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.

North side of Middagh Street between Willow Street and Hicks Street, April 5, 1958. The four houses are, from left to right, Nos. 29, 31, 33, and 35 Middagh Street.

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.

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.

Queen Anne-style row houses on Willow Street, Brooklyn Heights, ca. 1980.

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

146 Hicks Streets sits just to the right of the large brick building in the middle of this 1931 photo. The construction of the large building that now sits across the street provided an excellent view of the streetscape on the west side of Hicks between Clark Street and Love Lane. The clapboard home, along with its remaining wood-frame neighbor at no. 148, suffered serious exterior damage during Hurricane Irene in 2011 when a mature Elm fell, but have since been restored.

Luncheonette and liquor store at the intersection of Cadman Plaza West (Fulton Street), Clinton and Tillary Streets; January 17, 1959. This site would become the Brooklyn Heights branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, following the demolition of the original Montague Street branch. The new library opened in 1962, but has recently shuttered in advance of the construction of a residential skyscraper. The Hotel Touraine, also demolished, is visible at right.

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.

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.

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.

100 Hicks Street, a wood-frame house dating to 1826, ca. 1980.

Siloam Presbyterian Church is a historically Black church that was founded in 1849 by Reverand James A. Gloucester, who was formerly enslaved. From 1849 to 1851, he used his church to harbor fugitives fleeing slavery through the Underground Railroad. Supported by the New Yokr Vigilance Committee, Gloucester provided those seeking freedom with medical aid, food, and clothing. The church even raised funds to support John Brown, the radical abolitionist who later led the raid of Harper's Ferry, VA, commonly quoted as a "dress rehearsal for the Civil War." The congregation of Siloam Presbyterian Church has relocated several times. It has always provided a critical space for community support and activism.

19 Cranberry Street, April 4, 1932.

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.

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.

View from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade at the foot of Montague Street, October 12, 1959.

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.

Main Post Office After the Civil War, the federal government attempted to establish a new high standard of architecture in its buildings. The work was done by the Supervising Architect under the Treasury Department. This post office was built when Mifflin E. Bell was Supervising Architect; it represents a curious combination of French Renaissance and Romanesque Revival forms, to which are added certain German Renaissance details.

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.

Main Entrance of the Cranlyn, ca. 1994. The architect of this 1931 building, H.I. Feldman, designed the Art Deco high rise in his 30s. Feldman had a long career that lasted into the 1970s and was responsible for more than 2,500 buildings in New York City. In 1932 he won Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s first award for best apartment house design. The metal plaque over the main entrance depicts rays of light emanating from the iconic Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower at 1 Hanson Place. The parapet over the entrance seen here is simple masonry or stucco. In a 2004 Streetscapes column architectural historian Christopher Gray suggests that perhaps the striped down entrance might have once been clad in decorative terra cotta akin to the multi-colored peacock plaques over the nearby side doors. The first floor facade and entrance were reclad in black and gray marble sometime between 2005 and 2009.

31 Pineapple Street, July 15, 1962. This double-story structure was constructed in the 1880s as a stable for the Brooklyn Fire Department. In the 1920s it was converted into a single family home. When last on the market in 2003, it was listed for $1.695 million.

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.

Often overlooked, doors are perhaps the most important feature of a building. They are the means by which we escape the often crowded and chaotic streets of the city. Every building has one (well, maybe except for the Raymond Street Jail which was accidentally constructed in 1836 sans front door), but some outfit this largely utilitarian feature with more panache than others. This collection highlights some the city's loveliest historic doorways, from the simple but classic columns of early 19th century Federal rowhouses to the gloriously geometric brickwork of Art Deco apartment houses, and everything in-between.

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.

"Orange Street, north side, between Hicks and Henry Streets, showing the old Plymouth Church, built in 1849, from which Henry Ward Beecher, Brooklyn's famous preacher, delivered his sermons. Abraham Lincoln, who was a personal friend of the minister, came here to hear his sermons. Walter Damrosch, noted composer and orchestra conductor, at one time served here as the musical director under Beecher, April 4, 1932." Plymouth Church was established in 1847 by a group of New England transplants to Brooklyn Heights. In 1849 the congregation's first church (a 1820s building originally used by a former Presbyterian community) was heavily damaged in a fire. The Congregational church set out to construct a new sanctuary and celebrated its first service in the new building on the first Sunday of January, 1850. The brick church was designed by Joseph C. Wells in the style of urban tabernacle architecture featuring both Italianate and colonial ornamentation. The church has a long storied history. The first pastor was the fiery abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher. The construction of the church included supportive cast-iron columns for the large balcony (pre-dating nearly all cast iron construction in the city by more than five years). In 1866, the church installed the largest organ in the United States. And according to lore and published memoirs, the church served as an important station in the Underground Railroad. Since its early years, the church has hosted an impressive series of visitors and speakers, including Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Clara Barton, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Dr. Martin Luther King.

