Though converted to the Brooklyn Borough Hall upon the consolidation of New York City and Brooklyn in 1898, the Brooklyn Borough Hall first opened as the city hall of Brooklyn in 1848. The plans were set in motion in 1835 after the city received its charter, however it took some time for the actual building to materialize. The architect Calvin Pollard won the design competition for a Greek Revival building on the site, but though construction began in 1836, it was stalled by the panic of 1837. Thus it was only in 1845, after a bond issue was approved by New York State, that Gamaliel King, another Brooklyn architect, was called upon to finish the building. King provided a simplified version of Pollard's design to be built on the hall's foundation. It is this version (following a couple of renovations) that stands today.

Brooklyn Savings Bank This bank commands immediate attention with its skillful massing, beautiful fenestration, and imposing entrance door. When we enter this rectangular building, the large oval banking room comes as a complete surprise, but it is functionally effective and is ingeniously reconciled to its rectilinear enclosure. Frank Freeman, champion of the Romanesque Revival, was the architect. It was built in 1893, the year of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

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Andrew Menard's 1988 sculpture, titled "With or Without Reason" inverses the relationship between a sculpted figure and its pedestal. Acting as a quotation of nearby sculptures in Central Park, the work consists of three amorphic figures balancing atop identical poles. The figures and their pedestals, made of epoxy resin and styrofoam, were meant to gradually yellow with exposure to the sun. Their truncated limbs and unsteady stances provide a contrast to their stable compatriots in the park. Andrew Menard's sculpture was on view from May 1st, 1988 until April 1st, 1990. It was funded by the Public Art Fund.

Forsythia in bloom at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn Heights, April 7, 1961.

Brick house with wooden colonnade, 1941. During the 1950s, Hicks Street was transformed by the construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway trench, to the south. These buildings have since been demolished. Ironically, the lot is now occupied by a seven-story parking garage.

Grace Church, ca. 1975. As the City of Brooklyn’s population swelled in the mid-19th century, Grace Church was built to serve the needs of Brooklyn Heights-based Episcopalians who found the East River ferry journey to James Renwick’s Grace Church on Broadway too arduous. For the Brooklyn Grace, congregants enlisted Richard Upjohn, the architect of Manhattan’s Trinity Church and the nearby Church of the Pilgrims on Remsen Street, among others. Construction on the Gothic structure was completed in 1848, with the first service held on December 10. In 2013, the church leadership made a stunning discovery as workers began refurbishment work on the sanctuary ceiling: bold, bright, and hand-painted star motifs dating to about 1866. At some point in the intervening years, the stars were painted over by a more sedate faux bois (fake wood) motif. Today, the striking 19th century painted ceiling has been restored.

The Brooklyn Club, boarded up following a serious fire, 1971.

You can create posts on any image on the platform. Posts appear under their associated photos in Urban Archive. The first post that is written about a location is automatically pinned to the location page. On any post you write, your organization’s name will be added to the bottom of the post to ensure proper accreditation. You can create a post by going to any image and clicking the “🖋️ Create a new Post” button. Similarly, you can edit a post by clicking “Published” to reveal the “Edit” option.

160 Atlantic Avenue Designed by Ebenezer L. Roberts This stately building was originally constructed in 1871 for the South Brooklyn Savings Bank, which moved to a larger building at 130 Court Street (site # 13) in 1922. The bank had a number of influential board members, including merchant James Van Nostrand and businessman and politician James S. T. Stranahan, who, during his time as president of the Brooklyn Park Commission, was largely responsible for securing funding and support for the creation of Prospect Park. The Neo-Grec style, Tuckahoe Marble-clad building features round and square pilasters, corner quoins, arched windows supported by colonettes, and a bracketed cornice. Many of its original details have been lost, however, including a two-story pedimented temple front entrance and a balustrade with decorative urns on the roof. The ground floor has also been remodeled. The bank interior had been clad in marble and black walnut woodwork, but was refurbished many times over the years to accommodate new uses. The buildings are located in the Cobble Hill Historic District.

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The Brooklyn Club, having sustained serious fire damage, 1971. This Italianate mansion likely dates to the 1850s (though the New York Times cited a construction date of 1816 in its report on the fire, possibly citing a partial structure), and by the turn of the century was the home of merchant E. Le Grand Beers. In 1915, it was purchased by the Brooklyn Club, an elite gentlemen’s dating to 1865. The club sustained heavy damage in the February, 1971 fire, but was rebuilt. However, the era of patrician social clubs had passed and in 1995, the building was sold to the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. For the next four years, the remaining club members met in the private rooms of Foffe’s and Gage & Tollner, before a voting to disband in 1999.

Brooklyn Savings Bank, April 26, 1961. This temple of finance replaced an actual temple when the reluctant congregation of the First Baptist Church was tempted by the Brooklyn Savings Bank's offer of $200,000 to buy its church. Designed by architect Frank Freeman (who also designed the Crescent Athletic Club, now St Ann's School, directly across Clinton Street) and described as "of classic design with modern Italian Renaissance embellishments," the bank featured the largest main banking room in Brooklyn, a huge 75 foot high domed space supported by columns of Numidian marble with clerestory windows lighting walls paneled in onyx. Completed in 1894, the bank operated for 70 years before it met the wrecking ball in 1964. Two years later, Brooklyn Heights became New York City's first Historic District, a designation which likely would have afforded the building protection for its contribution to the neighborhood’s historic character.

Sometimes deciphering a neighborhood name can be pretty simple. It doesn't take a genius to puzzle out how Brooklyn Heights or the Navy Yard got their names, but other 'hoods have a little history behind their monikers. This story examines the background of some of Brooklyn's neighborhoods.

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.

1840s row houses on Warren Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, October 9, 1960. These three-story row houses were built by John Greacen, Jr. between 1845-47, on land purchased by his father, John Greacen, Sr. in 1832. The elder Greacen lived in both Nos. 225 (far right) and 229 (second from right — No. 227 is obscured by the angle of the photograph). At the time, Warren Street was known as John Street, named for the father-and-son duo who spurred its development.

Side view of No. 46 Willow Place from State Street, December 7, 1958. This mid-19th century column-fronted house is the only\* surviving structure of a former row of four, opposite the extant "colonnade row" on the block's east side. \*No. 42 retains parts of the original structure, but its columns have been removed while other elements have been substantially altered.

Though its name seems to suggest otherwise, Saint Ann's is a non-sectarian school known for its non-traditional education style. How it came to be named after a Saint comes from its eclectic history.

Built in 1906 and designed by architect Frank Freeman for the Crescent Athletic Club. The Crescent Club was founded in 1884 by Brooklyn Yale alumni who wanted to form a football team. This building was Crescent's city clubhouse and included a swimming pool, bowling alleys, squash courts, gymnasium, formal dining room, library and bed rooms. (Crescent also had a large country clubhouse with extensive grounds in Bay Ridge; a tennis tournament started there became the Davis Cup, still held today.) The Crescent Club hit hard times during the Depression and went bankrupt in 1939. The building became offices, and the basement bowling alley operated commercially in the 1950s as the Crescent Bowling Lanes Bar and Grill. In the mid-1960's, St Ann's School moved into the building from its original home in the undercroft of St Ann's Church on Clinton and Livingston Streets. The school initially leased a small portion of the building gradually taking over all of it as well as numerous other buildings in Brooklyn Heights. A christmas wreath over the main entrance memorializes a fire fighter who died on December 1, 1984 fighting a fire that broke out in the school library. Each year at dusk on December 1st, the firefighters from Engine Company 205 on Middagh Street place a new wreath which remains all year.

Row houses on Willow Place, October 19, 1959.

