraham & Straus Department Store. They demolished most of the block for a parking garage, save for the 1920s additions, which were converted for offices and ground-level retail spaces. These remaining structures were designated NYC landmarks in 2005.

Some readers might remember this building as the Sharon Hall Hotel. Prior to its revamping however, it was an apartment building known as the Montrose. This magnificent structure was designed, sometime between the 1860s and 1880s, by Montrose W. Morris, the Brooklyn based architect best known for designing some of the earliest multi-unit apartment buildings in New York City. The design of the Montrose is very similar in style to the Alhambra, another larger apartment building in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood, also designed by Morris. The Montrose stood on the corner of State Street and Hoyt Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boreum Hill. It was a five-story building with fifteen apartments and seemingly quite fancy for the time. Each apartment included its own private reception hall in which you could exit through two sets of sliding doors leading into a dining room and parlor on one side and a library on the other. Although the exact year when the Montrose became the Sharon Hall Hotel is unknown, based on John D. Morrell’s photograph above, we do know it was already a hotel in the year 1960. The building seems to have been demolished soon after Morrell photographed it, sometime in the 1960s or 1970s. A more modern townhouse now resides on the corner of State and Hoyt. Thankfully not suffering the same fate as the Sharon Hall Hotel, the city designated the Alhambra a historic landmark in 1986. I suggest if one wants to travel back in time for a glimpse of the Sharon Hall Hotel, all one has to do is visit the Alhambra and admire the beauty of a time past.

Northwest corner of Jay and Willoughby streets, May 2, 1916. This survey photograph was taken during construction of the BMT Broadway line. The corner wood-frame building is a (highly advertised) coupon and trading stamp store.The wood-frame buildings on this corner survived into the 1930s. They were razed and in 1947 the modernist headquarters for the Board of Transportation was erected here, with the address 370 Jay Street.

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.

Poster notifying passengers of service changes, 1946. The Court Street station is a two-track stub-end station, constructed as a terminus for local trains of the IND Fulton Street Line. Opened on April 9, 1936, the station was meant to northern end of the HH Fulton Street Local, and possibility a Brooklyn connection along the long proposed Second Avenue Subway. In reality the only train service that the station operated was the Court Street Shuttle, which left Court Street and traveled the three underground blocks to the nearby transfer station at Hoyt–Schermerhorn. Given the proximity to the next station, Court Street was never heavily used and the station was closed (and the shuttle service discontinued) on June 1, 1946. The station was in active use for only 10 years and just under two months. With most of its entrances sealed the station was used for various activities after 1946 including as a testing ground for station cleaning activities, as storage for transit equipment, and as a filming location for movies. On July 4, 1976 the New York City Transit Exhibit opened in the station as part of the United States Bicentennial celebrations. The exhibit was organized by transit employees. Meant to be on display only until Labor Day of that year, the exhibit proved to be immensely popular and remained open, eventually being transformed into a permanent museum.

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.

Street-level decking for the construcion of the IND Fulton Line's Court Street station, at Court and Schermerhorn Streets; November 20, 1930. At right is the German Evangelical Church, a Romanesque structure completed in 1890 to accommodate the City of Brooklyn's growing German population. The church shuttered in 1969 and was demolished in 2006.

Gage & Tollner Restaurant ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: mid-1870s STYLE: Italianate The restaurant Gage & Tollner had its beginnings in 1879 when Charles M. Gage opened an eating establishment at 302 Fulton Street. In 1880, Eugene Toller joined Gage and the restaurant was renamed. It moved to 372-372 Fulton Street in 1892. When Gage and Tollner retired in 1911, they sold the business with the proviso that the new owners maintain the customs established by the founders. The unusually high, neo-Grec painted wooden storefront that adorns this Italianate building was probably added when the restaurant opened. The interior projects the atmosphere of the Gay Nineties. The paneled bar was transferred from the old restaurant at 302 Fulton Street. The restaurant used both gas and electricity for illumination, and it was possibly the only restaurant in New York to do so at the time of its closing.