178 Columbia Heights, ca. 1980. This Italianate style frame house, built in 1845, was once the residence of Ferdinand Ward, the "best-hated man in the United States." In 1880, Ward purchased the building for $40,000 after securing investment from former U.S. President General Ulysses Grant, an investor in his Wall Street brokerage firm. He outfitted the house in what the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described as, Ward, the son of a small town pastor and Protestant missionary, transformed the residence into “one of the most elaborately and expensively furnished houses in Brooklyn.” But it was all to be short-lived: in 1884, Ward's brokerage was revealed to be a massive Ponzi scheme, through which he defrauded many prominent New Yorkers, including the family of the 18th President.

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.

Berenice Abbott’s photo of 104 Willow Street, including ironwork detail from the front porch of No. 113 Willow, across the street; May 14, 1936. Scottish wool merchant Robert Speir built the wood-frame No. 104 Willow during the 1820s, with construction completed in 1826. According to the New York Times, his sheep were known to graze on land between the house and the waterfront below. Speir also built houses for members of his family on either side, though the Italianate brownstone at No. 102 Willow — presently the home of the Danish Seamen’s Church — dates to after his death.

Vol. 5. Plate, C. \[Map bound by Poplar St., Sands St., Jay St., Pearl St., Johnson St., Pierrepont St., East River; Including Middagh St., High St., Cranberry St., Orange St., Nassau St., Pineapple St., Concord St., Clark St., Tillary St., Love Lane, Furman St., Columbia Heights, Willow St., Hicks St., College Pl., Henry St., Monroe St., Clinton St., Liberty St., Washington St., Adams St.], 1880.

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

20 Henry Street, April 1, 1937. The Mason, Au and Mangenheimer Candy Company constructed this six-story brick factory building in 1885. It was designed by Theobald Engelhardt, who constructed many of Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and Bushwick's industrial structures. The candy company, which was established in 1864 by two confectioners, produced both chocolate covered and gummy candies. Their best known products were Mason Peaks and Mason Mints (chocolate covered coconut and mints, respectively). They also made Dots and Crows, both gumdrops and still available today! The candy factory occupied this building until 1949. In 1972 the Mason Company was purchased by Tootsie Roll. In 1975 the building became a Mitchell-Lama affordable housing complex called the Middagh Street Studio Apartments. The affordable housing program was ended in 1999 when the landlord bought the building out of the program. A condo conversion was undertaken in the early 21st century. First coming onto the market during the 2008 recession, the fully completed conversion (which included the original factory building and an additional 14-unit building next door) went on the market in 2012. The factory units now sell for between $450,000 and $2.595 million. The conversion, thankfully, included the saving and renovating of the candy factory's painted facade signs.

A wood-frame house no more! The home that sat on the south east corner of Hicks and Cranberry Streets was an early Federal style home once owned by one of the oldest Dutch families in Brooklyn: the Schencks. This photograph of a gentleman and his dog was taken circa 1890-1900. In 1890, Joseph Allen, an African American Civil War veteran who lived at this address committed suicide by inhaling chloroform. The home was demolished prior to 1908 and nothing was ever built in its place.

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.

Cable car infrastructure on Montague Street, beneath the underpass at Pierrepont Place, October 28, 1914. This Brooklyn Heights view has long since disappeared, replaced by the Brooklyn—Queens Expressway's triple-cantilever. This photograph was taken some 2 weeks after construction commenced on the Montague Street Tunnel, which, upon its opening six years later would connect the BMT's Broadway (Manhattan) and Fourth Avenue Lines.

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

Fulton Street El tracks at Middagh Street, undated. The corner building at right was 152 Fulton Street. In the background, left of the elevated tracks over Fulton Street as they continue eastbound into Brooklyn, a pile of earth indicates a construction project underway: the development of Cadman Plaza Park. In 1935, The city acquired the land east of Fulton Street for redevelopment as parkland adjacent to the borough’s civic center. In 1940, elevated service was discontinued over this part of Fulton Street, which would be renamed Cadman Plaza West. Today, the eastern side of this intersection includes the Cadman Plaza exit ramp from the Brooklyn Bridge roadway.

Heights Casino, ca. 1975.

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.

Wood-frame house at 29 Middagh Street, ca. 1975. This house appears on Brooklyn maps as early as 1830, one of several such buildings on this block.

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.

100 Willow Street, ca. 1906.

George Hastings Residence ca. 1960 Brooklyn houses were always designed for comfort and livability. The large third-floor porch across the rear of this house must once have afford a superb view. The simple brick columns rising from ground level are interlaced at the top by wooden Gothic arches and railings to produce one of the finest examples of the Gothic Revival remaining to us.

Plate 15: Map bounded by Pineapple Street, Fulton Avenue, Concord Street, Adams Street, Willoughby Street, Court Street, Montague Street, Henry Street, 1855.

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

The trio of wood-frames seen here (nos. 38 and 40 front the street, no. 38A is reached by walking through the shared alley) were all built as early as 1830. The Joseph Bennett House (no. 38 in the middle with dark shingles) was originally three stories, but had an addition at some point during the 19th century. Joseph Bennett, the original owner, was listed in the 1830 Brooklyn directory as a packer.