Packer Collegiate Institute ca. 1922 One of the earliest of our many ivy-covered Collegiate Gothic buildings. The exterior of this structure, designed by Minard Lafever and published by him in his Architectural Instructor, was particularly expressive of the functions within. A recent addition has been intelligently carried out completely in character with the original.

Clinton Street row houses, following the construction of the Insurance Building (extreme right), August 5, 1934.

Foster Building, New Year’s Eve 1958. Built in 1898, the four-storefront-wide brick building retains much of its original detail, including pediments above each of its four residential entrances and the bold “Foster” name on a panel above the shared cornice. The origin of the Foster name is unclear; it was built by William B. Tubby for owners Mary J.F. Pratt and Ida F. Grampton.

Bonfire on Fulton Street, underneath the elevated train, melts piles of snow that has been cleared after the blizzard, as horse-drawn carriage travels past, 1888. Did you know that Brooklyn used to burn its snow piles? In March of 1888 after a massive snowstorm that devastated New York, Brooklyn piled snow here under the elevated train on Fulton Street and set a bonfire that melted the snow. The address here was originally 303 Fulton and it was the original location of the well-known restaurant Gage and Tollner, but by 1888, it was the John W. Smith shoe store.

274 Hicks, 1959. Founded in 1886 as Engine 24 of the City of Brooklyn, the firefighters originally fought blazes in a horse-drawn engine. The current building was constructed in 1903 (five years after the fire company had become part of the New York citywide department following consolidation). Described as a "Gilded Age mansion for NY’s Bravest," the building is a Renaissance Revival structure. It was designed by the firm of Adams & Warren, who largely built massive mansions for well-heeled Long Islanders. The copper-clad dormers and roof tiles, green with age, are especially eye-catching on a block with older and very attractive townhouses.

Berean Buildings, 1922. The Berean Buildings — three adjoining three-story brownstone structures — were erected in 1867 at the northwest corner of Court and State Streets. The buildings, included street-level storefronts and large hall for social functions, lectures, and performances. The Brooklyn branch of the New York Conservatory of Music was an early tenant, and late 19th century newspapers included advertisements for music lessons held there. From 1903 to 1922, the newly created Children's Court was held here. Part of the Court of Special Sessions "Inferior Courts," local courts that dealt with "neighborhood affairs," the Children's Court was for legal matters concerning children under the age of 16. Until the late 19th century, criminal courts tried both youth and adults. The Brooklyn Children's Court was among the first efforts at juvenile justice reform. Since 1924, the Berean Buildings have hosted a succession of theaters: first, as the Boro Hall Theatre, a vaudeville house equipped with a new Kimball organ; from 1949 to 1967, as the Teatro Amor, showing Spanish-language films; and finally, from 1968 to 1989, as the Cine-Art Theatre, which showed pornographic films with occasional live strip shows. The building was torn down in the 1990s, and the current large multiplex UA Court Street Stadium 12 opened in 2000.

Grace Church ca. 1974 Located in a quiet backwater of the most fashionable section of the Heights, this Gothic church is unusually low, long, and narrow. However, the nave and side aisles, spanned by trusses, are well suited to the Episcopal service. The apse is well expressed on the exterior, and its traceried window is a prominent feature of the east end.

Northeast corner of Court and Amity streets, New Year’s Eve 1958. Built for grocer Thomas McGlinn in 1848, a 20th century remodel added 160 Court Street’s signature black marble storefront.

Apartment building at the corner of Amity and Clinton Streets (No. 173 Amity), February 8, 1960. Built in 1900, No. 173 Amity features curved bays matching its neighbors on Clinton Street, and a combination of limestone and brickwork on its Amity Street facade, interrupted by two-story bay windows. The Landmarks Preservation Commission cites the influence of the Chicago World’s Fair in its architectural “eclecticism.”

Brooklyn Trust Company Building ARCHITECT: York & Sawyer DATE: 1913-16 STYLE: Roman & Italian Renaissance The Brooklyn Trust Company building, designed by the prominent firm of York & Sawyer, was constructed in 1913-16 in a style modeled after the palazzi of the sixteenth-century Italian High Renaissance. The building and interior, gracefully adapted to the imagery and functions of American banking in the early twentieth century, continues to project an image of tradition, stability, and security. The Brooklyn Trust Company played an important historic role in Brooklyn, from its founding during the aftermath of the Civil War until its consolidation with larger banks beginning in the mid-twentieth century. The banking hall of the Brooklyn Trust Company building is designed based on Academic Classic principles and is clearly indebted to the architecture of the Italian High Renaissance. The vaulted banking hall is seven bays in length, and the monochrome walls revetted with burnished yellow-beige marble harmonize with the polychromy of the elaborately coffered ceiling and the intricate marble mosaic floor. Fine materials and craftsmanship abound.

103-105 Montague, ca. 1978.

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.

Civic Center Book Shop, No. 162 Pierrepont Street, ca. 1958.

St. Charles Borromeo Church ca. 1980 New York Catholics ranked parishes in terms of status. The Church of St. Charles Borromeo founded in Brooklyn Heights in 1849 was the Sixth Catholic Parish in Brooklyn. While it wasn't the first, it was regarded as "select," according to the anonymous inscription on the reverse of a stereoscopic view card depicting the church. The note continues: "The church is also frequented by the most wealthy Catholics, showing however nothing remarkable inside or out. Even the organ is of small capacity." The present church was dedicated in 1869, in the red Philadelphia brick edifice trimmed with Belleville stone, and in the English Gothic style, designed by Patrick C. Kelley, a premiere Catholic architect of the day.

Grace Court Alley, Brooklyn Heights, June 17, 1974.

National Title Guaranty Company Building ARCHITECT: Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray DATE: 1929-30 STYLE: Art Deco The limestone and brick National Title Guaranty Company Building is notable for its strong massing and unusual details. The 16-story Art Deco style building was designed in 1929-30 by Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, led by senior partner Harvey Wiley Corbett, a major proponent of the skyscraper as a modern urban form. Interspersed among the buttresses is a pierced limestone screen designed by the noted sculptor Rene Chambellan, which features stylized eagles, helmeted warriors and other elements. The building is a notable example of Art Deco commercial architecture, particularly with its strong vertical expression and unusual details.

219 Clinton Street, 1960. Described in the 1969 Historic District Designation Report as “without a doubt the most imposing property in the Cobble Hill Historic District,” 219 Clinton Street includes the first electric passenger elevator built in a private building, dating to an early 1890s renovation of the 1844 home.

Berean Buildings, Court Street, April 13, 1931. By then, the former court house had been converted to the Boro Hall Theatre, a vaudeville house.

No. 260 Hicks Street (red door) at Joralemon Street, June 17, 1974.

Abrahim Sahadi opened A. Sahadi & Co. on Washington Street in Manhattan in 1890. In the first few decades of the 20th century, the store catered to the sizable Syrian and Lebanese populations that lived on the "Lower West Side." Construction of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel (formerly the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel) pushed the thriving business out of the neighborhood and into a storefront on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. There the three generation family-owned and run business continued to grow. They purchased a factory building in Sunset Park in the 1980s to house their expanding wholesale business. And from the small storefront seen here in 1958 at 187 Atlantic Avenue Sahadi Importing Co. has grown into the two adjacent storefronts at nos. 189 and 191.

Intersection of Joralemon and Court Streets, with Borough Hall (at left) and the Fulton Street Elevated tracks (in the distance), July 23, 1907. The entrances to the soon-to-be opened IRT subway station at Borough Hall are visible on either side of Joralemon Street, flanked by the iconic subway globe lights. The manure noticeable on the street testifies to the continued employment of horses for the transportation of goods (if no longer people).

Sidewalk and Fulton Street El outside 391-393 Fulton Street, the Empire State Surety Company, opposite Borough Hall, September 19, 1915.

