Fulton Ferry House with horse-drawn trolleys seen at front, date unknown \[likely prior to 1900].

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.

Food has always played an important role in the history of Brooklyn. Not only has food manufacturing occupied Brooklyn factories and employed its citizens, but historic food establishments have become icons: some for their architecture, others for their atmosphere and still others for their delicacies.

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

Building the Brooklyn Bridge was dangerous work. The project took at least 20 lives. Among the dead was John A. Roebling, the bridge’s designer, who contracted tetanus after his foot was hit by a boat at the Fulton Ferry landing in 1869. Unlike Roebling, most of the casualties were not celebrated men. Since some deaths went unrecorded, we will never know exactly how many men died constructing “The Great East River Bridge.”

Nos. 8-12 Everit Street, ca. 1958. No. 8 (at right) is listed as a "cigar box factory" on an 1887 Sanborn map.

In 1814, Robert Fulton, inventor of the world’s first successful steamboat, established a steam-powered ferry to traverse the East River between what is now Fulton Street in Brooklyn and Fulton Street in Manhattan. Fulton’s steam ferry sparked an era of rapid growth in Brooklyn. Within less than 50 years, the sleepy village transformed into the third-largest city in America.

Storefronts on Old Fulton Street, ca. 1975. The buildings date to the late 1830s, when they comprised small commercial district near the Fulton Ferry, including manufacturers, grocers, and taverns.

No. 4 Water Street, ca. 1975.

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.

Brooklynites have long known that Emily Warren Roebling was a key player in the building of their bridge, which was the longest, tallest suspension bridge in the world when it opened on May 24, 1883. Still, the naming of “Emily Warren Roebling Way” comes as Roebling herself enjoys a moment in the limelight. Last Thursday, the bridge celebrated its 135th birthday, which generated fresh discussions of Roebling’s essential role in the project.

75 Poplar Street, April 5, 1958.

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.

View of the Brooklyn Bridge and downtown skyline from Main Street Park, ca. 1979.

"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.

View of newly built park deck at Fulton Ferry Landing, ca. 1975. Ferry service operated at this crossing as early as 1642, but the Fulton Ferry takes its name from Robert Fulton’s revolutionary steam ferry service, which made its debut in 1814. The construction of the East River bridges contributed to declining ferry ridership, and Fulton Ferry service ceased in 1924.

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.

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.

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.

Brooklyn Bridge ca. 1903 Opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge ushered in the era of the new metropolis, closing the chapter had been a compact unified, "walking" city. Extended routes of daily travel and multiple neighborhoods for dwelling, working, shopping, entertainment, and all other aspects of the urban quotidian became the norm for most New Yorkers thereafter. As the first twisted-steel cable (the cables measure 15 3/4" in diameter) bridge and the first span bridge of such prodigious length, the Brooklyn Bridge inaugurated a new era of modern bridge building. All bridges built after it- the Manhattan and Williamsburg, the George Washington, the Golden Gate, and others - derived much of their engineering methods from this project. Additionally, the Brooklyn bridge, referred to when it opened as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," facilitated metropolitan consolidation; this, in turn, contributed to a widening sense of regional identity, underscoring the commercial and sociological importance of the bridges themselves. In the 1840s, German-born engineer John Roebling developed a cable made of twisted steel wire, the strongest and most resilient technique ever devised for this kind of bridge construction. The new cable enabled the construction of the longest bridge ever known. Improved methods for sinking the pneumatic caissons - the huge airtight boxes of compressed air provided for workers excavating beneath the river beds- were developed during this project. In 1869, while John Roebling was trying to determine the location of the Brooklyn tower, his leg was crushed by an incoming ferry. Roebling died from the resulting gangrene. He was succeeded as project director by his son, Colonel Washington A. Roebling. In the summer of 1872, Washington became incapacitated by decompression illness, also known as the bends or caisson disease. His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, oversaw the last ten years of the bridge's construction in what may be a unique instance of a woman in the bridge world. It became and remains a major New York City icon.