222 Columbia Heights ca. 1936 This mansion built in 1865 for the Cornell family stood at the end of Columbia Heights, the street overlooking the East River in Brooklyn Heights. By including at the left side of the composition an electric streetlight, an automobile, and a sliver of Manhattan’s skyline, Abbott documented not only the house but the passage of time. Although Brooklyn Heights was designated a historic district in 1965, the Cornell mansion was torn down and replaced in 1982 with a small apartment house. To meet landmark regulations, the new building conformed to the irregular contours of the mansion.

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.

Peter C. Cornell House at 222 Columbia Heights, 1936. The Renaissance Revival home at no. 222 was constructed on a hill overlooking the bay at some point in the mid 19th century (tracking down a date for it is difficult). Named for its original owner, Peter Cornell, a Red Hook-born manufacturer of gun powder, the house was better known as the residence of Seth Low, the mayor of Brooklyn, later NYC mayor and president of Columbia University. The home was unfortunately demolished during the construction of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and Promenade in the 1950s. In 1980 a new home was constructed on the site. Replicating the general shape of the original building, this new structure was rendered in modern brown, glazed bricks and attempted its best at modern infill to the historic neighborhood. The rounded moldings of the facade have prompted some to refer to the home as the Tootsie Roll House.

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.

68 Hicks Street, 1922.

57 Hicks Street, October 12, 1958.

Mid-December up until Christmas is the Post Office's busiest time of the year. See what the holiday season looked like at Downtown Brooklyn's U.S. Post Office in 1950!

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.

Fulton Street El, north of Johnson Street, December 7, 1915. In the distance, the Clark—Tillary Streets elevated station is visible.

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.

View from the Brooklyn Heights promenade, February 5, 1961. The ships are moored between Piers 2 and 3.

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.

25 Cranberry Street, April 4, 1932.

124 Hicks Street, Admiral Silas Stringham House, ca. 1900. This home was built for Admiral Silas Stringham, a Navy officer who distinguished himself during the War of 1812, was Commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and later commanded sailors during the Civil War. At the end of the 19th century, the brownstone was home to Henry Ward Beecher and his son. Here on March 8, 1887, the famed preacher died after an illness of a few days. The funeral service was held here before burial in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. While the home was extant in 1903 when it was mentioned in an article about historical Brooklyn Heights, it was no longer standing by 1936.

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.

138 Columbia Heights, 1958. This Italianate town house was built circa 1860. In the late 19th and early 20th century, steamship entrepreneur Henry Roger Mallory lived in the home. The Mallory Line of steamships was established in mid 19th century and Henry took over the business when his father passed in 1890. By 1906 the Mallory Line was considered the one of the most forward thinking and important water transportation businesses on the Atlantic coast.

68 Hicks Street, April 1925. In 1925 this structure with a ground floor commercial space was owned by Williams Bens.

An Expressway and a Promenade: Two 20th-century thoroughfares – the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (1946-1954) and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (1950-1951) – transformed the eastern boundary of what is now Brooklyn Bridge Park. Many parties played a role in their design and construction, including urban planner, visionary, master builder, and “power broker” Robert Moses. Since its opening, the public park that sits atop the roadway, called the Promenade or the Esplanade, has allowed pedestrians to enjoy one of the world’s most spectacular harbor views. Planning the BQE: In the early 1940s, city planners like Moses proposed and built a network of highways meant to bind the city together and connect it to the Long Island suburbs. In one plan that they considered, the future Brooklyn-Queens Expressway would cut across the middle of Brooklyn Heights, replacing brownstone homes, churches, and other local institutions. But in 1943, opposition from community organizations like the Brooklyn Heights Association#, along with growing budget concerns, persuaded Moses and other planners to opt instead for a waterfront route that skirted the Heights along Furman Street. Tearing Down, Making Way: In 1946, work crews began demolishing the 19th-century brick warehouses and other old buildings lining the east side of Furman Street to make way for the cantilevered two-deck highway that would arise over the next eight years. Although the project spared the row houses on the crest of the Heights, it required the destruction of a number of historic residential buildings in the northwest corner of Brooklyn Heights. From Private Backyard to Public Promenade: Above Furman Street, on the bluffs of Brooklyn Heights, many 19th-century homes lay close to the BQE construction. The row houses along Columbia Heights had large backyards facing the East River, which sloped down to the roofs of old Furman Street warehouses, providing families with both “upper” and “lower” gardens. The new expressway took the place of the lower gardens. In 1943, members of the Brooklyn Heights Association who lived on Columbia Heights requested that sections of their private backyards be restored on top of the expressway after it was built. Instead of restoring the yards, Moses and other planners decided that a level public promenade# would be built on top of the new expressway, along the backs of the houses. Against the protests of many property owners, the Promenade was completed eight years later. To this day, the Columbia Heights houses largely retain their original “upper” gardens along the edge of the Promenade, while the Promenade and BQE fill the space once occupied by the sloping “lower” gardens.

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.