View from the entrance to the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society), 1959. At left is the First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn, founded in 1833. The Gothic Revival church was designed by Minard Lafever and dedicated in 1844. At right is a Western Union storefront in the former Crescent Athletic Club building. Even in this partial view, distinctive features of Frank Freeman’s Classical Revival design are visible: its double-height rusticated limestone base and the balustraded balcony above the ground floor storefront window. Since 1966, the building has been home to the St. Ann’s School.

Willow Place, nos. 43-49, May 14, 1936. Built in 1846 by an unknown architect, Colonnade Row is a series of Greek Revival houses. Four structures remain on this side of the street, while the across the street, one colonnade home survives. The surrounding three structures have been renovated in a 20th century modern style. The homes at nos. 43-49, with their single long porch and tall columns, have been painstakingly preserved.

Colonnade Row ca. 1936 This Greek Revival residential row between Joralemon and State Streets in Brooklyn, dating perhaps to the mid 1840s, had a single occupant in each house, all of Irish descent: Meehan at No 43, Sullivan at No. 45, McKenna at No. 47, and Dowling at No. 49. In a decrepit state at the time of Abbott's photograph, all the houses have been rehabilitated and survive today.

With the proposed merger of Brooklyn Historical with the Brooklyn Public Library, a look back at the Brooklyn Historical Society's august past.

First Unitarian Congregational Society, ca. 1961. This Gothic Revival Church was designed by architect Minard Lafever and completed in 1844, for the City of Brooklyn's first Unitarian congregation, formed eleven years prior.

Joe’s Restaurant, Fulton Street, April 4, 1958. Joe’s Restaurant opened on Fulton Street in 1909 as the second branch of a popular Coney Island restaurant owned by Joseph Balzarini and Joseph Sartori, both Italian immigrants (the former via Argentina). The duo would open a third location on Nevins Street. The Fulton Street Joe’s, which featured a large dining room and extensive menu, quickly became a favorite haunt of Brooklyn’s power brokers — both official and under-the-table — due to its proximity to the borough’s civic center. Ironically, this advantageous location would lead to its demise: the restaurant was shuttered in late 1958 and subsequently razed as part of the development of Cadman Plaza and an expanded civic center.

Engine 224 firehouse and carriage houses next door, Hicks Street, June 18, 1962.

St. Ann’s Church (now part of Packer Collegiate Institute) Begun in 1867, St. Ann's was designed by James Renwick, one of the 19th century’s great American architects who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Grace Church in Manhattan. The church is one of the best examples of “Ruskinian Gothic” in New York. Ruskin, the famous Victorian art critic, advocated using color in architecture often through polychrome stone and brickwork. Here, this is accomplished with alternating bands of rough New Jersey brownstone and smooth, yellowish Ohio sandstone. As with St. Patrick’s, Renwick designed a grand central entrance with magnificent stained glass windows and two flanking entrances all topped with freestanding gables. The interior was built to seat over two-thousand. Large, undisguised cast-iron columns run down each side of the nave supporting the gallery and roof. There is also cast-iron wainscotting along the side aisle walls. St. Ann's is among the earliest American churches to use cast iron in such a way. Organized in 1787, St. Ann’s is the oldest Episcopal parish in Brooklyn. This church was its third home, and the parish wanted a to build the largest and most imposing church in Brooklyn. The new church was expensive, and the parish went into debt to to build it. By 1878, the debt amounted to over $135,000, the church was delinquent on its payments, and Union Dime Bank began foreclosure proceedings. Only a last minute gift of $60,000 from a wealthy banker kept the parish in their church. Wall Street benefited St. Ann’s church again in 1951 when the daughter of Hetty Green, the “Witch of Wall Street” left it a surprise bequest of $500,000. However, nothing could stem the steady decrease of the congregation. In 1967, the parish sold the church to Packer Collegiate school and moved up Clinton Street to The Church of the Holy Trinity, renaming it St. Ann’s and the Holy Trinity. The church building remained closed for years until 2003 when Packer extensively renovated the interior to accommodate classrooms and offices.

124-128 Atlantic Avenue Built in 1854, this Italianate commercial building was originally home to the area’s largest dry-goods store, Journeay & Burnham. The business was known for stocking fine quality fabrics and fashionable clothing. The business moved to Flatbush Avenue near Fulton Street in 1892, and closed in 1907. The building was subsequently home to the Atlantic-Pacific Chandlery Manufacturing Company, suppliers of ship provisions. The company’s name remains above the storefront, providing a reminder of Atlantic Avenue’s nautical past and its link to New York City’s bustling harbor. These buildings are located in the Cobble Hill Historic District.

Townhouses on Henry Street, opposite Hunts Lane, October 19, 1959.

The four wood-frame houses at 7-13 Columbia Place were originally called "Cottage Row." A series of nine homes were built in the 1840s and of the original nine these four remain. In the late 1840s, these homes were occupied by the families of a milkman, a fur merchant, a painter, and a boat pilot at South Ferry. By the late 19th century, no. 9 was occupied by Michael Allen, a local Democratic politician who survived an assassination attempt by a disgruntled Republican opponent. Despite several questionable exterior alterations (in the photo from 1959 nos. 7, 9, and 13 are clad in asphalt shingles), the homes today likely look closer to their original design and construction than at any point in the last century.

Bay window and garden on the Congress Street side of 367 Henry Street, Cobble Hill; December 15, 1958. This Italianate brownstone was one of three constructed between 1850-1853 for merchant Charles F.A. Hinrichs. The sheetmetal bay window, painted black, was a later addition.

"View of west side of Court Street between Amity Street & Congress Streets looking south. Whelan Drugs on corner right."

Colonnaded Row Houses ca. 1970 Collectively impressive, these very small two-story houses would have had a mean, undistinguished appearance had they not been united by their colonnade. This was an early instance of town planning and was doubtless inspired by Underhill's grander Greek Revival colonnade- long since vanished- on Brooklyn Heights overlooking the harbor.

Brooklyn Bar Association, ca. 1977. Considered an excellent example of French Second Empire architecture, this four-story building was the former home of Charles Condon. The build date for this structure varies depending on the sources. Some say 1856, while others suggest an 1870s date makes more sense for the ornate mansard that tops the home. The Brooklyn Bar Association has occupied the house since the 1970s.

Located at 170 Joralemon Street, between a rapidly changing downtown Brooklyn and the historic residential neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, The Packer Collegiate Institute is a designated New York City landmark.

You can create posts on any image on the platform. Posts appear under their associated photos in Urban Archive. The first post that is written about a location is automatically pinned to the location page. On any post you write, your organization’s name will be added to the bottom of the post to ensure proper accreditation. You can create a post by going to any image and clicking the “🖋️ Create a new Post” button. Similarly, you can edit a post by clicking “Published” to reveal the “Edit” option.

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.

Church of the Pilgrims (later Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral), March 1, 1929. The Romanesque Revival Church of the Pilgrims was designed by prolific ecclesiastical architect and Brooklyn resident Richard Upjohn, with two years of construction completed in 1846. In 1934, the Episcopal congregation merged with Plymouth Church, on nearby Orange Street, and shifted services there. Meanwhile, a few blocks west, the Maronite Catholic Our Lady of Lebanon congregation was established in a Hicks Street townhouse in 1903. Forty years later, Our Lady of Lebanon purchased the former Church of the Pilgrims. Today’s church features many notable details contributed by the patrons of the Maronite Catholic community, including marble and onyx flooring from the French and Lebanese pavilions at the 1939 World’s Fair. Furthermore, the doors of the Church were taken from the famous steamship Normandie that burned in New York s harbor. In the background of P.L. Sperr’s 1929 photo, skyscrapers on Court Street, opposite Brooklyn’s civic center are visible under construction.