Today, Fulton Mall is a bustling shopping district in Downtown Brooklyn. During the late-Victorian / early-Edwardian eras (think 1880-1910), it was the preeminent thoroughfare for fashionable shopping in Brooklyn. With monumental department stores like Abraham & Straus and impeccable restaurants like Gage & Tollner, shoppers and window shoppers alike teamed Fulton Street to see everything from the latest wedding trousseau to mourning veils, and penny candy to soft clam bellies in Duxbury stew. While most of these businesses no longer exist, many of their architectural remains can be found behind and above their modern facades.

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.

25 Cranberry Street, April 4, 1932.

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.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most iconic symbols of New York. Try imagining the skyline without the looming Gothic towers. Now try to imagine no bridges over the East River to connect the separate cities of Brooklyn and Manhattan and having to rely on overcrowded, unreliable, and generally unsafe ferries. This was the reality of 1850s New York. Yet the Brooklyn Bridge almost didn’t happen. Amid rumors of curses on the designer’s family, corruption, and death came amazing technological innovations and people doing incredible things. The idea of putting a bridge across the East River wasn’t a new idea even in 1850. Plans were discussed, made, and scrapped regularly with strident opposition on basically every element, including the very big question of whether it was even possible to traverse the East River. And, if it was, then at 1,600 feet across, it’d be the longest span of bridge in the world at that time. To say that German immigrant John A. Roebling was born to meet this challenge would be a gross overstatement and cliche, but in this case it seems to work. He had created new forms of steel cables that aided his designs of technically brilliant bridges in Cincinnati and Niagara Falls. In 1867, his plans for the “East River and Brooklyn Bridge” (its previous official name) were accepted by the Tammany Hall-controlled New York Bridge Company and he was named Chief Engineer. But, on June 28, 1869, as John A. Roebling was measuring possible locations for the towers of the bridge near the Fulton Ferry, a boat hit his foot and crushed his toes. Within a month, he died of tetanus. His son and partner, 32 year-old Washington Roebling, overcame his grief and took over his father’s position as the Chief Engineer, determined to finish what they had started. This would not be the last tragedy or death that would befall the Roebling family, or the construction of the bridge. Under Washington Roebling’s supervision the construction began in earnest on January 2, 1870. The first step was building caissons, which are watertight structures with a series of airlocks to provide dry underwater space for workers to dig the foundation into solid rock. Roebling and his men worked in conditions described by Master Mechanic E.F. Farrington: ” The temperature in the caissons was about 80 \[degrees], and the workmen, with half-naked bodies, seen in dim, uncertain light brought vividly to life Dante’s ‘Inferno’.” But beyond bringing to life poetic masterpieces, there were far more real problems to contend with – fires and explosions plagued the caissons as did the deadly “caisson disease” now known as “the bends” or more technically, decompression sickness. During the construction of the bridge, over one hundred men contracted and were killed or severely debilitated by caisson disease, including Washington Roebling. S. A. (Silas A.) Holmes (1819 or 20-1886). New York Caisson nearly down. 1872. Museum of the City of New York. 57.15.4. In early 1872, after working 12 straight hours in the caisson, Roebling rose to the surface from the compressed air too quickly and according to some reports, promptly passed out. This began his lifelong battle with the disease that would cause him pain, partial paralysis, temporary loss of his voice and sight, and all sorts of other terrible symptoms that led him to be an invalid for rest of the construction of the bridge and most of his life, forcing him to become bedridden, threatening his position as Chief Engineer. However, all was not lost. Using a telescope from the bedroom window of his house on 106 Columbia Street in Brooklyn, Washington would give notes and directions to his wife Emily to take to the engineers on the bridge. Emily had taught herself the math and science to help her husband throughout the project, and now she was using her knowledge to oversee construction while also speaking to distributors, politicians, and all levels of workers, making so many important decisions that it was not long before some begin to think of her as the de facto Chief Engineer, going so far as to believe she was the true intelligence behind the bridge’s design and completion. Indeed, even the New York Times gave her credit right after the bridge opened (and keep in mind, this was at the height of the Gilded Age, when it was still debated if women could even actually learn). But another 11 years passed as the bridge inched slowly toward completion. There was fraud with sub par material, political and public outcry about the bridge being constantly delayed, and constant newspaper columns complaining about it going over budget. (For an 1878 article titled “Are We Wasting Money?” that suggests that destroying the towers of the bridge would really be, in fact, the best way to proceed, click here.). Adding to the drama was a last minute move by Mayor Seth Low to dismiss Washington Roebling from his position as Chief Engineer, due to his inability to personally oversee the...

