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.

No. 48 Columbia Heights, just to the south of Squibb Co.

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

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.

Sands Street Terminal was a station on the demolished BMT Myrtle Avenue Line. The complex was large with two levels. Its lower level had four tracks, serving trains going to Park Row in Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge Elevated Line. Alternatively, the upper level had a terminal and a loop for terminating trains. The station closed for good on March 5, 1944.

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.

The Manhattan Bridge, viewed from the intersection of Washington and Front Streets, ca. 1978.

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.

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.

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.

75 Poplar Street, April 5, 1958.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

Plate 6: Map bounded by Poplar Street, Henry Street, 1855.

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.

Family standing on the stoop at 115 Jay Street, May 22, 1936. These photographs were part of a group Abbott took in “Irishtown,” a slum of pre-Civil War houses nestled under the anchorage of the Manhattan Bridge. Lacking cellars, central heat, hot water, toilets, and bathtubs, many of the houses had been declared uninhabitable by the City. In the only portrait of the Changing New York project, Abbott captured the dignity of this African-American family living at no. 115 Jay Street. She later recalled that the family told her “a dog shouldn’t live in this place.” Vendors like the pots-and-pans salesman in Traveling Tin Shop were a disappearing breed when Abbott took this photograph, but they still serviced the City’s poorest neighborhoods. A public housing project now stands on the site of 115 Jay Street. In 1950, the entry ramps of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway cut through the area and further marginalized it.

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.

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.

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society walkway and the Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1975.

100 Willow Street, ca. 1906.

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

Stable on Everit Street, off of Cadman Plaza West (Fulton Street), ca. 1975.

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.

Long Island Safe Deposit Company building, 1 Front Street.

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!

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.

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.

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.

49 Sands Street, ca. 1940.

23 Middagh Street, 1958.

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.

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.

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.

Jay Street between Johnson and Tillary Streets, July 19, 1959. No. 285 Jay Street (center, with three stone arches on the ground floor) housed a veterinary practice where, in 1901, a veterinary surgereon was fined $250 dollars for cruelty to animals.

Corner of Fulton Street & Front Street, 1958 What a difference a few decades make! Built in 1869, this 1958 photograph of 1 Front Street from nearly a century later shows the aging of its unique cast iron facade. Described by the NY Times as an "eccentric Renaissance palazzo" this building's facade, once green with age now gleams white. Built by the Long Island Safety Deposit Company, it is the oldest surviving bank building in New York and in 1971 had a cameo in the Sophia Loren film "Mortadella."

Traveling Tin Shop, May 22, 1936. "The location of the photograph is unknown but the neighborhood resembles Talman and Jay Streets in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, which Abbott photographed on the same day."

20 College Place,ca. 1978.

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.

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.

Talman Street between Jay and Bridge Streets. Talman Street was demolished to make way for the BQE in the 1950s. The origins of this small street of wood-frame homes date to the late 19th century. By the time the Irish community was being replaced by an African American community in the 1930s, the homes still had no running water, toilets, and central heat.

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."

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.

St. James Cathedral ca. 1936 In 1822, the small but growing Catholic community in Brooklyn sought a church, a pastor, and a burying ground of its own. On July 25, 1822, the cornerstone for the first Long Island Catholic church, St. James, was laid at Chapel and Jay Streets; the new building was consecrated a year later. A cemetery and a school soon followed. Under New York State law in effect through the 1830s, parish property was owned by an elected lay board of trustees. Lay trustees bought property, built the churches, schools, and related structures, and controlled the daily operations of the parishes.

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."

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.

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.

73-83 Sands Street. Did you know that Brooklyn had a red light district? Sands Street, which was close enough to the waterfront and the Navy Yard to be a gathering spot for sailors, catered to this group (and New Yorkers seeking a sordid thrill) with saloons, tattoo shops, gambling spots, and boarding houses. In the 19th century this disreputable area was referred to by locals as the "Barbary Coast" and by the mid 20th century was called "Hell's Half Acre."

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

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

Eagle Warehouse ca. 1907 Built on the site of an old Brooklyn Eagle warehouse, famed Brooklyn architect Frank Freedman was hired to design a new fireproof warehouse on the site. Freedman's design, which Christopher Gray of the New York Times would describe as "a medieval brick fortress,", earned local acclaim upon its completion in 1894 and received a landmark designation in 1977. It would shortly thereafter be converted into condominiums.