155- 159 Willow Street, ca. 1975. The series of three brick Federal style homes at 155-159 Willow Street are considered some of the best examples of the Federal style in the neighborhood. They likely date to the 1820s. The two at left (nos. 155 and 157) retain their pitched roofs dormers, while no. 159 has had a full third story added (many surviving Federals have been altered in this way). The front of these three buildings to do sit completely parallel to Willow Street as they predate the creation of that road as it exists today. No. 155 was owned by Arthur Miller in the 1950s and he wrote 'The Crucible' while living there.

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

23 Middagh Street, 1958.

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.

106-112 Columbia Heights, west side, north of Orange Street, showing the center house (No. 110) in which Col. Washington A. Roebling lived. It was from the rear room on the second floor that he watched and directed the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, being ably assisted in this work by his wife. 1922.

The massive dawn redwood located at 151 Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights is an exotic species originally from China. Dawn redwoods are an ancient relative of the giant sequoia and redwood trees of California and were thought to be extinct until the 1940's when a few survivors were found in a remote valley in China. Seedlings were imported to North America, including this one, which has grown to over 100 feet tall.

70 Willow Street, ca. 1978. The Greek Revival house at 70 Willow Street was built around 1839 by Adrian Van Sinderen and is commonly referred to as the Capote house. From 1955 to 1965 Truman Capote rented a room in the house, where he wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s. While he was living there he also noticed a news article about the 1959 murder of a Kansas family that would lead him to write In Cold Blood. This three-story, 11-bedroom, 9,000-square foot mansion with the impressive pedigree recently sold for $12.5 million.

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

155 Willow Street, 1971. We discovered that Arthur Miller owned this building and lived there while writing “The Crucible” and an early version of “A View from the Bridge.” He only gave up living there when he left his wife for Marilyn Monroe. Miller was born in Manhattan and lived as a boy in Harlem in a spacious apartment overlooking Central Park. His father, Isidore, a Jewish émigré from Poland, owned a clothing business that allowed the family a certain level of luxury. The stock market crash of 1929 was financially devastating to the family and they moved to a smaller, more affordable residence in Brooklyn. After a short stint at 1277 Ocean Parkway, the Millers bought a six-room house on East Third Street and Avenue M in the Parkville section of Brooklyn for $5,000. Arthur Miller loved Brooklyn all of his life. After marrying his college sweetheart, Mary Slattery, the couple settled there, moving to different places and finally purchasing the federal townhouse (pictured in our Historic Image Archive) at 155 Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights. The pair of three-story row houses at 155-157 Willow Street is typical of many brick houses built in the Federal period, which lasted from the Revolutionary War through the 1830’s. Modesty, simplicity and restraint were the hallmarks of the architectural style, with even doorway and window trim kept to a minimum. Charles Lockwood, of “Bricks and Brownstone” fame, cites these two Willow Street houses (along with a third at Number 159) as “some of the best preserved examples of the period. Specifically, numbers 155 and 157 retain their original pitched roofs and dormers reflecting the period’s emphasis on classical unity.” Built in the 1820’s, 155 Willow Street is among the oldest dwellings in the Heights. A plaque on 157 Willow Street says that it hid an underground storage space that was used to hide runaway slaves as they escaped northward to Canada. Miller left 155 Willow Street when he traveled to Nevada to obtain a divorce from his wife in order to marry Marilyn Monroe.

High Street and Cadman Plaza, undated (after 1935). This photo by Federal Art Project photographer David Robbins was taken from underneath the platform of the Sands Street BMT station. Sands Street was a two-level station with multiple platforms handling train traffic to and from Park Row, via the Brooklyn Bridge and the BMT Fulton Street, Myrtle Avenue, Fifth Avenue, and Lexington Avenue lines (and other discontinued lines sharing the same elevated tracks). The station was closed in March, 1944 and demolished shortly thereafter as part of the city’s redevelopment of Cadman Plaza. Widespread subway service in Brooklyn had made continued elevated train service superfluous, while the construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway required the constriction of exit ramps for connecting Brooklyn Bridge traffic.

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.

Train tracks and New York Dock Company warehouses at the foot of Montague Street, May 19, 1914. This photo was taken 5 months before construction commenced on the Montague Street Tunnel. The tunnel, connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan service on the BMT's Broadway (Manhattan) and Fourth Avenue lines, was completed six years later, opening on the same day as the 60th Street Tunnel, which provides a similar connection to Queens. A ventilation tunnel now stands on this site.

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.

43-37 Pierrepont Street, 1922. No. 43 is the corner house and the only one that retains its original stairs and porch. Both nos. 41 and 39 have been "de-porched," with new entrances created at the garden level. No. 37 and the houses out of frame to the left were replaced with a large Art Deco apartment building in 1929.

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.

20 College Place,ca. 1978.

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.

75-77 Hicks Street, at and adjoining the northeast corner of Orange Street, showing the home (No. 77) of the Rev. S.B. Halliday, adjoining the corner, ca. 1895. The windows seen through the trees at right belong to the Plymouth Church at 57 Orange Street.