We are standing at one of the greatest seaports on the East Coast. In 1646, when the Dutch first settled here, this was part of the town of Breukelen, now Brooklyn. This busy area hosted ships carrying imported goods and exporting produce and other commodities to neighboring New Amsterdam (now Lower Manhattan), other colonies in the Americas, and Europe. Now look across the river at the sailing ships at the South Street Seaport and imagine them unloading their cargo. That was the bustling town of New Amsterdam—the commercial and financial center of Dutch and later English colonial operations. Ferries carried goods and people back and forth. It was a busy, noisy place, strange and frightening to many of the enslaved people arriving here. By the end of the American Revolution, in 1783, Brooklyn stretched from the DUMBO area up the hill to present–day Brooklyn Heights. The Fulton Landing lay at the heart of the town of Brooklyn. Businesses, then houses, spread outward from here, as streets were laid, shops, taverns, and churches built. Fulton’s steam ferry, which travelled between Brooklyn and Manhattan, began running in 1814. It decreased commuting times and made Brooklyn a desirable place to live for those who worked in Manhattan. This site is where the story of the emerging city of Brooklyn begins. (text from the Brooklyn Historical Society exhibition "In Pursuit of Freedom")

23 Middagh Street, 1958.

1 Old Fulton Street, ca. 1958. The four-story corner building at the intersection of Water and Old Fulton Streets dates to the late 1830s, when it opened as the Franklin House hotel.

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.

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."

Brooklyn City Railroad Company Building ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: c. 1861 STYLE: French Second Empire Erected in 1860-61, this handsome building is a dignified commercial example of the French Second Empire style of the Civil War period. It was built as an office for the Brooklyn City Railroad Company, which had been incorporated in 1853 and had replaced the old stage lines which once provided transportation to Fulton Ferry. This building, at the intersection of Fulton and Furman Streets, stands on the site of William Furman’s house, seen on a map of the Old Ferry District in 1816.

Tobacco Inspection Warehouse and Brooklyn Bridge, May 22, 1936. The Tobacco Warehouse was best recognized in the later 20th century as a hollow, roofless building. Berenice Abbott captured it here in 1936 prior to its near abandonment. Built in the 1860s the large brick warehouse was originally five stories. It was used as a tobacco storage space and the customs inspection center for tobacco. In the 1890s, 90% of Brooklyn's tobacco trade occurred here. By the mid 20th century the tobacco warehouse was no longer and the building was occupied by a metal reclaiming company. By the 1970s the roof of the, then remaining two stories, was gone and left the building open to the elements. Despite some initial legal issues related to the adjacent Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Tobacco Warehouse underwent a massive and multi-million dollar renovation between 2013-2015. It has been transformed (with new roof added) into a theatre venue for the avant-garde theater group St. Ann's Warehouse. The renovations included constructing a brand new building just inside (like an inch from) the original walls.

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.

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.

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."

View of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan Bridge, November 11, 1936.

High Street Station, August, 1964.

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

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."

My Archive Spring 2019 "One day in 2002 I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with my two little kids. We stopped to take photos on the bridge. I had just started to shoot film again with my old camera and had loaded up a black and white roll. The bridge was pretty empty, as it was not too long after 9/11, and the bridge was less crowded in general back then. I bent down to be more eye level with my son who wanted to try the camera." —Meredith Marciano

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.

Ferries have made a bit of a comeback lately with the East River Ferry, Governor’s Island Ferry, and even a ferry to Ikea in Brooklyn. The first ferry route between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, however, was established in the 1630s, just a few years after the settling of New York by the Dutch. While Cornelius Dircksen Hoagland may have been the first to run a ferry between the two boroughs, Robert Fulton and his brother-in-law William Cutting popularized it in more modern times.

25 Middagh Street, April 5 1958.

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.

In August 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving some women—but not all—the right to vote at the national level. Celebrate the centennial of suffrage with a tour of New York locations that were important in the history of women’s rights.

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.