A.I. Namm and Son Department Store ca. 1925 ARCHITECT: Robert Kahn & Charles Butler DATE: 1924-25 STYLE: Art Deco The A.I. Namm & Son Department Store building at 450-458 Fulton Street is the sole surviving portion of the important enterprise that once covered nearly one entire block. Adolph I. Namm was a Polish immigrant who transferred his Manhattan upholstery and embroidery trimmings business to Brooklyn in 1885 and expanded his business into a highly successful department store. This structure, Namm’s last architectural phase, was built in 1924-25 and 1928-29 to the design of architects Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler, and consists of a structural steel frame with reinforced concrete floors, clad in Indiana limestone with bronze trim. The highly sophisticated, elegant modern design, with a rounded corner, contrasts monumental sculptural masonry piers, vertical window bays, and decorative bronze spandrel panels. The design was undoubtedly by Kohn, one of the few American architects who had produced aesthetically noteworthy and interesting work (c.1905-15) influenced by the Vienna Secession.

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.

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.

The Brooklyn Supreme Court House, pictured here, was inaugurated on February 28th, 1865. It was the ninth courthouse to open in Brooklyn. Around ten thousand eager Brooklynites attended the building's opening, a long-awaited affair: reportedly, the cornerstone of the courthouse was laid before the start of the Civil War in 1861. The Times reported that upon opening, the building was "brilliantly illuminated, and with flags on the pediments front and rear, present\[ing] a fine appearance." It was completed "at staggering odds," costing a total of $618,000, a hefty sum which is equivalent to around $10 million today. The courthouse was located on Joralemon Street, spanning the block from Fulton to Livingston Street and occupying a lot 350 deep and 140 feet wide, complete with a courtyard facing Joralemon. The three-story structure was built in the Greek Revival Style with Westchester County marble and brick facades. Inside, visitors were welcomed by an enormous dome which stretched 52 feet in diameter and soared 95 feet in height, topped by a glass oculus measuring 17-feet across. Sixteen 28-foot tall iron columns traced the circumference of the rotunda, as did a balcony that housed offices flanking the sides of the dome. Elaborate fresco work, the marble-floored corridors, and iron staircase in the center area of the structure gave a feeling of artistry to the building's interior. The corridors were topped by groin-vault arches and led to the various courts the building housed on the first and second floors. The third floor was used by the janitor and maintenance staff. In the basement, there were six cells for prisoners awaiting trial upstairs and the heating machines for the building. This equipment was part of the effort to keep the building "well warmed, well lighted, and ventilated," qualities which marked the Supreme Court a truly advanced structure for its time. Additionally, the Times reported that "all the different departments are provided with dressing-rooms...in fact, every one thing is arranged in the best manner possible." By 1895, the courthouse fell out of use as Brooklyn's Supreme Court when the remainder of King's County was annexed by the city of Brooklyn. One year later, the courthouse was "redecorated" for use by the Appellate Division, Second Department. The court's opening case made history, not for the content of the case but for the fact that it was the first instance that Supreme Court judges wore their ceremonial gowns on the bench. The New York Journal of Law claimed this "a deliberate conviction that a certain amount of ceremony and symbolism…constantly reminding the Bench and Bar alike of the obligation of conscientious and decorous official conduct." The Appellate Division, Second Department moved to Brooklyn Borough Hall in 1903. The former courthouse was demolished in October of 1961.

Court Street buildings, including the unusual Neo-Tudor at No. 93, June 21, 1959. The steep, shingled gable and detailed brickwork at No. 93 stand out from the neighborhood's more common brick and brownstone structures, and the Art Deco skyscrapers closer to Borough Hall. The Tudor outlier was built by architects Martyn Weinstein and Samuel Malkind in 1927. Its exposed beams have long since been covered by stucco and, at present, the building is without Landmarks protection.

In the opening decades of the 20th Century, the proliferation of new subway lines in Brooklyn changed the shape of Brooklyn's busiest intersections; new routes were excavated and transit hubs born, replacing the streetcars and elevated railways of years past. This collection includes a selection of photographs documenting subway construction in and around Times Plaza, Flatbush Avenue, and Ashland Place.

Plank Road Collapse Along Schermerhorn Street, September 9, 1929. Following heavy rains on the night of September 7th, the entire plank road on Schermerhorn Street between Smith Street and Boerum Place—in place for the construction of the IND Fulton Line— collapsed. The area of collapse was 100 feet long and 50 feet wide, from curb to curb. Just before 1:00 AM, four people stepped out of a car in front of 123 Schermerhorn Street and following a loud roar turned around to see the car they had just vacated no longer on the street, but instead deep in the excavation hole. No injuries were reported.

