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South of Union Square
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Near 161 Rodney Street

Posts & Stories(9)

210 Marcy Avenue image

210 Marcy Avenue
Post

Drug store at the northwest corner of Marcy Avenue and Division Street, January 18, 1959.
571 Bedford Ave image

571 Bedford Ave
Post

571 Bedford Avenue, 1958. Deep within Hasidic Williamsburg, 571 Bedford Avenue still remains. This Renaissance Revival mansion was constructed circa 1890. The copper bay window and the highly ornamented dormer window framing on the mansard roof have turned green with age. An early owner of the building (likely until his death in 1910) was Moses May, a beef dealer and president of the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphans Asylum. Today the building houses an Orthodox Jewish religious institution.
Eastern District Brooklyn High School image

Eastern District Brooklyn High School
Post

Eastern District Brooklyn High School, 1907 This high school was proposed in 1894 as a facility for the Eastern District (Williamsburg and Bushwick) of the city of Brooklyn. It welcomed its first students in 1900, two years after Brooklyn became a borough of the Greater New York City. Originally housed in the former Eastern District Library and two annex spaces, the new Eastern District High School was completed in 1907. Designed by the BOE Superintendent of Buildings, C.B.J. Snyder, the Gothic style, H-shaped building is clad in gray brick, limestone, and terracotta. The school suffered in the 1960s and 1970s from overcrowding, student unrest, and violence. Eastern District moved into a new building on Grand Street in 1981. (The school in its new location would eventually close after the 1995/1996 school year, reopening later in 1996 as the Grand Street Campus, housing several small high schools under one roof.) Today the 1907 building on Keap Street and Marcy Avenue serves as a girl's yeshiva called Bais Ruchel d'Satmar.
Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre image

Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre
Post

Payton's Lee Avenue Theater, ca. 1902. This 1,600 seat theater was built in a former church as the Lee Avenue Academy of Music in 1882. By 1895, the theater became the Phoebus Theater, and sometime shortly after, the theater was acquired by Corse Payton. Payton, a veteran actor, renamed the venue: Payton's Lee Avenue Theater. Corse Payton likened himself "America's Best Bad Actor," though despite this self-effacing name, he was quite successful in his career. In multiple billings at the Payton Theater, including "The Dancing Girl," and "The Prodigal Daughter," both Corse Payton and his wife Etta Reed performed on stage. Of the latter production, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported "electric fans kept the audience cool, in the face of the many exciting entanglements of the melodrama." The theater was razed in 1915, the New York Times reported that this was because "the BMT ran an elevated line through its balcony." A new theater, the Roebling, was built on the same site in 1919. The Roebling sat 1,200 guests on one level, rather than in tiered balconies like the original structure. The building changed hands in 1937 and became the Wilson Theater before closing down for good in 1945. The building is now occupied by a Congregation Adas Yereim.
250 Havemeyer Street image

250 Havemeyer Street
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Building at the northwest corner of South 9th and Havemeyer Streets, South Williamsburg; January 18, 1959.
Marvin Cross House image

Marvin Cross House
Post

Marvin Cross House. March 30, 1958. Built in the 1870s, this Second Empire mansion was the first headquarters of the Brevoort Club, a swanky Brooklyn gentlemen’s club in the years between 1885 and 1887. Marvin Cross was a lumber merchant, and later Brooklyn Parks Commissioner and member of the Board of Education purchased the mansion in 1891. President Grover Cleveland once dined here as a Cross family guest. In the late 19th century, this fashionable stretch of Bedford Avenue was home to several mansions, many of which have since been demolished.
Public School 71 image

Public School 71
Post

Public School 71 ARCHITECT: James W. Naughton DATE: 1888-89 STYLE: Second Empire Public School 71K is a Second Empire style brick building, designed by James W. Naughton and erected in 1888-89 in the Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn prior to the Incorporation of Greater New York. A prominent feature in the area, the building is an important reminder of the long history of public education in Brooklyn which dates back to the Dutch colonial period.
Williamsburg Branch, Brooklyn Public Library image

Williamsburg Branch, Brooklyn Public Library
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Williamsburg Branch, ca. 1905. The Williamsburg Library, completed between 1903 and 1905, was the first Carnegie Library begun in Brooklyn. The cornerstone was laid in November of 1903, at a well-attended event. A time capsule of documents including a copy of the Carnegie contract was laid in the cornerstone. The large Y-shaped building sits on a raised, grassy triangular plot. Its floorplan meant to evoke an open book, with two wings radiating from a center bay. The building, designed by Richard A. Walker, was designated an individual landmark in 2006 and still functions as branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
Oscar Hawley Mansion image