This bloodied man is a product of a melee that disrupted the normally calm streets of Brooklyn Heights. In 1947, the workers of the Brooklyn Trust Company went on strike to secure a pay raise and other demands from the bank. 300 picketers gathered around the main branch of Brooklyn Trust and began to surround the building. They allowed non-striking workers to enter without harassment, but four patrolmen attempted to prevent the picketing. The melee that ensued left a number of picketers bloody and injured and three union members were arrested. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle recorded the bank president's response, who claimed that "not a single employee of the bank" was on the picket line and that strike was "Communist-inspired" and that the "untrue union statements followed a communistic pattern." At the time, the New York Times described it as the first walkout against a major US bank. The strike would end later that year with a negotiated settlement with the bank that increased wages.

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.

Brooklyn Borough Hall The Greek Revival usually found its best expression in public buildings, as is the case here. At an earlier date, a low Federal-style building was proposed to fill the outer perimeter of the entire triangular block; but that plan was abandoned in favor of this higher, more compact building, now dwarfed by an array of surrounding giants.

John D. Morrell was a photographer who shot thousands of documentary photographs across Brooklyn between 1957-1974. Take a quick walk along Montague Street with Morrell from Cadman Plaza to the Promenade:

Rear view of Nos. 52 and 50 (left) Remsen Street, from Grace Court Alley; December 7, 1958.

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.

Medical Arts Building, 1929. The Medical Arts Building was completed in 1927 to the designs of Mortimer E. Freehof, an architect of a number of Brooklyn Heights apartment buildings. The Art Deco structure is rendered in a tan brick. Its decoration (which gives it a bit of a Gothic feel) is fun and whimsical with lions bracketing the balcony whose sole purpose seems to be to highlight the building's carved name, while plaques of intertwined cranes separating the windows.

North side of Atlantic Avenue, center building, is Montero's Bar and Grill, 1958 Opened in 1939 in a space across Atlantic Avenue, Montero's is the last of the longshoreman bars in a neighborhood once filled with them. An iconic Brooklyn dive, it has a classic neon sign out front, and the dark interior is decorated with model ships and other maritime trinkets.

You can create posts on any image on the platform. Posts appear under their associated photos in Urban Archive. The first post that is written about a location is automatically pinned to the location page. On any post you write, your organization’s name will be added to the bottom of the post to ensure proper accreditation. You can create a post by going to any image and clicking the “🖋️ Create a new Post” button. Similarly, you can edit a post by clicking “Published” to reveal the “Edit” option.

Haddon Hall cigar shop, Montague Street, June 7, 1959.

The Pam-Pam restaurant at the corner of Montague and Henry Streets, October 12, 1959.

The Long Island Historical Society, ca. 1915. Today known as the Brooklyn Historical Society, the organization was founded in 1863 and moved into its present location in 1881. When construction started in 1878, it was part of Brooklyn’s cultural district, alongside the nearby Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Art Association and Mercantile Library (all since demolished or relocated). The Historical Society held a design competition which received entries from the top architects of the era, with George Post’s design declared the winner. The building’s most distinctive feature is the extensive terra-cotta ornamentation designed by Truman Barlett. Also notable are the eight spandrel busts by Olin Levi Warner, an acclaimed American sculptor known for the bronze doors of the Library of Congress and medallion portraits of native American chiefs held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The busts on the Historical Society are Warner’s only public work in New York City. Six of the busts are located in the spandrels between the second-story window arches. The Clinton Street busts include Shakespeare, Johannes Gutenberg, Beethoven and Michelangelo; on Pierrepont Street are Columbus and Benjamin Franklin. Two more busts are on either side of the main entrance: a Viking, symbolizing a sea-faring people, and a Native American, symbolizing the continuity of indigenous cultures. Inside the building on the second-floor, the landmark Othmer Library holds the Society’s treasures such as an original signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and the papers of the abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher.

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.

By the start of the 19th century, the urbanization of Brooklyn was happening at a breakneck pace. What had once been quiet Dutch farming villages was now a thriving area. Brooklyn Heights was the first incorporated village in the original city of Brooklyn. In the 1820s the prevailing architectural style was the elegant but simple wood-frame Federal style home. The entire neighborhood, starting with a couple of dozen homes in the 1810s and growing exponentially, was built in wood. Given the strong historic preservation ethic and legal protections that were enacted in this neighborhood during the mid 20th century, many of the older homes that had made it until then, still stand today. This walk will take you past some of Brooklyn’s oldest and most well preserved wood-frame homes. 🏠 It was inspired and informed by the excellent work done by The Wooden House Project!

My Archive Spring 2019 "Outside Dr. Altchek's office (see the sign on the building) with two of the neighbors. Dr. Altchek was known in the neighborhood as the doctor who treated everyone, and at the time, several of his patients that were infants when he treated them were mature adults still living in 2002." —Jane Wolff

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.

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The morning after a fire a No. 130 Montague Street, May 17, 1974.

Montague Street Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, October 7, 1958. The Montague Street Branch opened in 1869 as the Brooklyn Mercantile Library Association of the City of Brooklyn, a consolidation of the resources of the Brooklyn Athenaeum and Mercantile Library on Atlantic Avenue. It became a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system in 1903. The branch was demolished in 1962, just three years shy of Brooklyn Heights’ designation as the city’s first Historic District.

Since the founding of the city, Brooklyn has had many civic groups dedicated to encouraging education. In the mid-19th century, a number of libraries emerged that would form the basis of the Brooklyn Library today. This is the story of how it came to be.

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.

Hotel Palm southwest corner of Henry Street and Pierrepont Street, 1958 Designed by Brooklyn architect Frank Freeman, this Romanesque Revival building was constructed in 1888-1889. Originally built as the home of industrialist Herman Behr, it has had a unique history since the Behr family sold the building in the late 1910s. In 1919 the building had a huge addition constructed to house the Palm Hotel, known for much of its history as a brothel. In 1961 it was converted into a residence for Franciscan brothers who worked at nearby St. Francis College. In 1977 it was converted to rental apartments and it remains rentals today. According to some sources there are six rent stabilized apartments still in the building.

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.

260 Hicks Street, 1958. Originally built in 1847 as one in a row of 21 homes by William and Harriet Packer, 260 Hicks originally matched the style of its immediate neighbors west on Joralemon Street. The building was expanded and made into a mansion in Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles in 1887. The brick home has been drastically and unfortunately altered, since the late 1880s work. The architectural details at the third story have been removed and the fourth floor has been expanded to a flat roof with brick and mortar that does not match the original materials. Given the historic photographic evidence seen in the collection of photographer John Morrell the alterations happened between 1958 and 1964, perhaps when the building was converted from a single family to multi-unit residence.

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.

Joralemon Street, Brooklyn Heights, November 9, 1959. Some things are not as they seem: the Greek Revival townhouse at No. 58 Joralemon Street (center, with dark windows) was once a residence, but is now the site of a subway ventilation system and emergency exit from the Joralemon Street Tunnel.

Founded in 1841 by Isaac Van Anden and Henry Cruse Murphy, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was published as a daily newspaper for 114 consecutive years without missing a single edition. The newspaper, originally conceived as a temporary political forum for the 1842 election, ironically lived the longest and absorbed all other Brooklyn daily papers except the Brooklyn Citizen.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, opening in 1861, was the Athenaeum’s greatest rival, and BAM was larger, closer to the homes of the Heights elite, and attracted first class orchestras and performers. The Athenaeum adapted, and became a meeting place for organizations, rallies, and revivals, as well as a more traditional lecture and performance venue. It worked for a long time, until 1902, when the City of New York took over the third floor, which contained the auditorium and ante-rooms, as a courtroom for the Court of Special Sessions. The court stayed until at least 1932.