Abraham & Strauss ca. 1929 Abraham & Straus was a department store founded in 1865 by Abraham Abraham and Joseph Wechsler with a flagship location at Fulton and Hoyt Streets in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of Brooklyn. Abraham & Straus was originally a dry goods dealer under the name Wechsler & Abraham located at 285 Fulton Street. The store was so successful that the Wechslers were bought out by the Straus family, partners of Macy’s department stores, which led to the name change and the new store location on Fulton and Hoyt Streets. A New York Times article from 1893 reported on the business change. According to the article, the new store was an estimated 1,500,000 cubic feet, five stories, and roughly 40,000 daily shoppers. Also mentioned in the article was the list of goods sold in the new store, which included, “silks and dress goods, cloths, laces, embroideries, cloaks, shawls, linens, gloves, china and glass, sterling silver, bronzes, ribbons, house furnishings, upholsteries, art embroideries, books, furniture, carpets, and stationary.” By 1965, Abraham & Straus became the third largest department store in the United States. In 1995, the store became part of the Macy’s department stores which eliminated the Abraham & Straus branding. The original location at Fulton and Hoyt Streets continues to be operated as a Macy’s Department Store until March 2025.

Shops on Fulton Street, October 4, 1959.

Eastward view of Willoughby Street, at Jay Street, March 16, 1915. In the distance, the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument is visible in Fort Greene Park. The Beaux-Arts building at center-left is the New York and New Jersey Telephone and Telegraph Building, at the northeast corner of Lawrence Street.

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.

Southward view of Smith Street, crossing Atlantic Avenue, September 23, 1928. The photo was taken in preparation for the construction of the South Brooklyn segment of the IND Culver Line (today's F/G), which would connect to the Eighth Avenue Line at Jay Street. At right is the F. Figge Provisions wholesale market. Today, the market site is occupied by the Brooklyn Detention Complex.

A department store founded with the motto "Don't Sell America Short... Sell It Shirts!"

Subway construction for the BMT Brighton Line at DeKalb Avenue Station, May 15, 1919. The station opened June 22, 1915 with service available on the Fourth Avenue Line (today's D/N/R trains). Construction continued for five years, culminating with the opening of Brighton Line (B/Q) service on August 1, 1920.

Excavation for the Independent Subway System (IND) tracks at Schermerhorn Street, east of Smith Street, June 1, 1929. The newly-completed Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower is visible in the background. The IND broke ground on the Fulton Street line (today’s A/C) in April, 1929, and commenced cut-and-cover excavations shortly thereafter. Construction for the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets station, a six-track junction with the planned IND Crosstown line, required the demolition of buildings along the south side of Schermerhorn Street (at right).

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

Fulton Street, near Boerum Place, ca. 1950. Passengers are boarding the first of two new buses for Brooklyn. These buses replaced the Putnam Avenue Line streetcars on February 5, 1950. The Putnam Avenue Line began as a horsecar route in 1874 and became an electric trolley line in 1893. The streetcars were replaced briefly with buses in 1941 only to be returned to trolley service a year later in 1942, in an effort to save rubber, gas, and oil during the Second World War. In 1950, the B26 buses permanently replaced the trolleys. Visible across the street is the Tivoli Theater; the marquee reads "Betty Hutton & Fred Astaire 'Let's Dance' & 'Dark City'." All of the buildings in this view would be demolished in the next ten years for the Brooklyn Civic Center Project.

Brooklyn Fire Headquarters ca. 1945 In 1892, the Brooklyn Fire Department opened its headquarters at 365-67 Jay Street, located between Myrtle Avenue and Willoughby Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. The building was designed by renowned Richardsonian Romanesque Style (and later, Neoclassical) architect Frank Freeman, also known for such brilliant works as the Herman Behr Mansion in Brooklyn Heights, and the Eagle Warehouse in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn. Six years after it’s opening, the Brooklyn Fire Department would be no more due to the consolidation of all five boroughs into the City of Greater New York on January 1, 1898. No longer being an independent city requiring its own fire department headquarters, Brooklyn’s 365-67 Jay Street station was absorbed into the newly incorporated Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY). In 1941, the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens had a total of 89 engine companies who employed 2,089 workers, with an average of thirteen fires daily. The Rescue 2 unit of the FDNY occupied the building on Jay Street in 1929 where they remained until 1946. The building continued to function as a working firehouse until the 1970s, when it was leased out to Brooklyn Polytechnic University for classroom space amidst severe state budgetary cuts in education at the time. 365-67 Jay Street was designated for landmark status in 1966 by the recently formed Landmark Preservation Commission of NYC and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In 1987, the firehouse was converted into affordable housing apartments for local residents who were being displaced by construction for the newly-developed MetroTech Center, a sixteen-acre academic and industrial research park.