5-7 Front Street, ca. 1958. Known to be the oldest surviving office building in New York City, 5-7 Front Street was originally erected in 1827 for the Long Island Insurance Company. Made of granite, brick, and stone, the building is among the district's earliest examples of the Greek Revival style. Today the building houses a restaurant, Gran Electrica, on its ground-floor.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Abandoned wood-frame dwellings on Jay Street, between Johnson and Tillary Streets, July 19, 1959. The buildings were razed ahead of the 1962 construction of the New York City College of Technology's Klitgord Building, which was itself demolished in 2013. A new academic center designed by Perkins Eastman is presently under construction.

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: Sands Street - Pearl Street.

Front Street warehouse, ca. 1958.

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.

A. Zerega's Sons building (background) at 28 Front Street, ca. 1935. Founded by Antoine Zerega, a French immigrant of Italian background, in 1848, Zerega's is the oldest pasta company in the United States. Zerega Avenue in the Bronx is named after the pasta maker. The company moved from DUMBO to Fair Lawn, New Jersey in 1952.

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.

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.

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.

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)

No. 303 Pearl Street, on the east side of Pearl St. between Johnson and Tillary Streets, July 19, 1959. The sign above the doorway reads: "New York City College of Applied Arts and Sciences; Student Government Association." The school was founded in 1946, to address postwar demand for technically skilled workers. In 1953, it became the city's first community college, and was absorbed into the CUNY system in 1964. Today, Pearl Street no longer exists in much of Downtown Brooklyn, due to the development of MetroTech Center; the site of the former Student Government building is now part of the square-block including the New York City College of Technology's Namm Building.

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.

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

Squibb Plant After serving as a physician at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Medical Station, Edward Robinson Squibb founded his own pharmaceutical manufacturing company, The Squibb Company, in 1858. In 1892, he formed a partnership with his family and changed the name to E.R. Squibb and Sons. During the 1920s, Squibb hired architect Russell G. Cory and associate Walter M. Cory of Turner Construction Company to design and build a new manufacturing plant located at 25-30 Columbia Heights in the Fulton Ferry District of Brooklyn, as seen above. E.R. Squibb and Sons would become one of the largest manufacturers of mineral oil in the world, as well as one of the nation’s largest producers of vitamins. In 1969, as a result of the postwar deindustrialization of the waterfront, several mergers, and a worker’s strike, the Squibb Plant closed its doors and consolidated their operations to nearby Princeton, New Jersey. That same year the building was purchased by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (the legal entity of the Jehovah’s Witnesses), who were at the time expanding their operations in the area. Over the past fifty years you may have seen the iconic red “watchtower” letters as you walked or drove over the Brooklyn Bridge, illuminating the skyline with the time and temperature. The Jehovah’s Witnesses group decided to move their headquarters to upstate New York and sold the building to developers in 2016 to turn it into a multi-office and retail complex.

Tenements and wood-frame dwellings on Garrison Street, a single block between Front and York Streets in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1938. Arnold Eagle’s photo is part of his “One Third of a Nation” series, shot with David Robbins. The project document the living conditions in poverty-stricken New York City neighborhoods, and shared its name with a 1938 “living newspaper” production by the Federal Theatre Project dramatizing similar themes. Garrison is named for John Garrison, an early 19th century judge who also served as president of the Village of Brooklyn. At right in the middle ground, is Mercein Street, a single-block street named for Andrew Mercein, a political figure of the same era who lived on nearby Sands Street. Both streets were eliminated in the early 1950s to make room a westbound exit ramp from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Today, a parking lot entrance roughly lines up with the former path of Garrison Street.

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.

Poplar Street, between Columbia Heights and Willow Street, May 14, 1936. Local activism managed to save much of Brooklyn Heights — specifically, the corridor along Hicks Street — from Robert Moses’s wrecking ball, but not every block was so lucky. This section of Poplar Street was razed during the 1950s to make way for the triple-cantilever sections of the Brooklyn-Queens expressway, which runs roughly where photographer Berenice Abbott stood as she captured this scene. Today, the land where these houses stood is the Hillside Park dog run.

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.

Beneath the surface of New York City's bustling subway system, carrying a billion passengers yearly, lies a hidden narrative of racial disparity in fare evasion policing. We delve into three distinct locales: Jay Street-Borough Hall Station in Brooklyn, the South Bronx's 40th Precinct, and Queens' Transit District 23. Each spot unveils how minority communities face biased fare enforcement. This exploration not only exposes the underlying issues in subway policing but also connects to larger themes of racial profiling and urban inequality.