Joralemon Street, north side, west from Hicks Street, to the East River. 260 Hicks Street is the corner building, at right, with the double chimney, 1935.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, in its original location on Montague Street, circa 1895. Performances began in this building in 1861. On the morning of November 30, 1903, as stagehands were preparing for an event, a small gas explosion ignited the stage and scenery. The wooden interior was engulfed by flames quickly and by the time the fire was extinguished, the only thing standing was the brick exterior walls, and a number of adjacent buildings were heavily damaged. BAM would reopen five years later in 1908 in a new group of buildings in nearby Fort Greene.

Gothic Revival Houses (2-8 Willow Place) ca. 1975 Despite their individual porches, these charming town houses have a remarkable feeling of unity and coherence. This is due to the very original window treatment, where the recessed spandrels with their chevron patterns lend a vertical emphasis, foreshadowing the spandrel panel arrangement later employed on high buildings.

Hotel Bossert, ca. 1919. Once referred to as the "Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn" the Hotel Bossert was an opulent apartment hotel built by millionaire Louis Bossert, a Bushwick lumber tycoon. The Italian Renaissance Revival building, designed by Helmle and Huberty, opened in 1909 but was expanded in 1912 to include a grand ballroom. The crown jewel of the building, at least in terms of society, was the Marine Roof. This two-story restaurant and club offered spectacular views of Manhattan and was a glitzy marine-themed hot spot, where you might spy flamboyant NYC Mayor Jimmy Walker or your favorite Brooklyn Dodger. The club became an official hangout for the Brooklyn Dodgers. A number of players lived in the building and in 1955 they famously celebrated their World Series win over the Yankees. The building was sold to the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1988 and served as a short term residence for guests and visitors. During the recent sell off of Brooklyn Heights properties by the Witnesses, this building was purchased by an equity firm. An Argentinian hotel chain will run the new Esplendor Bossert, which has thoroughly renovated the hotel's interior grandeur, including a new rooftop bar. The hotel’s long-delayed opening was scheduled for March 2020, but has been delayed indefinitely by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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).

Gundolt Carpet Workroom, 1962. The single story workshop and adjacent three-plus story facility were built from “clinker brick,” dark, dense bricks produced at very high heat. Once unfashionable, clinkers rose to popularity as a building material during the Arts and Crafts movement. The taller building at right was built in 1920 as a stable and parking facility for the Riley & Latimer trucking company. The design included a three-story elevator shaftway, in order to accommodate wagon storage on the roof itself. Riley & Latimer closed around 1936. A 1947 ad for Gundolt Carpet touts “good pay” and “steady work” for carpet sewers.

135 Joralemon Street, 1925. Although a few blocks south of the main cluster of remaining wood-frame Heights homes, this two-story home with attic and twin dormer windows is a remnant of a period when all of Brooklyn Heights was populated by Federal style buildings. The intricate ironwork on the broad porch (though not original) calls out this building as special even among its early wood-frame brethren. And, but for dedicated owners and a considerable sum of money, this house might have been lost just in the last decade. A substantial fire gutted the home in 2004, causing extensive damage, and many in the neighborhood worried about its survival. But, by 2008, it was beautifully restored inside and out.

Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights, February 12, 1960. This Brooklyn Heights street scene includes No. 182 Clinton Street (center, second from corner), known as the New York residence of Bill W., the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. A World War I veteran and stock speculator who lost money in the 1929 crash, Bill was a sufferer of alcoholism who began his recovery in 1934. The next year, Bill began to host growing meetings of recovering alcoholics like himself at his Brooklyn home. Since Bill's death, the building has become a nondescript landmark (contrary to local legend, the stoop has nine steps, not twelve), unlike Bill's Akron, Ohio home, which has been converted to a museum.

The Crescent Athletic Club building (center-left, with domed roof), January 17, 1959. The Club, founded in 1884 and considered Brooklyn's premiere athletic club, moved into its domed Clinton Street headquarters in 1895, as membership surged. Such was the club's turn-of-the-century growth, that a new, larger headquarters was mooted as soon as 1902. In 1906, the new clubhouse was completed just a stone's throw away: the Frank Freeman-designed 129 Pierrepont Street, today part of the Saint Ann's School. The original building, like many structures on Clinton Street, was razed in the early 1960s.

Brooklyn Union Gas Company ARCHITECT: Frank Freeman DATE: 1914 STYLE: Neo-Classical The substantial neo-Classical style Brooklyn Union Gas Company Building was constructed in 1914 as the new headquarters for the borough’s oldest and most important utility company and was designed by noted architect Frank Freeman. The Brooklyn Union Gas Company traces its origins to 1824 when a group of entrepreneurs including Joseph Sprague and Alden Spooner proposed establishing the Brooklyn Gas Light Company. Competition between the gas companies grew particularly heated in the 1880s but all seven of the major Brooklyn firms eventually merged in 1895 to form the Brooklyn Union Gas Company. As an indication of its success, in 1912 the company began to plan for a new headquarters and inaugurated this building in 1914. Frank Freeman’s design for the Brooklyn Union Gas Company Building employs the Classically-inspired architectural vocabulary that characterized many of Freeman’s post-Columbian Exposition commissions. Much of the building’s architectural decoration is also symbolic of the structure’s original role as the headquarters of an important gas company, depicting such devices as flaming torches and blazing oil lamps.

Naples Restaurant, Montague Street, October 7, 1958.

You can create posts on any image on the platform. Posts appear under their associated photos in Urban Archive. The first post that is written about a location is automatically pinned to the location page. On any post you write, your organization’s name will be added to the bottom of the post to ensure proper accreditation. You can create a post by going to any image and clicking the “🖋️ Create a new Post” button. Similarly, you can edit a post by clicking “Published” to reveal the “Edit” option.

Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights, 1927.

Plate 7: Map bounded by Pierrepont Street, Henry Street, Pacific Street, Buttermilk Channel, 1855.

353-355 Fulton Street, April 12, 1916.

The Brooklyn Athenaeum and Reading Room was founded in 1852 by a group of prominent Brooklyn citizens as a library and respite for young men. There they could gather for instruction and that "innocent relaxation," which the wear and tear of mercantile life so imperiously demands, according to its first president, John Taylor, in his first annual report. The three story building, designed by William Field, had commercial storefronts on the ground floor, including a book store, the reading room and library on the second, and the concert/lecture hall, which could hold 2,000 people, on the third.

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.

The townhouse at 31 Grace Court housed two of the country's most illustrious writers and thinkers. Playwright Arthur Miller lived there in the 1940s when he wrote "Death of a Salesman" and "All My Sons." In 1951, Miller sold the house to W. E. B. Du Bois, the great author, intellectual and co-founder of the NAACP. At the time, Du Bois' political activism placed him under McCarthy-era scrutiny and he was soon the subject of a federal indictment for failing to register the Peace Information Center as an agent of a foreign government. Miller, whose own politics led to his being blacklisted, sold Du Bois the house just before the trial commenced. Charges were ultimately dismissed after the defense attorney told the judge that "Dr. Albert Einstein has offered to appear as character witness for Dr. Du Bois". During the decade that Du Bois and his wife Shirley Graham lived here, the house became gathering place for progressive politics and cultural icons, Paul Robeson would regularly drop in and play their piano. To the great annoyance of the US government, diplomats would regularly visit the Du Bois household, until after the Russian foreign minister's visit, when the State Department ruled 31 Grace Court off-limits for UN delegations.

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.

Brooklyn Eagle Building, ca. 1905. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the newspaper of record for the 19th century City of Brooklyn, was founded in 1841. For the first 50 years of operation — including Walt Whitman’s tenure as editor — the paper was produced in present-day DUMBO, near Fulton Landing. In 1890, architect George L. Morse was enlisted to design a new headquarters for the growing publication, across Johnson Street from the new Brooklyn Post Office. Morse would later keep a personal office on the building’s upper floors. The Brooklyn Eagle (which had since dropped the “Daily”) ceased publication in 1955, succumbing to financial pressure exacerbated by the Newspaper Guild reporters’ strike. The building was razed, as part of the Robert Moses-led scheme to create Cadman Plaza, the civic center park space designated alongside the construction of the New York Supreme Court.