Famed Brooklyn architect (and Quaker) William B. Tubby designed the Richardsonian-Romanesque-style Friends School. Completed in 1902, the three- story red brick building had a few additons completed by the same architect (who was also an early graduate of the school while it was located in the Meeting House next door). Originally an elementary school, the 1902 building also included space for a kindergarden and was expanded to include a high school in 1907. In the early 1970s the school moved into 375 Pearl Street, a 1928, former Brooklyn Law School building.

150 Livingston Street, November 28, 1960. In the chaos after the financial Panic of 1893, the Provident Loan Society was established as a broker of short-term cash loans. A reputable organization compared to the predatory lenders — loan sharks and pawnbrokers — that preyed on desperate borrowers, the business was founded by New York City’s most prominent business leaders and financiers, including J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Jacob Schiff and Solomon Loeb. As a not-for-profit organization, all surpluses generated were donated to charity, resulting in millions of dollars of donations. By the middle of the 20th century Provident Loan Society had 16 offices around New York City, including this one on the corner of Livingston and Smith Streets, which opened in 1915. It survived though 1960 at least, and likely later. At some point prior to 1985 the block bound by Livingston, Smith and Schermerhorn Streets and Boerum Place became city-owned and the building was likely demolished around that time. Today only five Provident Loan locations remain, though the firm continues to be the only not-for-profit pawnbroker in the United States.

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.

Adolph I. Namm was a Polish immigrant with an embroidery and upholstery business in Manhattan. In 1885, he moved his business in Brooklyn, and by 1891 he opened a new store at 452 Fulton. At the time, that stretch of Fulton Street was emerging as a popular commercial shopping destination. His son, Benjamin Harrison Namm, eventually took over the business. During its heyday, the store was enormously successful. It was also one of the largest cash-only enterprises in Brooklyn, competing with other large department stores like Abraham & Straus. The A.I. Namm & Son flagship store was closed in 1957, and the business moved to the suburbs. The building has since been sold and purchased several times. The store once covered an entire city block, but the 450-458 is the last remaining portion today.

Some readers might remember this building as the Sharon Hall Hotel. Prior to its revamping, however, it was an apartment building known as the Montrose.

372 Fulton Street, ca, 1942. In 1879, Charles M. Gage opened an eating house at 303 Fulton Street. Eugene Tollner joined the restaurant in 1882 and the business was christened Gage & Tollner’s. In 1892, the restaurant moved into a new building, 372-374 Fulton Street, where it became famous for serving a variety of seafood and meat dishes. Over the years, the Gage & Tollner restaurant was loved by local Brooklynites and even attracted celebrities for its fine food and drinks topped with an elegant dining experience. The restaurant was later sold to A.H. Cunningham and Alexander Ingalls in 1911 and then to the Dewey family in 1919. The Gage & Tollner restaurant was dedicated to serving fresh seafood and served a wide variety of dishes featuring clams, fishes, scallops, lobsters, and crabs. Oysters are perhaps the most beloved dish in the city’s history, and this is reflected in Gage & Tollner’s menu. For instance, there were more than fifty oyster preparations to select from in 1919. Other favorite dishes at the restaurant included seafood cocktail, lobster cream stew, and the signature broiled soft clam “bellies”, a dish invented and named by Seth Bradford Dewey. Even though the restaurant building was converted to electric lighting in the 1890s, it continued its tradition of turning on the gas lights for five days during its anniversary so customers could enjoy a particularly romantic dining experience at the restaurant. On the day of the anniversary celebration, Edward and Thomas Dewey would dress up as Mr. Gage and Mr. Tollner. The Dewey family took pride in carrying on the restaurant’s traditions, and its menu remained largely unchanged over the decades. When restaurateur Peter Aschkenasy took over the space in 1989, he continued the restaurant’s rich traditions, but upgraded the menu by bringing in famed southern chef Edna Lewis, whose Charleston she-crab soup was the star of the new menu. However, later owners found it difficult to maintain that tradition and remain profitable due to both changes in tastes and the economic climate in the Fulton Mall district. By the 1980s, the area had changed significantly since the restaurant’s early days. This was the result of numerous factors, such as the deindustrialization the borough, changing demographics, the closing of high-end department stores (especially Abraham & Straus), and the closing of traffic on Fulton Street. As a result, the area began attracting discount shoppers rather than upscale gourmands that made up the restaurant’s clientele. The last owner of Gage & Tollner’s, Joe Chirico, commented that some restaurants simply go “out of style” and the eatery was subsequently closed in 2004. The building was purchased by the Jemal family in 2004 for $2.8 million, who hoped to rent it to an upscale restaurateur. Despite those intentions, the building was housed by a TGI Fridays through 2007 and then an Arby’s in 2010. In April 2021, the restaurant reopened under new owners!