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 Underground Railroad was a network of secret safe houses that helped runaway slaves escape captivity during the early to mid-19th century. The route, passing directly through New York City, utilized a number of churches, homes, and businesses. While many of the buildings that housed these “stations” no longer exist, a few important sites of New York City's Underground Railroad are still visible today.

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.

There's so much more to Brooklyn's LGBTQ+ history than Walt Whitman. In honor of Pride Month, we're taking a tour through some of Brooklyn's many landmarks of 20th century queer history. From activism to art, to the quiet everyday lives of queer folks, LGBTQ+ history is all around us. To discover more about LGBTQ+ history in Brooklyn, consult our research guide and dive into the many queer stories in our archives and across the borough.

Jehovah's Witnesses dormitory and library facility, ca. 1975. A somewhat foreign sight among the bricks and brownstones of Brooklyn Heights, the building at 119 Columbia Heights was designed to "relate" to its rowhouse neighbors. In 1970 when the Jehovah's Witnesses wished to construct a new building on one of their many real estate holdings in the historic district, they allowed the Brooklyn Heights Association to pick the architect. BHA choice Ulrich Franzen, who was tasked with creating a modern structure that was sensitive to the historic neighbors. The result was an almost Brutalist structure, which was faced in bricks of a similar reddish-brown color to the rowhouses and also included its own "bay windows," a call out to a common rowhouse feature. Additional stories were set back so that the blockfront seemed to be the same height as well. Praised by some and disdained by others, the building had at least one uber fan when completed. Peter Blake, an architect, critic, MoMA curator (who didn't think Brooklyn Heights was all that special) said of the building, "…What has happened here, really, is this: because somebody decided to declare Brooklyn Heights a special place, a very good architect was sought to reinforce that specialness. The resulting building, in fact, enhances the Heights."

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.

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.

High Street Station, August, 1964.

Facade detail at No. 80 Cranberry Street, Brooklyn Heights, ca. 1985.

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.

A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from 1937 highlights what CSI looked like in the 30s. Shown to the press for the first time, the newly funded laboratory employed twelve cops to "trace down the wolves in human form who rove the city to rob and kill."

Naples Restaurant, Montague Street, October 7, 1958.

23 Middagh Street, 1958.

In 1831, Adrian Van Sinderen, president of the Brooklyn Savings Bank, was also president of the Brooklyn Colonization Society, a local branch of the American Colonization Society (ACS). The organization sought to relocate free black communities to Liberia, and Van Sinderen raised a significant amount of money for that purpose. They did not believe American society could or should be culturally diverse. Ironically, James W. C. Pennington, one of the earliest opponents of colonization schemes, worked as Van Sinderen’s coachman. The lives of pro- and anti-slavery activists were intimately intertwined.

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

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.

75, 75A, and 77 Willow Street, June 21, 1959. No. 77 is the corner house.

25 Middagh Street, April 5 1958.

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.

Buildings razed on the west side of Cadman Plaza West (formerly Fulton Street), August, 1964. Today, the Cadman Towers residential development stands on the site. The mansard-roofed building at center is No. 100 Clark Street, at the northwest corner of Monroe Place.

24 Middagh is one of the most well preserved wood-frame homes in Brooklyn Heights. It also features some unique details such as fluted Ionic columns and a leaded transom window above the paneled door. The two and half-story clapboard house was built in the 1820s (some reports say 1824, others 1829) and is known as the Eugene Boisslet House. Not only has the main house survived, so too, the rear carriage house seen nearest to the photographer in this 1958 image.

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."

33- 27 Middagh Street (from right to left), April 5, 1958.

For years the majestic Hotel Margaret stood on the corner of Columbia Heights and Orange Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, overlooking the New York harbor with a grand view of Manhattan.

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.

176 Columbia Heights, 1958. This 19th century rowhouse was owned in the 1940s by an executive of the nearby Squibb Pharmaceutical Company named Ferdinand Nitardy. Nitardy had his old rowhouse renovated in a Regency style in 1943 and around the same time was engaged in a battle, along with his neighbors, to stop the construction of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The neighbors lost and the construction of the feature commenced in 1946.

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.

Letters on the facade of this low brick structure spell out "High-Pressure Fire Service: Main Pumping Station." This building was constructed in 1902 as part of New York's High-Pressure Fire Service. At this time, fire hydrants were either high or low pressure. Low-pressure pumps could churn out water at 30 pounds of pressure, though larger flames required a more powerful system. These hydrants called, "H.P. hydrants" were fed by pumping stations like these, and could unleash up to 125 pounds of pressure. When a call for a fire came in that would require the H.P. system, the fire alarm headquarters would notify both the pumping station, who would turn on the pumps to feed nearby hydrants and firehouses. In the firehouse, a gong would signify the use of H.P. hydrants. If a fire needed H.P. hydrants mid-fight, the chief officer would be able to "either radio in a request or send it...by Morse code from the firebox on the scene," according to George Robinson in the F.Y.I. column of the New York Times. Once the engineer in charge of the station was signaled to turn on the pumps, high-pressure water would be fed to the hydrants in roughly one minute. As technology progressed and pumper trucks were invented, these stations were put out of use. The High-Pressure Fire Service became obsolete by 1954. The facility has since been converted into a series of luxury condos called "Pumphouse Mews," a fitting name for the former station.