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.

Henry Ward Beecher Statute in Columbus Park, ca. 1976.

Brooklyn Gas Co., cooking class, ca. 1913. The new headquarters for the Brooklyn Union Gas Company opened in 1914 at 180 Remsen Street. As the headquarters, it included a ground floor showroom for gas appliances, the president's private offices, and large spaces for public gatherings and classes. A February 1915 gas-focused journal noted the graduation of the domestic science division. It notes: "The course consists of six lectures. At the conclusion of the course each student will receive a certificate certifying that she is able to scientifically conduct a household."

Five attached row houses, Nos. 136-144 Clinton Street (right to left), at Aitken Place, 1922. According to photographer Eugene Armbruster, the Italianate row houses were built by Wm. Evans in about 1845. City directory records confirm the houses were completed by 1855. The two houses at right were torn down ahead of the 1925 construction of the 12-story Insurance Building. Likewise, the corner building, No. 144, was replaced by a single-story Art Moderne structure in 1937. The St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church is visible at extreme left.

St. Ann & the Holy Trinity was built as The Church of the Holy Trinity by Brooklyn paper manufacturer Edgar Bartow, who wanted a magnificent edifice for the City of Brooklyn with pews that were rent-free. Bartow chose architect Minard Lafever to design the church and adjoining chapel and rectory, which are considered to be the finest achievement of Lafever's career. An important example of Gothic Revival architecture in America, the richly ornamented church is notable for its elaborately vaulted roof and extensive suite of stained glass windows by William Jay Bolton. St. Ann's pipe organ was built in 1925 by Ernest M. Skinner (Opus #524), and is the third instrument to be installed since the church opened in 1847. During the Cold War in the 1950s, there was dissension within the congregation which eventually led to the dissolution of the church in 1957. The building was closed and stood mostly vacant for more than a decade. In 1969, nearby St. Ann's Church, the oldest Episcopal congregation in Brooklyn moved four blocks into the Holy Trinity building. St. Ann's took the new name of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity in honor of the building's heritage. Today's parishioners continue the life of a body of faithful Episcopalians who have worshiped in Brooklyn for more than 240 years, first gathering during the American Revolution. Bishop Lawrence Provenzano designated the church as pro-cathedral during a festive Evensong service at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity on September 16, 2018.

Henry Street townhouses, across from Hunts Lane, June 26, 1961.

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!

This site is located to a lot Sites that are located through addresses show up as as lots. Locating sites through addresses enables Urban Archive to tie them to lots in the associated lot in New York's Pluto database.

This is an abbreviated version of Brooklynology blog post, the rest is available at this link. Walking the urban landscape of New York, one comes upon buildings of different styles and periods—one of the great joys of living in an older city. Even in this wildly varied landscape, the armories stand out. One can walk down a row of modest apartment houses and, turning the corner, confront one of these massive structures looming like an apparition from the middle ages. But how did they come to be here and how did their use change, particularly their transformation from military to civilian uses. What follows is not comprehensive documentation, but a selective jaunt through the evolution of our Brooklyn armories.

Brooklyn City Hall Tower Fire. 1895. This photo of the week depicts a roof level view of the 1895 fire at Brooklyn City Hall (today’s Borough Hall). If you look closely, you can see fire ladders propped against the building and firefighters on the roof using hoses to extinguish the fire. The fire started because of a lighted gas jet in a third floor closet. The fire left significant damage, destroying the clock and bell tower, as well as most of the top floor. This photograph was taken by Dr. Ralph Irving Lloyd (1875-1969), a Brooklyn ophthalmologist and an avid amateur photographer. Throughout his life, Lloyd documented primarily historic 17th, 18th, and 19th century houses located in the New York City metropolitan area. The collection of his photographs includes roughly 400 lantern slides like the one pictured above. The lantern slide, popularized in the late 19th century, displayed a positive image on a glass plate. This could then be displayed for an audience to experience. This was significant because for the first time, photography became a shared medium, visible by a broad audience. Production of lantern slides ended over 40 years ago, so it’s a rare and unique experience to see one for yourself!

View west at the intersection of Montague Street and Clinton Street during construction of the BMT Fourth Avenue Subway Line, October 29, 1914. Minard Lafever's 1848 Holy Trinity Church (now Church of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity) is seen at right. The Montague Street Trolley line tracks are visible at center. The building at left is 166 Montague Street. Called the Franklin Trust Tower, after its original banking institution occupant, the 1891 building was converted to condos in 2008.

The former Second Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, 1934. Affectionately known as the “Church of the Holy Turtle” for its squat cruciform footprint and low, green roof, the church was built in 1858 on land leased from the Catholic Church. Its founding minister included the abolitionist Reverend Samuel Longfellow, brother of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The church’s final service was held in December 1924; it was later rented to various tenants. In 1962 — three years before the establishment of the Landmarks Preservation Commission — the church was razed ahead of a planned supermarket development. That plan was defeated by the Cobble Hill Association, who successfully petitioned for the creation of Cobble Hill Park, dedicated in July 1965.

The forty foot-wide Gothic Revival house at 223 Congress Street, 1960. Built in 1849 for use by St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church and the Free School for Boys, it was leased to Reverend John Hughes, Bishop of New York, until at least 1870. Originally two stories with a high basement, the third floor and mansard roof were added later in the 19th century. Subsequent changes to the top-floor dormer windows provoked an uncharacteristic rebuke in the 1969 Historic District Preservation report: “It is for alterations such as these that the Commission could aid owners in achieving a distinguished result!”

Brooklyn Savings Bank, Clinton and Pierrepont Streets, Brooklyn Heights. The bank was demolished in 1964, narrowly missing the establishment of New York City’s first Historic District in Brooklyn Heights.

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

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.

130 Court Street, designed by McKenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin, 1922; addition: Charles A. Holmes, 1936 This formidable civic building stands on the site of the formerly sizeable Cobble Hill or “Cobleshill,” as it was known in the late 18th century. Before this steep hill was flattened in the mid-19th century, it was the location of the Cobble Hill Fort, from which it is believed that General George Washington oversaw the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776 (a plaque on the building commemorates this). During the War of 1812, the fort was reestablished as Fort Swift, named after General Joseph G. Swift. The Renaissance Revival style building resembles a Florentine palace, with its heavily rusticated façades, large arched windows and distinctive cornice held up by sculpted eagle brackets. It was originally home to the South Brooklyn Savings Institution, which formerly operated from 160 Atlantic Avenue at the corner of Clinton Street. The building now houses a grocery store, and is located in the Cobble Hill Historic District.

Packer Collegiate Institute ca. 1922 The Packer Collegiate Institute was established as the Brooklyn Female Academy on Joralemon Street in 1845. It was formed by a committee of local citizens who were interested in the education of young women. The school’s first president was Dr. Alonzo Crittenden, who presided over a student body of 350 girls from 19 states. Between the 1800s and 1850s, there was a profound transformation in female education in the United States, and a number of specialized secondary schools for young women, referred to as academies or seminaries, were founded. The school burned down on New Years’ Day, 1853, and reopened in 1854 with the assistance of a generous $65,000 gift—the largest donation to aid American secondary education at the time—from Mrs. Harriet Packer, widow of William Packer, and former trustee of the Brooklyn Female Academy. One condition of Packer’s donation was her request for the dissolution of the Brooklyn Female Academy Corporation, which was to be replaced by what is today’s Packer Collegiate Institute. Prominent Brooklyn architect Minard LaFever designed the Gothic Revival building, presently known as Founders Hall.