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.

The E.F. Albee Theater (later the RKO Albee Theater) at the intersection of Fulton Street and DeKalb Avenue, 1925. The Beaux-Arts theater, designed by Thomas Lamb, opened in 1925. It was named for vaudeville impresario Edward Franklin Albee (grandfather of the Broadway playwright), whose Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation was a major manager of vaudeville and, later, motion picture venues. The Albee Theater featured a grand interior lobby, with crystal chandeliers, marble columns, and what was at time considered the world’s largest rug, a 2,800 square foot Czech Maffersdorf carpet. The theater was closed and demolished in 1978, making way for the Albee Square Mall, itself razed in 2008 for redevelopment. The new mixed-use City Point project includes a movie theater.

Explore this endearing mode of mass transit that disappeared from New York City's streets in the mid 20th century.

With the historic restaurant now reopened, Brooklyn Historical looks back at Gage and Tollner's storied past!

The features of the modern-day clown are said to come from multiple mediums: the British theater of Joseph Grimaldi, the early circus of Philip Astley, and Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The clown is a derivative of the Ancient Greek and Roman Zanni, or "rustic fool." Initially created as an accompaniment to the witty Harlequin, the clown has evolved into the stand-alone character we are familiar with today.

Opening in 1867, the Brooklyn Friends School started in the basement of the Quaker meeting house in Boerum Hill. One of the earliest New York schools to encourage diversity amongst its students, it still operates today on Pearl Street.

Brooklyn Elks Lodge, 1929. The Beaux-Arts Elks lodge was designed by McKim, Mead & White and completed in 1926. The handsome limestone and terra cotta building featured amenities including a pool, bowling alley, and a theater. However, the Elks tenure was the be short lived: in 1940, the building became the headquarters of the New York Department of Education. The city sold the building in 2003, and it has since been adapted for high-end residential. The theater, accessed by the 22 Boerum Place entrance, has been home to the ISSUE Project Room avant-garde performance arts organization since 2012.

While Fulton Street has remained well-known throughout Brooklyn as a retail area, few may know that it was once home to the flagship of one of the largest department stores in America.

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.

Atlantic Avenue at the intersection of Court Street, facing west along Atlantic, 1944.

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.

View from the top of the Brooklyn Fire Headquarters

Hall of Records, ca. 1950. The Brooklyn Civic Center looks much different today than it did in the early 20th century. At that time the largest municipal building was the Hall of Records. Erected on the corner of Boerum and Fulton, the classical, limestone building was designed by William Mundell between 1885 and 1887. The building housed the vital records of first the city of Brooklyn and then the borough of Brooklyn. In the 1950s during the Civic Center Urban Renewal, the Hall of Records and its even older neighbor, the Brooklyn Courthouse, were razed for the newly expanded Cadman Plaza. In 1961 the Brooklyn Law School replaced the two grand 19th-century buildings.

\[Courtesy citations-bus drivers at 370 Jay Street], August 13, 1963, 2005.48.813, NYCTA Photograph Unit Collection; New York Transit Museum.

Eastward view of the intersection of Court and Schermerhorn Streets, October 12, 1928. The storefronts at center-left are Nos. 97 an 99 Court Street. The descending stairway on the Schermerhorn side of the building marks the location of a contemporary entrance to the New York Transit Museum, itself housed in the then-unbuilt Court Street subway station . The station opened in 1936 as the terminus for westbound local trains on the IND Fulton Line (Manhattan-bound express trains split from the local route at Hoyt-Schermerhorn). At extreme right, the facade of Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral, founded 1913.