Empire Stores, 53-83 Water Street, 1980. Long underutilized, the Brooklyn waterfront received a facelift beginning in 2002 when then Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki set aside 1.3 miles of waterfront to create a promenade and park. Construction began in 2008 and the park opened to the public in 2010.

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.

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.

Located in the Fulton Ferry Historic District in Brooklyn, the Fulton Ferry Fireboat House was built in 1926 on the former site of the old Fulton Ferry Terminal. Two years’ prior, Brooklyn’s Union Ferry Company had terminated service from this location due to the declining number of ferry commuters. This occurred in part because the early 1900s saw a rise in alternate means of available transportation including automobiles and newly constructed bridges spanning the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, followed by the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903, and the Manhattan Bridge in 1912. On October 8, 1925, the Fulton Ferry Terminal was destroyed in a massive two alarm fire. The fireboat house was built the following year. During the 1930s, the house was occupied by Fireboat Engine 77, the tower used to dry out the wet firehoses. In 1959, the station changed to Marine Company 7 and remained in operation until 1970. Subsequently, the largely abandoned industrial waterfront began a long process of revitalization. From 1976 to 1982 the boathouse served as headquarters to the Fulton Ferry Museum and National Maritime Historical Society. Today it is home to Ample Hills Creamery.

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.

"Empire Stores Warehouse. Showing the Empire Stores warehouse buildings with weeds, wooden pallets, and the shell of an automobile on the street in front of the buildings. Partial view of Robert Gair's cardboard box factory building, located at 1 Main Street, 1968."

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.

"Fulton Ferry in Horse Car Days. Street view of the Fulton Ferry Landing, including horse-drawn streetcars, several pedestrians, and the entrance to Franklin House Billard Palor, circa 1890." The Fulton Ferry Terminal (seen here) was built in 1865 at the foot of Fulton Street. Commercial ferry service had been active since 1814 (and functioning in someway since the 1630s), but in the years following the construction of the Ferry Terminal in the mid 1860s, the popularity of the ferry were called into question by severe overcrowding, massive delays, unsafe conditions, and in the winter of 1866, the stoppage of all service when the East River froze. With the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 the vitality of the ferries and the nearby commercial hub waned somewhat. The ferry would survive for forty more years, ceasing service in 1924, and the Ferry Building would be torn down two years later.

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.

Brooklyn Bridge, 1932. Nearly 50 years after the bridge opened the skyline of Manhattan is drastically different.

Water and Dock Streets, ca. 1890. Opened in 1869, the Empire Stores was the center of operations for the Arbuckle Bros. Coffee Company. One of a number of "stores" that lined the Brooklyn waterfront (for the movement, processing, and housing of cotton, lemons, jute, tobacco, sugar, and coffee), this building is only one of two that survive. These brick warehouses were vast and dark spaces. A number of architectural features facilitated the buildings functions including, the large openings for easy hoisting goods and massive metal shutters that kept the elements, fire, and thieves out. Abandoned in 1945, the building remained empty for decades. In 2016 the building was finally reopened as a retail hub, featuring restaurant and high end stores, as well as an annex to the Brooklyn Historical Society.

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.

My Archive Summer 2019 “I’m the only one in the photo and it was taken on May 1999, a few days before college graduation. Seton hall University ran a dinner cruise for seniors and my friends and I went. It was such an amazing night and time in my young life and I couldn’t pass up taking a photo of the bridge with the towers in the background. I loved my time at seton hall and being a born and raised Brooklynite, I thought this was the perfect photo. Still is!” —Christine Bove

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.

View of Lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Waterfront, east of the Brooklyn Bridge, ca. 1935.

68 Hicks Street, 1932.

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)

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.