Long Island College Hospital, ca. 1908. Founded in 1858, LICH was a pioneering institution in many regards: the first medical school to employ bedside teaching (1860), Brooklyn’s first ambulance service (1873), and the first medical school to use cadavers in its anatomy curriculum (1875).

Designed by renowned architect George Browne Post, the building features terra-cotta ornamentation on the facade and an innovative truss system to support the ceiling of the central library. Architectural historians have praised Post’s design for blending technological innovation and graceful aesthetics. The building’s masonry consists of unglazed terra-cotta and repressed brick. It was the first building in New York City to use locally produced terra-cotta. The facade is adorned with busts of Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, William Shakespeare, Johannes Gutenberg, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpted by Olin Levi Warner. The busts are interspersed with representations of American flora by Truman H. Bartlett. Post employed artists and craftsmen of the aesthetic movement to embellish the interior spaces. Stained-glass lunettes and a central laylight are believed to have originated from the studio of noted artist Charles Booth. Design elements throughout the building include Minton tile floors, custom-made bronze hardware (designed by Post), and elaborately carved black ash woodwork in the library. Inspired by the design of the Brooklyn Bridge, Post suspended the top floor of the building from iron trusses in the roof, creating an open and elegant reading room. Additional iron columns enclosed in carved wood support the galleries in the library. Brooklyn Historical Society is one of the few remaining examples of an institutional model common in the nineteenth century: the combined museum and library. The vestibule, lobby, stairs, and library were all listed in 1982 by the city of New York as interior landmarks — a rare designation in Brooklyn. In 1992, the entire building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Borough Hall, originally City Hall, is located in the heart of downtown Brooklyn and is one of the borough's oldest public buildings. It was also home to two highly contentious 900 square foot murals, whose final fate remains unknown today.

161 Henry Street, ca. 1979.

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

Gross Studio, located on Atlantic Avenue. People are visible in the door and window of the building, possible the proprietors of the studio. By the mid 19th century Americans (and Brooklynites) were enthralled with the new technology of photography. The Gross Brothers Photography Studio was open as early as 1850 and provided the neighborhood citizens with cartes-de-visite, stereoscopes, ambrotypes and tintypes, all exciting new features of commerical photography.

Statue of Henry Ward Beecher, ca. 1976. Henry Ward Beecher was the fiery, abolitionist preacher of nearby Plymouth Church. Beecher died in 1887 and a death mask was cast. Sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward (who also created the statue of Washington that sits in front of Federal Hall) was charged with creating a monument to the man. Using the death mask and photographs, Ward created the eight-foot-tall bronze statue. The female slave and children depicted surrounding the base represent Beecher's work in the anti-slavery movement and his commitment to children. The statue was unveiled in 1891 and, according to a historian of 19th century public sculpture, the monument was very well received by the public, though it was noted that Beecher's family was not thrilled with the (in)accuracy of the likeness. Originally located in a park next to the Brooklyn City Hall building, it was moved north in 1959 during the urban renewal of the civic center.

214 Hicks, June 17, 1974.

Amity Street, between Court and Clinton Streets, February 12, 1960. The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s 1969 Designation Report for Cobble Hill describes No. 179 (center-right, with mansard roof) as “an unusually interesting example of the French Second Empire style as modified by Neo-Grec decorative motifs,” noting it’s prominent triangular pediments, mansard roof, and ironwork. The townhouse was built in the early 1870s for John Shuster, the owner of “a successful marble works."

Reconstruction work on the Fulton Street roadway, beneath the Fulton Street El tracks, September 22, 1919. Both the BMT Fourth Avenue and IRT Eastern Parkway lines run beneath Fulton Street, now a pedestrian walkway in Columbus Park, adjacent to Brooklyn Borough Hall. The buildings at left — including the Baltimore Dairy Lunch counter, No. 389 Fulton — have since been razed.

Three Neo-Grec townhouses on Amity Street, February 28, 1960. These townhouses, Nos. 129-133 Amity Street, were originally part of a row of ten built between 1875-81.

Fulton Street entrance the Brooklyn Savings Bank, April 4, 1958. The entrance funneled bank customers to the main branch at Pierrepont and Clinton Streets.

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Clinton Street, south from Livingston Street in Brooklyn Heights. August 5, 1934. The steps at bottom left lead to St. Ann’s Church, now part of the Packer Collegiate Institute. The building visible across Livingston Street (farthest left) is No. 133 Clinton Street, formerly the clubhouse of the Brooklyn Excelsiors, the early baseball club whose descendants would become the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Excelsiors were founded as a team of the “Jolly Young Bachelors” fraternal organization and are credited with expanding the sport’s popularity via recreational games during the Civil War.

Franklin Trust Building ca. This perfect little Romanesque skyscraper, complete with tile roofs and dormers, represented the epitome of style and success when it was built in the 1880s. It was made possible by the elevator; and, in its verticality of expression, it was a direct forerunner of the Commercial Gothic skyscraper. The tower of the Holy Trinity Church (now Saint Ann's), at the right, frames this view.

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.

Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights, 1922.

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.

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Vol. 5. Plate, E. \[Map bound by Pierrepont St., Fulton St., Court St., Atlantic Ave., East River; Including Montague St., Remsen St., Grace Court, Joralemon St., Livingston St., Schermerhorn St., State St., Furman St., Pierrepont Ter., Montague Ter., Columbia Pl., Willow Pl., Hicks St., Garden St., Henry St., Sidney St.], 1880.

Improvised pool Caption: "Improvised pool--These city kids can't cool off by plunging into the old swimming hole, so they've made their own swimming pool out of a tank used by builders in construction work. Bobbie Perkins of 183 Congress St. sprays hose on pals, Jackie Kennedy, 3 1/2, of 175 Congress St., and Jackie's brother, Jimmy, 5;" another boy is sitting in background; portion of front steps and railing in right background.

Shops on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, May 18, 1959.

185 Montague, ca. 1995. Built for the National Title Guarantee Company, the 1930 Art Deco building at no. 185 is a more modern standout among the Beaux Arts banking buildings that line this street. Designed by Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, who also created Rockefeller Center, this Deco tower has sleek ziggurat towers at the top and delicate, but angular, tracery at the ground level. Some of the ornamentation has Aztec motifs and influence. Given these decorative features, it is almost appropriate that the former banking building is now a location of the Mexican-themed restaurant, Chipotle.

Nos. 2-8 Willow Place, ca. 1975. 2, 4, 6 and 8 Willow Place are a group of four residential brick buildings located in what is known as the "Willowtown" section of Brooklyn Heights. The area is bounded by Joralemon Street and Atlantic Avenue at its north and south, and Furman and Hicks Streets at its east and west. As seen in the picture, the buildings look like they might have original fences and railings. Note the metal panels that unite the second and third floors. These are known as “Davisean” windows: multistoried, recessed and paneled at floor levels. Named after the architect Alexander Jackson Davis, who made good use of them, they are popular in Willowtown and have the effect of making buildings appear much taller than they actually are.

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.

Home Made Delicatessen at the corner of Court and Warren Streets, 1958. No. 210 is part of a set of Greek Revival rowhouses built between 1845-47, notable for its distinctive twin chimneys. The houses were built for John Greacen Jr., whose father John Greacen had purchased a block-and-a-half parcel of land on Warren Street (then John Street), west of Court Street (then Red Hook Lane) in 1832.