Brooklyn Citizen Building, August 9, 1915. The Brooklyn Citizen was a daily newspaper published from 1886 to 1947. During the construction of subway tunnels in Downtown Brooklyn in the 1910s the plans originally included the demolition of the Citizen Building, as the tunnel was supposed to run directly under. After plans were altered and the path moved, the building was spared and only required shoring. The newspaper discontinued publishing in 1947. The Citizen Building had been purchased in 1945 by the city as part of the eventual Civic Center urban renewal project. The building was still standing and vacant in 1954 when a fire tore through the structure under suspicious circumstances, related to some accused shady dealings by fire officials. It was demolished fully soon after.

Fulton Street, at its intersection with Joralemon, Adams and Willoughby Streets, showing the Fulton Street Elevated line of the B.M.T. At center building is the City Hall (now Borough Hall), with the Brooklyn Citizen Building at right, ca. 1910.

With the closure of restaurants, bars, movie theaters, libraries, and schools as a precaution to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, many New Yorkers are likely feeling a bit cooped up by now. While you can't visit your favorite spots in person, you can visit them through this City Story.

Elevated trestle over Fulton Street, at Boerum Place (Court Square), July 23, 1907. The stairway at center left led to the Boerum Place station on the Fulton Street and Brighton elevated lines. At left is the former Hall of Records building across Boerum Place. Borough Hall is visible in the background, at center, beyond the elevated tracks. At right, the flatiron-shaped building between Fulton and Adams streets is the office of the Brooklyn Citizen newspaper. The intersection has been transformed over the last century, with the 1940 closure and dismantling of the Fulton Street elevated tracks the most striking change. By 1961, the Hall of Records and Supreme Court Buildings had been demolished ahead of the construction of the Brooklyn Law School, while Boerum Place has been widened to meet vehicular traffic coming off the Brooklyn Bridge, via Adams Street.

Men gathered outside 109 Willoughby Street, the parsonage of the St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church, October 9, 1960. At far left is the Art Deco brickwork of the Bell Telephone building, a 27-story building completed in 1928.

Bar at the corner of Hoyt and Bergen Streets, June 5, 1961. 148 Hoyt Street, today known as the Brooklyn Inn, is one of the oldest bars in Brooklyn. Anton Ziener opened the German tavern in 1885, with furnishings and financing from Bushwick’s Otto Huber Brewery, owners of several of the borough’s beer halls. It continued to be a German establishment through 1956, including clandestine operations during Prohibition. Since then, the bar has had several owners, but much of its original woodwork and tin ceiling remain intact. (It’s also still cash only.)

Demolition of the Brooklyn Supreme Court, October 16, 1961.

Main entrance to the Central Court Building, Schermerhorn Street, 1932. Constructed between 1929-1932, the Central Court Building by Collins & Collins is somewhat surprising for its architectural style. By the late 1920s, the grand Renaissance Revival and Beaux-Arts styles had fallen somewhat out of vogue, in favor Art Deco and early modernist elements. Nonetheless, 120 Schermerhorn’s Classical motifs and elegant limestone cladding effectively convey civic authority.

Harriet and Thomas Truesdell House 227 Duffield Street dates from the mid-19th century, was home to the Truesdells from 1851 – 1863, and is the home where Harriet died in 1862. The Truesdells were intimately involved in the American Abolitionist movement, befriending such luminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Lloyd Garrison. The Truesdells were associated with the house until the 1920s. The history of slavery in Brooklyn and New York City is a field which is still very much emerging. More research needs to be done and much more information needs to be incorporated into the accepted canon of history. As preservationists and historians, we should be doing everything possible to save and record the stories, records and artifacts of that time before they are lost. 227 Duffield Street was designated as an Individual Landmark on February 2, 2021. As much of early American life took place in the domestic realm, especially the organizing and formulation of controversial reform movements such as Abolitionism, the designation of a site of conscience such as 227 Duffield Street as an individual New York City landmark helps grant protection to a building which will only grow in importance and significance as our understanding of history expands.

Survey photograph of Bridge and Fulton Streets, June 10, 1907. The Hoyt Street-Bridge Street stop on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line (2/3 trains) is beneath this intersection, with two entrances presently located at the photographer’s vantage point and the site of excavations pictured. The sign reads “The care of this street is not within the jurisdiction of the Borough President. All complaints should be lodged with the Board of Rapid Transit Commission.”