View of the Brooklyn Bridge and Cadman Plaza Park from the Korean War Veterans Plaza, south of Tillary Street; June 23, 1963.

The Promenade, a pedestrian walk that cantilevers out from Columbia Heights in Brooklyn Heights, is known for its views of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline. Opened in stages between 1948 and 1951, it had become a documented location for gay male cruising by 1952. In the early 1960s as the Promenade’s reputation grew, gay men from other parts of the city flocked to Brooklyn Heights. In the words of Armand Whitehead, who moved to Brooklyn Heights in 1963, “It was absolutely wild. People did everything there.” In September 1962, the police responded to complaints from straight residents and the Brooklyn Heights Association with a crackdown, which included stationing plainclothes officers on the Promenade. In 1966, the Parks Department imposed a curfew from midnight to 6 AM at the request of the police, who told the Brooklyn Heights Press that they were responding to the many neighborhood residents who “objected to the ‘goings on’ there late at night.” Eventually the police became more accepting, and according to Whitehead, “if they knew you from the neighborhood, \[they] kind of just let it be.” In 1981, the New York Native reported on a still-active cruising scene, with its focus on the south end at Remsen Circle, “where those who cruise in cars can idle or park,” while at the north end, the playground in Squibb Park became at night “the biggest outdoor backroom in the world.” By the late 1980s-early 1990s, as the LGBT community had begun settling in other neighborhoods of Brooklyn, notably Park Slope and Fort Green/Clinton Hill, the Promenade fell out of favor as a cruising grounds. Currently, plans to reconstruct a portion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) are threatening the preservation of this public amenity.

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.

24 Middagh Street, Willow Street facade, ca. 1960.

80 Cranberry Street, ca. 1994. Designed by H.I. Feldman, the Cranlyn is a 1931 Art Deco apartment building. The facade of the building features decorative bands of alternating brick colors and terra cotta trim, while the massing of the building, with ziggurat setbacks at the top, belies its Deco style. The terra cotta plaques above the side entrances depict pairs of colorful peacocks. The building's name is a portmanteau of its street and the borough name.

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!

Hotel St. George Occupying a full city block, the St. George Hotel (now St. George Residence) was built as a complex of seven buildings between 1885 and 1929 (with the later and tallest section designed by famed Art Deco architect Emery Roth). The complex took up the whole block bounded by Clark, Hicks, Pineapple, and Henry Streets. Once the largest hotel in New York, the hotel featured the largest banquet ballroom, the Colorama Ballroom, and the world's largest saltwater pool. This famous location for celebrities and politicians reached its heyday from the 1920s until the 1950s, though the pool remained popular into the 1960s, even as the hotel's popularity waned. By the 1970s, a topless bar called the Wild Fyre occupied some of the ground floor. Tragically, a fire in 1995 destroyed the original hotel buildings, the only ones in the complex that were still utilized as a hotel. The large 1920s tower was turned into condos in the 1980s. 60 Pineapple Street was converted to a co-op building in 1984, and the rest of the complex is now used as a student residence for those attending a handful of nearby New York City universities.

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.

Brownstone facades on Columbia Heights in Brooklyn Heights, May 14 1936. These buildings were razed during the construction of Robert Moses’s Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and later replaced by a playground.

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.

Though the excitement of Wegmans coming to Brooklyn might seem like an anomaly, Brooklynites have always been quick to celebrate a good grocer or butcher. Here are two famed grocers that inspired fervor over the years.

Assumption Parish School (formerly P.S. 8), October 12, 1958. When this three-story Greek Revival schoolhouse was completed in 1846, it became the first public school in Brooklyn (despite the P.S. 8 designation, applied at a later date). The school was phased out after 1906, when a new P.S. 8 building on Hicks Street at the western end of the block. By 1920, the building was home to the parish school of the Church of the Assumption. The parish sold the building in 1975; it has since been converted to co-op residences.

Debris at Clark Street and Monroe Place, the former site of an 1844 gothic church designed by Minard Lafever, August, 1964. Today, this site is part of the Mount Sinai synagogue complex at 250 Cadman Plaza West.

37 Willow Street (Cranberry Street facade), ca. 1980. Visible here is the Cranberry Street facade of 37 Willow. The wood-frame home at 25 Cranberry and the empty lot at no. 27, which has been empty since the 1930s, are seen beyond. 37 Willow Street was designed by architect A. F. Norris and completed in 1886. The Queen Anne style building was constructed as an apartment house– one of the first in the city.

Brooklyn: Columbia Heights - Orange Street, 1923. Once the home of pastor and abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, 124 Columbia Heights was one of the first Brooklyn buildings purchased by the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1909. The original structure was a four-story brownstone. By the 1920s, they had also purchased 122 and 126 Columbia Heights. After a number of demolitions and constructions as well as the purchasing of five more properties nearby, in the 1940s a 10-story building was constructed from these properties for executive offices and accommodations.