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

Church of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity, July 10, 1958. The Church of the Holy Trinity (as it was first known) is one of the masterpieces of Gothic Revival style in 19th century American ecclesiastical architecture. Minard Lafever's elaborate interior features a soaring nave with wood-frame plaster vaults, and more than 7,000 square feet of stained glass by William Jay Bolton. Today, Bolton’s organ loft window is on permanent exhibition in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lafever was commissioned by Edgar Bartow, a wealthy merchant who wanted to build the finest church in either Brooklyn or New York City. Bartow purchased eight lots from Hezekiah Pierrepont at the highest point of Brooklyn Heights. Construction began in 1847; when the church opened in 1848, it was the largest structure in Brooklyn. When the tower and spire were finished in 1867, it was, at 295 feet, the tallest building in either Brooklyn or Manhattan, beating Wall Street’s Trinity Church by 15 feet. The spire was taken down in 1906 due to structural instability. The Church of the Holy Trinity was the scene of a bitter McCarthy-era struggle. Rector John Melish and his son, Assistant Rector Howard Melish, were political progressives advocating for civil rights and for peaceful co-existence between the United States and the Soviet Union. Howard Melish chaired the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, a target of Senator Joseph P. McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign. In 1949, the Church Vestry tried to oust the Melishes, whereupon the congregation voted 261 to 27 to remove the Vestry, which then sued to enjoin the congregation. In 1957, after a decade of struggle, the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island closed the church. The church stood vacant until 1969 when St. Ann’s parish, the oldest Episcopal congregation in Brooklyn, decided to relocate into the building from its church on nearby Livingston Street. In honor of the building’s origin, the parish took the new name, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity. In the intervening decade since its closure, the church had deteriorated severely. To assist in addressing the grave disrepair, the nonprofit St. Ann’s Center for Restoration and the Arts was established in 1983. During its residency at the church, it was instrumental in, among other things, stabilizing and/or restoring portions of the exterior, the facade, nave roof, and, notably, a majority of the Bolton stained glass windows, even as it successfully established its own performing arts program. Relocated to DUMBO in 2000, it is now known as St. Ann’s Warehouse.

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.

The Spencer Memorial Presbyterian Church was founded in 1838 and has a history of radical and controversial pastors, most notably William Glenesk who took over pastoral duties in 1955. He was outspoken on topics such as homosexuality and drug use, including telling his congregation in one sermon that the hallucinatory drug LSD contained properties that “contribute to the creation and glory of God.” He created a hospitable space for the LGBTQ community, hosting discussions and events, as well as providing a meeting space for LGBTQ organizations, such as the Gay Alliance of Brooklyn (GAB), a civil rights advocacy group. During his tenure, Pastor Glensk included artists and performers in his services. At this time, Brooklyn Heights was an artistic neighborhood with a number of well-known LGBTQ residents, including Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, Benjamin Britten, and others. The church closed in the mid-1970s was plagued “with grave financial difficulties” and had not been able to “maintain sufficient congregation.”

58 Remsen Street, 1922. William G. Low was the step-brother of Brooklyn and later New York City mayor, Seth Low. William was a wealthy member of nearby Grace Church who funded a reading room and library for the community at 62 Joralemon Street. His more well-known residence was the William G. Low House in Bristol, Rhode Island. The Shingle style home, designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1888-1887, became an icon of that American architectural design. It was demolished in 1962, though documented in great detail by the Historic American Buildings Survey just before it was razed.

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You can create posts on any image on the platform. Posts appear under their associated photos in Urban Archive. The first post that is written about a location is automatically pinned to the location page. On any post you write, your organization’s name will be added to the bottom of the post to ensure proper accreditation. You can create a post by going to any image and clicking the “🖋️ Create a new Post” button. Similarly, you can edit a post by clicking “Published” to reveal the “Edit” option.

First Unitarian Church ca. 1975 This church, formerly known as the Church of the Savior, is located on one of the widest and shortest streets in Brooklyn. With its high central gables and pointed windows flanked by small pinnacles, it has the true verticality of the Gothic Revival.

Murphy's Hat Shop at the southeast corner of Myrtle Avenue and Fulton Street, October 19, 1915.

It's time to get old school with these noteworthy temples to education. Brooklyn's schools are impressive and fascinating for many reasons. They are home to famous alumni; are housed in architecturally stunning buildings; act as incubators of resistance against racism and discrimination; and are consistently pioneering innovative approaches to education. Most importantly, they teach civic engagement and provide opportunities for academic and economic empowerment to Brooklyn's children and young adults. Read on and get schooled.

1890s apartment building at the corner of Clinton and Pacific Streets, 1960. According to the Cobble Hill Historic District Designation Report, the building is typical of the transitional architectural styles of the area, featuring a rusticated Romanesque Revival ground floor and sheetmetal bay windows.

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.

St. Paul’s Convent, 1960. Built in the 1840s for the wife of Captain Isaac Brewer 👨‍✈️, a wealthy ship captain, 235 Clinton later became the home of the Convent for the Sisters of Charity of St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church. The Sisters left in 1978, but the stained glass windows remain.

St. Ann & the Holy Trinity was built as The Church of the Holy Trinity by Brooklyn paper manufacturer Edgar Bartow, who wanted a magnificent edifice for the City of Brooklyn with pews that were rent-free.

Entrance the No. 166 Montague Street, the former Franklin Trust Company building, June 11, 1915. Today, a entrance stairway to the Court Street station of the BMT Fourth Avenue line begins at the spot of the "Offices to Let" sign.

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.

You can create posts on any image on the platform. Posts appear under their associated photos in Urban Archive. The first post that is written about a location is automatically pinned to the location page. On any post you write, your organization’s name will be added to the bottom of the post to ensure proper accreditation. You can create a post by going to any image and clicking the “🖋️ Create a new Post” button. Similarly, you can edit a post by clicking “Published” to reveal the “Edit” option.

122 and 124 Montague Street, 1958. No. 124 (at the corner) was a new building in 1930. The simple Art Deco style structure replaced an earlier building that was occupied by a dentist for a few decades in the late 19th century. The building was constructed for the Steinmont Realty Corporation and one of its first second floor tenants was the insurance firm of Kearns and Edlund. This insurance underwriting firm was one of a few located in the immeidate neighborhood, which the New York Times described in 1930 as the "insurance centre of Brooklyn."

"Fulton Street at Joralemon Street Survey photograph during construction of the BMT Broadway line. Northwestward view of Brooklyn Borough Hall and the tracks of the BMT Fulton Street Elevated line. Multiple trolleys are visible on Fulton Street, and construction is visible along the side of the street, beneath the elevated tracks, September 19, 1915."

Brooklyn V. 2, Double Page Plate No. 31 \[Map bounded by Clark St., Hicks St., Joralemon St., East River], 1887.

Joralemon Street, west from Hicks Street, towards the East River, 1926.

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Underwater Tunneling, the third type of construction, occurs underneath the river. This photo shows construction of the Joralemon Street tunnel. Subway water tunnels are built approximately 30 feet below the riverbed. Because of the immense pressure exerted by 30 feet of rock, sand, and silt, plus 50 feet of water, such tunnels were in danger of collapsing. To counteract this force, tunnels underwater were pumped full of pressurized air, which pressed out against the walls of the tunnel and kept it in place. However, this pressurized air made for difficult working conditions for sandhogs. When working in pressurized air, workers were in danger of developing decompression sickness, similar to what divers might experience. Because of this, workers could only spend three hours under water before needing to spend several hours above ground. Before exiting or entering the tunnel, sandhogs would adjust to the pressurized air in a decompression chamber, also called an air-lock or a man-lock.

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.”

Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lebanon and St. Mary's Catholic School, Hicks Street, August, 1935. Our Lady of Lebanon was incorporated in February, 1903, in the townhouse at No. 295 Hicks Street. As the parish grew, the converted brownstone could no longer accommodate worshippers and a new church was built on the adjacent lot. In 1944, the Maronite church moved into the former Church of the Pilgrims, a Richard Upjohn-designed church on Remsen and Henry Streets.

The building was torn down in 1942, the event recorded in a photograph in the New York Public Library’s collection. Today, Key Food occupies the site of the Athenaeum.