My Archive Spring 2019 "The Brooklyn Bridge on its 100th-anniversary celebration. I was there with many friends, some of whom are in the photograph. May 24th, 1983." —Michael Castellano

Empire Stores warehouse buildings, viewed from New Dock Street, 1968. The Sweeney Manufacturing Company building, located at 30 Main Street, and Robert Gair's former cardboard box factory at 1 Main Street are visible in the background. Established in 1869, the Empire Stores is a series of seven separate warehouses. Shipping merchant James Nesmith built the first phase of four-story warehouses which were then known as “Nesmith & Sons Empire Stores.” The warehouses stored raw materials such as cotton, lemons, jute, tobacco, sugar, and coffee imported on cargo ships from Africa, South America, and Cuba. Business was so good that, in 1885, James’ son Henry Nesmith built the remaining five-story warehouses on the eastern end. Large openings on the water side facilitated easy hoisting of goods to and from the adjacent piers. During the 19th century, the Brooklyn waterfront was so completely lined with warehouses similar to Empire Stores that it was nick-named the “walled city.” The Empire Stores are among the few that remain. In the 1920s, the Empire Stores became part of Arbuckle Coffee, then the country's largest coffee business, and a significant presence on the DUMBO waterfront. Arbuckle managed every aspect of the Brooklyn coffee business: coffee beans unloaded into the Empire Stores were sorted, glazed, roasted, ground, packaged, and shipped in nearby buildings. The Arbuckle brand Yuban is still in stores today. Abandoned in 1945, the buildings remained empty for decades. The building was rehabilitated as part of the development of Brooklyn Bridge Park, and recently reopened as a retail hub, with restaurants and high-end stores, as well as the Brooklyn Historical Society - DUMBO.

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.

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.

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.

Located in the Fulton Ferry Historic District in Brooklyn, the Fulton Ferry Fireboat House was built in 1926 on the former site of the old Fulton Ferry Terminal.

Manhattan Bridge Overpass, ca. 1977. The site that gives DUMBO its name: Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

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.

Brooklyn Bridge ca. 1897 On May 24, 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic, and though now we know it as a beautiful landmark, New Yorkers of the time were a bit more wary. At the time it was the only bridge spanning the East River, connecting the separate cities of Brooklyn and New York, and many doubted that a bridge that large could hold. This fear is what may have prompted a stampede a week after the Brooklyn Bridge opened, on May 30. The New York Times wrote that a woman tripped and fell on the steps up to the bridge, prompting another woman to scream and crowds to push forward. Then, panic: “Those following were in turn pushed over and in a moment the narrow stairway was choked with human beings, piled one on top of the other, who were being crushed to death. In a few minutes, 12 persons were killed, 7 injured so seriously that their lives are despaired of, and 28 others more or less severely wounded.” Earlier that year, showman and circus founder P.T. Barnum had suggested marching his elephants, led by his most famous one, Jumbo, across the bridge in celebration of its opening. He was turned down, but with the public trust of the structure still wavering, a display of the Brooklyn Bridge’s strength seemed to be a good idea. On May 17, 1884, Barnum marched 21 elephants across the bridge, along with 17 camels. The animals made it across just fine, proving that the bridge was steady. At the time it opened, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, and it lives on today as one of New York’s finest landmarks.

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.

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.

Brooklyn Bridge, pre-1894. On May 24, 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge officially opened to traffic. The massive celebration brought more than 50,000 people to the bridge (according to contemporary accounts). Some of the distinguished guests included President Chester A. Arthur, New York Governor Grover Cleveland, and Emily Roebling, the wife of the bridge’s main engineer, Washington Roebling. Cannon fire, live bands, and a fireworks display marked the festive occasion. The New York Times wrote: "The opening of the bridge was decidedly Brooklyn’s celebration. New York’s participation in it was meager, save as to the crowd which thronged her streets.” Completed after 13 years of construction, $15 million, and the death of one engineer and the debilitation of another, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world (until 1903 when 4.5 more feet gave the Williamsburg Bridge the title).

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.

Fulton Ferry Fireboat House newly painted, circa 1975. Originally called the Marine Fire Boat Station, this wood-frame building and attached tower was built in 1926 for the New York City Fire Department’s Marine Company 7. It was used to hang and dry fire hoses. By the 1960s the Fire Department no longer had use for the building. It was empty and derelict for a number of years until the National Maritime Museum moved in, in 1976. They would move out six years later under pressure from Brooklyn government officials who wanted to open up the building to commercial use. Today it houses Ample Hills.

Written By Deborah Tint This story examines the Fulton Ferry House that once stood where Old Fulton Street met the water’s edge in Brooklyn Heights, one in a series of ferry buildings on that site. This story can be read in its original format here.

"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."