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.

Although a somewhat obscure figure today, Mrs. Hunt, (also known as Sally Maria Diggs, Rose Ward, and, troublingly, “Pinky,” throughout her life), shared a unique connection to Henry Ward Beecher.

Two 20th-century thoroughfares – the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (1946-1954) and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (1950-1951) – transformed the eastern boundary of what is now Brooklyn Bridge Park. Many parties played a role in their design and construction, including urban planner, visionary, master builder, and “power broker” Robert Moses

Eastward view of Tillary Street, between Fulton Street (now Cadman Plaza West) and Washington Street (Cadman Plaza East), December 7, 1915. The elevated structure at the northwest corner of Washington Street is the southern end of a storage yard for trains terminating at Sands Street. In the background at right, the tracks of the Myrtle Avenue El cross Tillary Street. The present path of Tillary street is several yards north of the cobblestoned thoroughfare picture above.

Brooklyn Heights Branch, BPL, ca. 1961. Planned in the wake of the demolition of the 1903 Montague Branch, the mid century modern Brooklyn Heights Branch opened on May 31, 1962. Designed by Francis Keally, one of the architects behind the main branch at Grand Army Plaza, the most prominent feature on the simple boxy facade are the reliefs flanking the entry. Created by artist Clemente Spampinato, the six Art Deco style reliefs depict industry and businesses; crafts; sciences; knowledge; literature; and arts. In 2011, a Brooklyn architectural historian wrote "I’ve always been surprised someone hasn’t advocated tearing it down for a high rise, which would include a new library. I’m sure that will happen someday." Only a few years later those exact plans came to be. In the summer of 2016 the building closed and library functions were moved to a temporary location. The building was demolished over the summer of 2017 and in its place a 36-story condo tower with a three-story library space at the base will rise.

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.

Willow Street, including the Danish Seamen’s Church, after a snowstorm, February 5, 1961. This mid-19th century Italianate townhouse was acquired by Our Saviour’s Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1957. The congregation dates to 1878 and had worshipped on 9th Street in Gowanus since 1886.

Washington Street advertisements, ca. 1939.

161 Henry Street, ca. 1979.

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.

68 Hicks Street, 1932.

113 Willow Street, May 14, 1936. This Federal style, wood-frame rowhouse dates to the 1820s. Though captured here in 1936 looking classic with clapboard siding, shutters, and a decorative cast iron entrance porch (added in the mid 19th century), the tidy look of the home was not to last. In the 1960s the clapboard was covered in asphalt singles, much to the chagrin of the neighbors who called it the “Asphalt Jungle.” During a major exterior and interior renovation in 2014 the asphalt shingles were removed and the cast iron porch stripped of years and layers of paint. The newly restored home once again features clapboard, window shutters, and the delicate floral pattern of the cast iron porch is distinct.

Built in the early 1820s by John Rodgers who was a cooper, this corner structure is one of the older buildings in the neighborhood. Though its wood-frame structure can not currently be be seen, it is prominently displayed in the 1922 photograph. This building housed the architectural offices of John A. Roebling’s Sons Company during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. It was also the location of a well-loved veterinary office from 1959 to 2012 called the Heights Veterinary Hospital.

Intersection of Columbia Heights and Middagh Street: vine covered apartment house with iron fence along front in right foreground, commercial/residential building, horse-drawn wagon, and fire hydrant in left foreground, several buildings and section of Brooklyn Bridge in background. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle Photographs, 1916)

The red house is 152 Henry Street. The four-story Greek Revival structure was built in the 1830s and is a part of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District (NYC's first historic district!) In 1891 the building was home to a Helene Lassen. The woman was described (in language of the time which would be considered very inappropriate today) as, “a well proportioned and rather good-looking woman of middle age… privileged to place the letters M.D. at the end of her name.." As recently as 2016 the building functioned as an SRO, or single room occupancy, building, a relic of Brooklyn past. Restoration plans approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2016 included restoring the stoop and first-floor entrance, returning the first-floor windows to their original elongated style, and a new gate. The work will result in a private residence for the owner on the lower floors but also five SRO units on the top two floors.

Mention of the Post Office these days tends to elicit more groans than high praise, but there was a time when the Brooklyn General Post Office was a central hub of communication for the Borough.

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

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.

75 Hicks Street, Parish house, arcade, and gardens of the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, ca. 1975.

Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights, 1922.

Four Pierrepont Street row houses with matching bay windows, 1959.

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.

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.

The waterfront of Brooklyn Bridge Park was once the site of warehouses that made Brooklyn a landfall, loading zone, and storage space for countless tons of cargo.

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.

