Arbor Day One boy with shovel and other African American children gathered around newly planted tree. Caption on verso: "Arbor Day: Frederick Ross, 6, of 101 N. Portland Ave., completing the task of tree planting which concluded Arbor Day exercises by veterans organizations and neighborhood, church, school and civic organizations in Fort Greene Housing yesterday."

In this excerpt from the Brooklyn Historical Society's audio tour, host Nelson George and historian Francis Morrone discuss the communities and architecture of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, Brooklyn — including interviews with longtime neighborhood residents.

“Myrtle Ave. 'L' from Fort Greene Park.” Originally the site of a fort built for the Revolutionary War and reoccupied during the War of 1812, the community surrounding the land started using it as public space shortly after the threat of the War of 1812 passed. By 1847, it was designated Washington Park, and twenty years later, famed landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux began designing its new layout. In 1897, the new Olmsted and Vaux’s landscape was renamed Fort Greene Park.

Commodore Barry Park, formerly known as 'City Park' is the oldest in Brooklyn. It was acquired by the Village of Brooklyn in 1836.

“Fulton Street, east from and across Flatbush Avenue Extension, underneath the B. M. T. elevated. The four-story building (center) is the Witteman Building and is on the east side of Flatbush Avenue Extension. April 27, 1940.” Service on the Fulton Street El was discontinued on June 1, 1940, just weeks after this photograph was taken . At street level is an East New York-bound Fulton Street Line streetcar. Today, the B25 bus replaces the Fulton streetcar line.

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

In November of 1950, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle visited Barton's Bonbonniere, Brooklyn's fastest-growing candy chain. The article captures a 50's candy factory in full swing.

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

“Ashland Place, south from and across DeKalb Avenue. On the left is a corner of Fort Greene Park and in the background is the Fulton Street elevated structure. The buildings in the center of the photograph are on the south side of DeKalb Avenue, extending to St. Felix Place, 1927."

“145 Ashland Place, between De Kalb Ave., and Willoughby Street, showing the City Prison, as seen from Lafayette Street. July 10, 1932.” The Raymond Street Jail, later the Brooklyn City Prison, was built in 1836 to hold the city’s male prisoners (an annex for female prisoners was added in 1839). In an oversight emblematic of the building’s purpose, the prison was constructed without a front door (an entranceway was later carved out of the completed facade). The facility was closed in 1963 and razed ahead of the construction of the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

Brooklyn Hospital, founded in 1845. The Brooklyn Hospital was founded as the "Brooklyn City Hospital" in May of 1845, supposedly following an incident in which a man from Buffalo, New York broke his leg at Fulton Street, in proximity to nearby Brooklyn City Hall. The hospital played a major part in providing treatment and aid for soldiers of the Union Army during the Civil War. It continued to play the role of carrying for sick and wounded soldiers in the Spanish-American War and both World Wars. In 1880, the hospital established the first nursing school in Brooklyn and the first in the State of New York. This was made possible by a generous donation by the women of the Fruit and Flower Mission. The hospital also installed the second Electrocardiograph in Brooklyn in the year 1926.

“Flatbush Avenue Extension, at the northeast corner of DeKalb Avenue, showing the Paramount Theatre Building, the view being south toward the latter avenue, 1932.” Opened in 1928, the Paramount Theatre building has been owned by Long Island University since 1962. In addition to film screenings, the theater hosted jazz, rock and roll, and Yiddish music performances. Despite its conversion for use as classroom space and a gymnasium, the building retains much of the theatre's original decorative detail.

For this story, we'd like to share our personal picks from our combined collections, that represent what this time of year means to us, and to introduce the team of Librarians, Archivists, Collection Managers, Educators and Administrators, who make up the fantastic staff at the Center for Brooklyn History.

Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument, undated postcard. During the Revolutionary War, more than 11,500 prisoners of war died aboard British ships anchored in nearby Wallabout Bay. The prisoners died of overcrowding, contaminated water, starvation, and disease, and either had their bodies thrown overboard or were hastily (and poorly) buried at the shoreline. Because of this callousness, thousands of body parts and bones washed up on Brooklyn’s waterfront for years to come. In 1808 the remains were first entombed in a crypt on Jackson Street (now Hudson Avenue), near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 1873 the prison ship martyrs remains were moved from their location to a vault in the park that was created at the site of a former Revolutionary War fort (then Washington Park, today Fort Greene Park). In the late 19th century various constituencies advocated for a permanent memorial. In 1905 McKim, Mead and White created the design for a new entrance to the crypt, including a wide staircase leading to a plaza from which a massive Doric column rose. The Stanford White-designed monument was 149-foot-tall and crowned with a bronze lantern, created by sculptor Alexander Weinmann (who also designed four bronze eagles for the base). It was dedicated in 1908 with the President-elect William Howard Taft in attendance. Between 1937 and 1948 an elevator allowed visitors to ascend the column. Over the last century, the monument has undergone a series of vandalization and restorations. The eagles were removed in the 1960s due to continual defacement. After smaller restoration efforts in the 1940s and 1970s, a major effort was undertaken to repair, clean and conserve the monument, the crypt, and the surrounding plaza. The newly restored plaza (with modern lighting and two original and two replica eagles) was unveiled in 2008, a century after its original dedication.