Sketch of the Loew’s Metropolitan Theater façade by Anthony F. Dumas, 1919. The 3,618-seat theater opened on September 15, 1918. Designed by Thomas Lamb, it was then the largest theater built since the invention of motion pictures, with entrances on Fulton, Smith, and Livingston Streets. Today, it is the home of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, having undergone extensive restoration in 2002.

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.

Dime Savings Bank, ca. 1910. The landmarked Dime Savings Bank is a Classical Revival structure built on an oddly-shaped plot at the intersection of Fulton Street and Dekalb Avenue. Originally constructed between 1906 and 1908 by the firm of Mowbray & Uffinger, it houses the Downtown Brooklyn branch of the 1859-established Dime Savings Bank. Between 1931 and 1932 the bank was enlarged by the firm of Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, who had only recently completed the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower at One Hanson Place. The colonnade rows of Ionic columns were (and continue to be) a striking visual within the neighborhood's streetscape. The decoration on the facade, including reliefs of Mercury, the Roman God of commerce, reference its commercial occupations. The Pentelic marble utilized here, known for its translucence, was actually mined from the same ancient quarries that the Greeks used for these classic temples including the Pantheon. The Dime Savings Bank was the first American structure to use this material after a British syndicate reopened the quarry. The building remained a bank for more than a century (cycling, as most banks do, through various names). Chase Bank sold the building in 2015 to a developer for $90 million. That developer began accumulating development rights and as of 2017 work had commenced on Brooklyn's first supertall, a 1000-foot skyscraper that will, of course, incorporate the landmark bank into the base of its design.

Bijou Theatre, 1928. Replacing the mansion of the local Livingston family, the Bijou Theatre opened in November of 1893. Owing to its convenient location in Downtown Brooklyn, the theatre was a smashing success. Originally featuring all live performances, in 1908 Marcus Loew took over operations of the venue and converted it to a movie house with vaudeville performances. Following a final program in May of 1929, Loew's ended its lease of the space and plans were made to raze the theatre for a 30-story office building. That building never came to be. In the late 1950s, a boxy modern building was constructed. Today it houses the New York City Civil Court Kings County.

Court Square (now Boerum Place) and Fulton Street, December 17, 1907. This view shows trolley #2523 on the Broadway trolley line, as well as other trolleys. The intersection also is busy with pedestrians, shops, horse-drawn carts, and an elevated train line. According to the photograph notes, trolley #2523 was manufactured by the John Stephenson Car Company. Based in New York City, it was founded in 1831 producing carriages and horsecars. As the technology evolved so did their products; a major builder of streetcars, they manufactured 25,000 cars between 1876 and1891 alone for American and international transit systems. Stephenson was acquired by the J. G. Brill Company in 1904, which continued to produce streetcars and later autobuses.

Dime Savings Bank ca. 1900 ARCHITECT: Mowbray & Uffinger DATE: 1906-08 STYLE: Neo-Classical The home office of the Dime Savings Bank, built in 1906-08 and vastly enlarged and altered in 1931-32, is among Brooklyn’s most notable works of commercial architecture. Since its founding in 1859, the bank has always maintained its headquarters in downtown Brooklyn. When the bank acquired the present location, it commissioned the finn of Mowbray & Uffinger to design an imposing structure. Built in 1906-08, it was articulated as a temple form adapted to the unusually-shaped site, and was substantially altered and enlarged in 1931-32. An outstanding example of neo-Classical design, the marble-clad exterior features stately Ionic colonnades, a soaring dome, and an ornamental program which appropriately allegorizes industry and progress. The alterations were designed by the firm of Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, specialists in bank buildings.

Between 1954 and 1957, the Municipal Art Society surveyed historic buildings in all five boroughs to create a database of potential landmarks to preserve. Local residents and MAS staff compiled individual sheets devoted to about 200 buildings. Each sheet outlined the building’s date, location, and style and provided a description and a small photograph. This is the list of Brooklyn buildings.

Schermerhorn Street, east of Smith Street, after excavation work for the IND subway was completed. April 7, 1932. Although the excavation trench along Schermerhorn Street had been covered and traffic along the surface road had been restored, service along the Fulton Street did not begin until 1936, almost exactly four years after this photograph was taken. Connecting service to the IND Crosstown line (today’s G) began in July 1937. The Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets station may look familiar to Michael Jackson fans: it was one of the locations used in 1987’s Martin Scorsese-directed music video for “Bad.”