Church of The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary, ca. 1979. The parish of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was established in 1842 and actually pre-dates the founding of the Diocese of Brooklyn (1853). It was the first Catholic church in this neighborhood and only the third in Brooklyn. The original church was located at York and Jay Streets in what is now DUMBO. A early 20th century article in the Real Estate Record notes that the structure is in the direct path of the Manhattan Bridge No. 2 Anchorage. The church building were purchased in an imminent domain transaction for $125,000 and in turn they bought a series of lots along Cranberry and Middagh Streets in 1905. The new church, dedicated on August 15, 1909, was a large, white, Italian-Renaissance style structure.

Photograph taken from the roof of the Seth Low House towards Pier 15 at the foot of Montague Street.

Seth Low Mansion, 1954. Constructed in 1857 by the businessman, entrepreneur, and real estate developer A.A. Low, the Low Mansion served as mayorial residence long before Gracie Mansion took on that mantle. A.A. Low's son, Seth (named for this grandfather, one of the founders of the city of Brooklyn) was mayor of Brooklyn 1881 to 1885 and later the second mayor of the newly consolidated New York City, 1901 to 1902. Once one of three grand brownstones here on Pierrepont Place, only nos. 3 (seen here) and 2 (originally the Alexander M. White House, connected at right) remain. No. 1, built for a member of the street's namesake family was demolished in 1946. In 2015 the Low House was offered up for sale for a whopping $40 million, making it Brooklyn’s most expensive listing. When it did not sell at that price, the owner then decided to rent the home as four luxury units ranging from $4,500 to $12,000 a month.

Hotel Margaret ca. 1907 For years the majestic Hotel Margaret stood on the corner of Columbia Heights and Orange Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, overlooking the New York harbor with a grand view of Manhattan. The ten-story hotel once laid claim to being the tallest building in Brooklyn, the sun parlor on the top floor offering a panoramic view of the city in all directions. The building was designed using polychrome shades of stone which provided even more allure to guests of the hotel and passersby. Frank Freeman, a renowned Brooklyn architect, designed and built the hotel in 1889 for his client John Arbuckle, of the famous Arbuckle Brothers Coffee Company. The hotel was actually named after John’s sister Margaret. During this time, the Arbuckle Brothers were running the largest coffee company in America, which was owned and operated out of the Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO. Their initial success was due to their now famous Ariosa coffee blend. Some notable guests who stayed at the Hotel Margaret over the years included Norwegian novelist Sigrid Undset, American artist Joseph Pennell, and Betty Smith, author of the beloved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. H.G. Wells was also a frequent visitor of the hotel when he was in town. In 1980, during renovations intended to convert the hotel into condominiums, the building caught fire and was destroyed. In 1987 the land was purchased by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and a new condominium building was built in its place.

216-218 Columbia Heights, ca. 1977. Built in 1870, the Italianate row house at no. 216 (on the right) was the residence of Henry Evelyn Pierrepont Jr. The Pierrepont family played a significant role in the development of Brooklyn. Hezekiah Pierrepont, Henry's grandfather, was an investor and later part-owner in Robert Fulton's steamboat operation. In 1816, Brooklyn received a charter as a village from the state of New York, largely due to the influence of Hezekiah Pierrepont and other prominent landowners and its new importance as the landing point of the regularly scheduled ferry service across the East River. His family is commemorated by nearby Pierrepont Street.

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.

The Plaza Restaurant, at Middagh Street and Cadman Plaza West (formerly Fulton Street), August 1964.

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.

Entrance to the Hotel Touraine, 23 Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights; June 7, 1959.

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The Michael Vanderhoef House (no. 40 at left) was built circa 1830 or 1831 in the Federal style, much like its neighbors. Micheal Vanderhoef, its original owner, was a cartman. These hard working businessmen made their money hauling goods, as well as collecting and carting away "night soil," which was the human waste collected from outhouses and privies in the times before indoor plumbing. In 1976, nearly 150 years after construction this home was extensively restored to its original appearance.

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.

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.

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."

153-157 Henry Street, ca. 1931. Henry Street, east side, north of Love Lane, showing three frame homes (mislabeled on the photograph as nos. 139-143, which are other wood-frame buildings up the block to the north). The woman with the carriage is exiting alley across from Love Lane (obscured by this angle). These wood-frame homes have been demolished and replaced with 155 Henry, while the large apartment building, just south of Love Lane, remains.

A cigarette card from the early 20th century depicting the former Brooklyn Theatre at the corner of Washington (now Cadman Plaza East) and Johnson Streets. The theater was the site of a catastrophic fire on December 5, 1876. The fire broke out backstage at about 11:20pm, between the fourth and fifth acts of “The Two Orphans.” Actors and stagehands attempted to extinguish the blaze while other actors on stage — some of whom were aware of the circumstances — attempted to carry on with the show, in order to avoid panic in the audience. Within minutes, the fire had spread and evacuation began en masse. The flames continued to spread rapidly, reaching the roof and causing the collapse of the Johnson Street frontage in less than an hour. Reports variously state the number of fatalities as 278, 294, or more than 300, many of whom had been seated in the Family Circle, the theater’s third and uppermost level. The Kings County coroner found suffocation via smoke inhalation to be the most prevalent cause of death. Today, it remains the third-deadliest fire at an American theater or place of public assembly.