In 1902, the first Farm Garden was opened to provide city children the invaluable experience of cultivating and caring for the land. Its founder said of her creation: "I assure you that all the virtues can be taught from a little patch of ground, not eight feet square." Read on to learn of this history and legacy of New York's Farm Gardens.

The intersection of Tillary Street and Park Avenue, 1941. The surrounding land had been cleared for the construction of the Fort Greene Houses (today the NYCHA Ingersoll Houses), completed in 1944. Soon after, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway would be routed along Park Avenue to connect Downtown Brooklyn’s East River Bridge Crossings with Williamsburg and points north. The church visible in the background is the Church of St. Michael and St. Edward at 108 St. Edwards Street, near Myrtle Avenue.

One out of every seven WPA dollars was spent in New York City. Robert Moses oversaw the construction of 650 playgrounds while serving as the parks commissioner. These playgrounds, a rule-less respite for kids without backyards, are ubiquitous with WPA projects of the 1930's.

Cumberland Street, east side, south from Park and Myrtle Avenue, showing part of the large area where Fort Greene Houses will be erected. On the left are buildings on Carlton Avenue, April 11, 1941. The Fort Greene Houses, a 15-building development, were built on this site in 1944. At right, buildings on the south side of Myrtle Avenue are visible behind the tracks of the Myrtle Avenue El.

Myrtle Ave. ‘L’ at Cumberland Street, ca. 1955. Interrupted by the Whitman Houses between Park and Myrtle Avenues, Cumberland Street continues as Washington Park on the eastern edge of Fort Greene Park (right).

“North on St. Edwards Street, across Myrtle Avenue, from Fort Greene Park, 1940.”

The 19th century saw Fort Greene develop from farmland held by a few families to a residential neighborhood, populated by a mix of Brooklyn’s working, merchant, and upper classes. Today, much of the neighborhood has been well preserved, including several blocks of brownstone and rowhouse architecture, churches, parkland, and civic institutions dating to the 19th century. Even in areas transformed by postwar urban renewal and commercial development traces of an earlier era remain.

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

Hudson Avenue, south from DeKalb Avenue, 1942. Buildings on the south side of Fulton Street are visible in the background. Until 1940, Hudson Avenue carried the northernmost section of the BMT Fifth Avenue El. Like many blocks near Atlantic Terminal, Hudson Avenue’s tenement buildings and brick warehouses have been replaced by new construction.

Myrtle Avenue and the Myrtle Ave El, looking east from Navy Street, 1941. Opened in 1888, El service operated along Myrtle Avenue until 1969. Out of frame is the entrance to the Navy Street Station. At left, lots have been cleared for the construction of the Fort Greene Houses, later renamed the Ingersoll Houses after Brooklyn Borough President Raymond Ingersoll.

The Crescent Theatre (formerly Montauk Theatre), pictured one year after its re-opening on Flatbush Avenue Extension, December 21, 1909. The theater would go on to operate under several names before its demolition in 1940.

“Park Avenue, north side, east from north Oxford to Cumberland Streets.” Buildings on the south side of Park Avenue (right) would be razed in 1941 for the development of the Fort Greene Houses, now the NYCHA Walt Whitman Houses. Buildings on the north side would also be demolished, to make way for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, first proposed in 1936 and completed in 1964.

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

On January 11th, 1940, Workers went to work demolishing Werba's Theatre. Under the names of Montauk, The Crescent and Schubert-Crescent, it was once the proud citadel of Brooklyn's Social and Political Elite.

“St. Edwards Street, north from Auburn Place toward the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On the left, where Leo Place meets St. Edwards Street, is the Lattemen shoe factory. On the right is Public School No. 67. The dwellings preceding the school were later razed and an annex added to the school.” Out of frame to the left is the Church of St. Michael and St. Edward, 1927.

A building of the Fort Greene Houses (later renamed the Walt Whitman Houses) under construction at 15 St. Edwards Street, July 1942.

Fulton Street, looking east across Flatbush Avenue Extension. June 21, 1941. One year after service was discontinued, the Fulton Street El is being dismantled.

