110 Bridge Street ARCHITECT: Louis E. Jallade DATE: 1908-09 The Thomson Meter Co. Building, among the most aesthetically interesting industrial structures in New York City, is a pioneering American building that employs, in part, a frank exterior expression of its concrete structure. It also displays a fairly early use in New York of polychromatic glazed terracotta. The success of the Thomson Meter Co., founded c. 1890 in Brooklyn to manufacture John Thomson’s patented water meters, led to a new 4-story (plus basement) factory, built in 1908-09 to the design of Louis E. Jallade, with the Hennebique Construction Co. as general contractor. Jallade’s use of ceramic ornament, particularly leaf motifs in terra cotta, was clearly influenced by Parisian examples. After Thomson’s death, this building was sold in 1927 to the New York Eskimo Pie Corp., a subsidiary of the parent firm, for the regional manufacture of the first American chocolate-covered ice cream bar (created in 1920). Eskimo Pie products were made here until 1966.

"97 Bridge Street, at the N.E. corner of York Street, showing also the Brooklyn Union Gas Co. tank on York Street." The frame building at the corner was recently demolished. Notice the architectural palimpsest on the building at the left. A palimpsest is traditionally a parchment made from animal hide that has been scraped "clean" again so that new text can be written on it. In many cases the ghost of the original text can be seen faintly behind the text words. In the case of architecture, a palimpsest is the partial remains or outline of a vanished building seen on existing buildings.

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

"Looking toward the twin towers of the World Trade Center from Vinegar Hill, 1978"

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.

The Commandant's House was built in 1806 as the quarters for the commodore of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Rumor has it that Charles Bulfinch, the Federal-era starchitect responsible for the iconic dome of the U.S. Capitol, was behind the design. There is scant evidence to prove Bulfinch's involvement, save for the dubious claim that the proportions of the dining room are exactly the same as those of the Oval Office. In 1841, Captain Matthew C. Perry, commander of all U.S. naval vessels in New York Harbor, moved into what was then called Quarters A of the New York Navy Yard. Perry would go on to convince Japan to open their borders to trade with the U.S., a feat he accomplished by sailing several large naval vessels into Tokyo Bay. The house, which was once painted a "creamy yellow," was home to successive Navy Yard commandants for nearly two centuries. In 1974, eight years after the Navy Yard was decommissioned, the building was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The property's transformation from military quarters to private residence began in 1996, when Charles Gilbert and Jennifer Jones became its first civilian owners. It cannot be cheap to maintain a huge old house that, due to its landmark status, cannot be changed. That is probably why the home is frequently used for TV and movie shoots, most famously as the home for Nucky Thompson in Boardwalk Empire.

199 York Street, 1923. Following the opening of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1801, the Irish Catholic population of Brooklyn boomed. In that period, Brooklyn Catholics were required to travel to Manhattan to attend church. Given the inconvenience, the community began requesting that a priest come to Brooklyn to perform mass. At an unknown date circa 1820, Father Philip Larisey traveled to the home of William Purcel, on the corner of Gold and York Streets, to say mass for the nascent community. This was the first Catholic mass celebrated in Brooklyn. On January 7, 1822 a committee was organized in the same home to formally ask the consent of the Bishop for the establishment of a Brooklyn Church. In April of the same year, the plot for a church building was purchased on the corner of Jay and Chapel Streets. St. James Church was dedicated in August 1823, the first Catholic Church on Long Island.

"Brooklyn: Front Street - Gold Street, 1934" At this corner once stood St. Anne's (later Ann's) Roman Catholic Church. Built in 1860 by the well-known architect of Catholic Churches Patrick Keely, the congregation would be combined with nearby St. George's Church in 1986 and the building demolished in 1992.

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

Brooklyn approach to the Manhattan Bridge, The original Brooklyn approach to the Manhattan Bridge included two massive sculptures designed by Daniel Chester French. The 12 foot tall female figures symbolized the supposed attributes of the boroughs the bridge touched. Manhattan is prideful and powerful over money and world affairs, while Brooklyn is more artistic and education focused. The statues were removed in the 1960s, victims of Robert Moses vision. They now flank the entrance to the Brooklyn Museum. In December 2016, the city installed rotating, light-up replicas of the two ladies at Flatbush Avenue and Tillary Street. Otis Pearsall, a Brooklyn Heights preservationist was quoted as saying “This may prove to just be one of those stupid things or it could be kind of exciting, fun, and entertaining for the community — I’m hoping it’s the latter."

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."

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.

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.

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."

Brooklyn: Sands Street - Pearl Street.

Images of small children boxing are not something we come across every day so when we found this picture in the Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn Daily Eagle collection we dove into its history.

Commandant's House, 1954. Tucked away behind a large gate in the slice of Brooklyn between Vinegar Hill and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Commandant's House or Quarters A is a little-seen architectural gem. Constructed in 1806 for the top officer of the Navy facility, the Federal style mansion was possibly designed by Charles Bulfinch. Bulfinch, considered by many to be America's first professional architect, is best known for the U.S. Capitol Building. (Some suggest this attribution is perhaps 20th-century wishful thinking.) Commodore Matthew Perry was the most famous resident of the house. He lived here while the commanding officer of the naval installation in the 1840s. The house continued to serve as the charming and picturesque residence of the Commandant until the Navy Yard closed in 1964. The government sold the house in 1979, and it has remained a private home since then.

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

Vinegar Hill is a quiet, historic pocket of Brooklyn tucked between the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Manhattan Bridge, its Belgian block streets framed by rowhouses and the looming smokestack of a former Con Edison power station. Unlike its heavily trafficked neighbor DUMBO to the west, Vinegar Hill has largely escaped tourist crowds and large-scale development, preserving a rare sense of old New York. The neighborhood's story began in 1748 when the Sands brothers purchased 160 acres and ambitiously dubbed the area the “City of Olympia.” But it wasn’t until 1800 that the name Vinegar Hill stuck, a marketing move by developer John Jackson to attract Irish shipwrights, evoking the 1798 Battle of Vinegar Hill in Ireland. By the mid-19th century, waves of Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Hunger transformed the neighborhood into a gritty waterfront enclave nicknamed “Irishtown.” Known for its illicit poitín whiskey stills and gang activity, most famously the White Hand Gang, it was a hard-edged working-class community with deep roots. Much of old Vinegar Hill was leveled in the 1950s to make way for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Farragut Houses, but the surviving streets still carry the weight of history. Today, as plans move forward to convert the long-dormant power plant into a renewable energy hub, the neighborhood stands at another turning point, balancing preservation and reinvention.

"97 Bridge Street, at the N.E. corner of York Street, showing also the Brooklyn Union Gas Co. tank on York Street." The large natural gas tanks seen in this photograph, once dotted the streetscapes of the five boroughs. The most well known were in Elmhurst Queens, which were dismantled in 1996. A pair of tanks in Greenpoint met a more spectacular end in 2001 when they were imploded. It is unknown when the tank seen here was demolished, though considering the density and growth of this neighborhood (in comparison to Elmhurst or Greenpoint), it was likely gone long before the others.

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.

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.

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

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.