York Street at the Brooklyn Bridge looking north along Garrison Street, ca. 1935. Garrison Street was a small, crooked alley that ran from York Street (the road seen in the foreground) to Front Street. It ran parallel to the bridge for only a hundred or so feet then sharply turned to the north (right) where it ran perpendicular into Front Street. Named after John Garrison a butcher who became a judge and was later the first president of Brooklyn Village. While they survived the building of the adjacent Brooklyn Bridge, they were lost in the mid-century urban development and construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the 1950s.

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

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

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.

Talman Street, no. 57, Brooklyn. In the 19th century Talman Street, a small road between Bridge and Jay Streets in what is now called DUMBO, was once home to wooden rowhouses and a small population of Irish immigrants. By the 1930s when Berenice Abbott photographed the street it was pretty run down. During the urban renewal of the 1950s and 1960s, the street was demolished to make way for the BQE and the Farragut Houses, a massive public housing complex. The hand painted signage for Eskimo Pies can be seen on the building (100 Bridge St.) in the background.

Sperry Gyroscope Company Building, ca. 1939. Designed by Frank Helmle and constructed in 1915-1916, the Sperry Gyroscope Company Building (today called the Howard Building) is a reinforced concrete industrial building. The Gyroscope Company was founded in 1910 by Elmer Ambrose. The gyroscope was an important new navigating tool for maritime and air travel. The location of the factory was purposeful, with the proximity to the Manhattan Bridge allowing the building to get sunlight from all directions. Built during the First World War, but prior to Americans entrance to the fighting, the factory manufactured items that aided in ship, plane, and torpedo navigation, actions that the U.S. felt they would likely be involved with soon enough. Despite further inventions and technological advances in the following decades, the Sperry Gyroscope Company was broken up by the mid century though mergers and legal actions. Today the Howard Building's largest major tenant is New York City College of Technology.

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.

"Brooklyn: Concord Street - Jay Street. The view shows the wood-frame buildings between 117-125 Concord Street."

Main Brooklyn Post Office ARCHITECT: Mifflin E. Bell DATE: 1885-1891 STYLE: Romanesque Revival The General Post Office displays a wealth of skillfully blended Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival details. The older section of the building was begin in 1885 and completed in 1891; the original plans of Mifflin E. Bell were modified by William A. Freret, Bell’s successor as supervisory architect of the Treasury Department. The extension, completed in 1933, adheres faithfully to the design of the older part of the building.

13 Pineapple Street,1978. Though an excellent example of a classic Brooklyn Heights wooden building, 13 Pineapple Street is exceptional for being extra wide. The home's width (not common in this Brooklyn neighborhood) recalls the stately homes on the Main Street of Nantucket. The garage and stoop are 20th century additions to this structure built circa 1830. Some mid 20th-century architectural writings suggest that this home may date from the 18th century and may have been moved to its present location, but no solid evidence exists for this hypothesis.

70 Willow Street ca. 1936 Continuously inhabited until recent years by the family that built it, this Greek Revival house boasts an elegant curved staircase with a classic niche above it. There is a beautiful private garden in the back.

There is no place like New York — and there is certainly nothing like growing up here. This collection will give you a look into the lives of New York City's youngest and cutest, dating from the late 19th to the mid-20th century.

Brooklyn: Sands Street - Pearl Street.

Carriage houses on Love Lane, 1958. Love Lane formerly marked the property line between the DeBevoise and Pierrepont family plots. The name is said to derive from being a rendezvous spot for local youths in its vicinity.

"Brooklyn: Main Street - Front Street. An old wood-frame building at the corner that had been in existence for more than a century in 1922."

97 Clark Street, October 12, 1958. This 40-foot wide mansion was known as the Ford Mansion, as it was once the home of Gordon L. Ford and later his son, Paul Leicester Ford. Gordon was the business manager for the New York Tribune and had a hand in banking and railroad interests. Paul was a journalist, writer, and noted bibliographer of Revolutionary War America. (Another son, Worthington, was chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.) Paul was killed in a murder suicide enacted by the third brother Malcolm in 1902. In the 1960s as this, and other nearby buildings were being prepped for demolition as part of the urban renewal plans, preservationists saved the home's railing in hope to reuse it the restoration of another historic Heights house, the Peter Cornell home. That house was demolished as well and the railing is now in the Sculpture Garden at the Brooklyn Museum, among other architectural artifacts. The early 1970s building that replaced the demolished Ford Mansion is the massive Cadman Towers, a 421-unit, almost Brutalist, co-op building (given the address 101 Clark Street).