The Church of St. Michael and St. Edward was built between 1891-1906 at what was then the intersection of Canton and Division Streets (later St. Edwards Street and Leo Place). The Catholic church served a predominantly Irish and working-class congregation of local residents employed at the neighborhood’s factories, waterfront, and, during wartime, Navy Yard. In 2010, the diocese of Brooklyn closed the church, following years of declining attendance.

Bandstand in Washington Park, now Fort Greene Park, at the future site of the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument, ca. 1895.

The Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument is a memorial to the more than 11,500 American prisoners of war who died while detained aboard sixteen British prison ships during the American Revolutionary War. The remains of a small portion of those who died on the ships are interred in a crypt beneath its base. The monument, designed by architect Stanford White, is topped with an eight-ton brazier (funeral urn) by sculptor Adolph Weinman. This photo is undated, but may depict the November 1908 dedication ceremony, when a crowd of 15,000 gathered for President William Howard Taft’s address.

Billed as the first movie theater built for talkies, the Paramount on Flatbush and Dekalb Avenues opened in 1928 with the movie Manhattan Cocktail. Alan Freed, who coined the term "rock and roll" in 1951, staged revues here while working for radio station WINS. Following its purchase by Long Island University, the movie house showed its last feature, Hatari, with John Wayne, in August 1962. The next year it was converted to a gym, though its famous Wurlitzer organ still played on.

“Flushing Avenue, south side, west from N. Elliott Place. At the left foreground between N. Elliott Place and St. Edwards Street are some old buildings soon to be demolished. Beyond St. Edwards Street is a city park. August 25, 1938.” The “city park,” now called Commodore Barry Park, was acquired by the Village of Brooklyn in 1836 and is the borough’s oldest park. Today, the Commodore Barry Park Pool sits just west of North Elliott Place.

“North from a point just above Myrtle Avenue, running across Auburn Place and showing the New Cumberland Hospital on the left, 1940.” Founded as the Brooklyn Homeopathic Dispensary in 1852, the New Cumberland Hospital moved from Cumberland Street to its new nine-story building at the corner of North Portland Avenue and Auburn Place in 1918. Despite the change of address, the new hospital was officially named Cumberland Hospital in 1922. In the early 1940s, Cumberland Hospital was one of few structures spared from demolition as the surrounding blocks were razed for the construction of the Fort Greene Houses. The hospital was closed in 1983, as part of the City Health and Hospitals Corporation reorganization ahead of the opening of Woodhull Hospital. Today the 1918 building serves a homeless shelter while the 1950s hospital addition is the Cumberland Diagnostic & Treatment Center.

“St. Edwards Street, at the northeast corner of Auburn Place, showing the City Park branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. In the background is Cumberland Hospital; on the left Public School No. 67, 1940.” The predecessor to Walt Whitman Library (called the City Park Branch before 1943) opened in a storefront on Nassau and Bridge Streets in 1900. Eight years later, a beautiful new library, funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, built in the Classical Revival style, and designed by Rudolph L. Daus, opened on St. Edwards Street in Fort Greene. The library was named for Whitman on the125th anniversary of his birth in 1943.

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

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

The cobblestoned Flatbush Avenue Extension, at Prince Street, February 8, 1915. The Manhattan Bridge is visible in the distance, with the Myrtle Avenue El visible in the middle ground. Below Flatbush Avenue, construction continued on the subway connection between the Manhattan Bridge tracks BMT Brighton Line. The DeKalb Avenue Station, south of this point, opened in June, 1915.

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

“Myrtle Avenue (El, thereon), west from North Portland Avenue to Leo Place, showing extensive demolition for the erection of Fort Greene Houses. The view is from Fort Greene Park. In the background is St. Edwards \[sic] Roman Catholic Church.”

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

The Montauk Theatre, a 1,750-capacity venue built in 1895, sat in the way of the Flatbush Avenue Extension, a 1907 project to widen and extend Flatbush Avenue to carry traffic to and from the Manhattan Bridge, then under construction. Rather than raze the structure, the city bought the building and its site for $230,000, then sold it for just $11,500 to a company who undertook to move the theater to a site on the new Flatbush Extension. (The terms of the deal rose eyebrows at the time, as the company who re-purchased the building shared an executive with its original owners.) An August 1907 report in Harper’s Weekly described the move: “The remarkable engineering feat of moving the Montauk Theater in Brooklyn forty-five feet backwards from its foundations, turn it half around, and then slide it at a right angle, sixty-five feet more to front on another street has not only aroused the interests of engineers and architects, but vividly recalled the strange circumstances which prefaced the feat.” The relocated building reopened in 1908 as the Crescent Theatre.