Oscar Hawley Mansion
Post

Hanover Club, ca. 1911. The Hanover Club was a prestigious German-Jewish Club opened by William Cullen Bryant, a publisher of the Brooklyn Times. It was founded in 1890, housed in the former mansion of Oscar Hawley, a wealthy box manufacturer. In its heyday, the club boasted a bowling alley, billiards club, a restaurant, and a cafe. The alley and cafe were open exclusively to women in the afternoon. During these hours, a gentleman was only allowed inside if accompanied by a lady. The club also hosted dinners in true German spirit, one of which was called the "Thumb bit dinner." At said dinner supposedly, guests dined on steak piled high on slices of bread, all while wearing butcher's aprons and hats. The 400-member club moved to a new building in Crown Heights just one year after they moved into the Hawley Mansion. As the clubhouse changed its scenery, so did the neighborhood of South Williamsburg. When the Williamsburg Bridge was completed in 1909, an influx of Jewish immigrants moved from the Lower East Side to Williamsburg. The former mansion became the Young Israel Association in 1922, an orthodox institution that aimed to provide new immigrants with a space to connect with their community and their religious beliefs. The building is now Bais Yaskov of Adas Yereim.

Photos(230)

161 Rodney Street image

161 Rodney Street

Main offices of Torah & Charity Aerial view of two brick buildings on Rodney Street in Williamsburg; building at right with rounded arch (no stoop) above closed wooden doors; portion of roof visible; building at left with open door at top of stoop; has bilingual sign (English and Hebrew) between windows of parlor floor reading, "Main Office of Torah & Charity Institutions of Chasiday Stolin Karlin."
77 Lee Avenue image

77 Lee Avenue

\[Man walking in Williamsburg] Close-up of Hasidic man walking on Williamsburg sidewalk; brick building in right background with sign, "Printing, rubber stamp mfg., Imprenta sellos de goma;" third sign written in Yiddish; attached commercial building on left with two garbage cans in front.
71 Lee Avenue image

71 Lee Avenue

71 Lee Avenue Close-up of front of store at 71 Lee Avenue; sign on awning: "Lieber's Quality Chocolates;" several signs in store window including: "Farm eggs; coffee; spices, gift boxes;" elderly Hasidic man, young woman, and girl standing in doorway; baby carriage in left foreground.
67 Lee Avenue image

67 Lee Avenue

Butcher on Lee Ave Close-up of Hasidic man wearing white apron standing on Lee Avenue in Williamsburg with left hand on hand truck and open back door of truck on his right; parked automobile and fire hydrant in left background.
67 Lee Avenue image

67 Lee Avenue

Meat & poultry market Close-up of entrance of meat and poultry market at 67 Lee Avenue in Williamsburg with elderly man sitting on folding chair, and two boys standing, on sidewalk in foreground.
65 Lee Avenue image

65 Lee Avenue

\[Landau's] Young Hasidic man standing on sidewalk with suitcase and wood crate in front of Landau's Delicatessen; sign on awning above entrance, "65 Landau's Delicat...," sign in window, "Landau's glatt kosher ..." and ads for Newport, Life, Kool, and Kent cigarettes on both sides.
First Baptist Church of Williamsburg image

First Baptist Church of Williamsburg

Brooklyn-Queens Expressway from Lee Ave Intersection of Lee Avenue and Keap Street with Williamsburg Christian Church, a large brick building on corner, several parked automobiles, one moving automobile, several pedestrians, three row houses in left background, and two moving automobiles on Brooklyn-Queens Expressway below.
545 Bedford Avenue image

545 Bedford Avenue

Brooklyn: Bedford Avenue - Ross Street Bedford Ave., north from Ross Street to Division Ave. At the right background, is the steeple of Christ Episcopal Church.(Protestant). About 1902. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection.
559 Bedford Avenue image

559 Bedford Avenue

\[East side of Bedford Avenue looking toward Rodney Street (corner at right).] East side of Bedford Avenue looking toward Rodney Street (corner at right).
First Baptist Church of Williamsburg image

First Baptist Church of Williamsburg

\[First Baptist Church of Williamsburg] Facade of First Baptist Church of Williamsburg with iron fence, Lee Avenue and Keap Street; also adjacent buildings, and intersecting streets; pedestrians in foreground.
561 Bedford Avenue image

561 Bedford Avenue

Bedford Ave. & Rodney St Close-up of facade of large, brick building with porches, ornamental ledges, an arched doorway and round half-tower, being a Yeshiva school at the corner of Bedford Avenue and Rodney Avenue; woman, several children, and street signs are in foreground, and portions of a schoolbus and citybus in far left and far right foreground.
First Baptist Church of Williamsburg image

First Baptist Church of Williamsburg

Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Intersection of Lee Avenue and Keap Street in with Williamsburg Christian Church, a large brick building, on corner, several parked automobiles, one moving bus, several pedestrians, four row houses in left background, several apartment houses with shops on ground level in right background, and two moving automobiles on Brooklyn-Queens Expressway below.
Oscar Hawley Mansion image

Oscar Hawley Mansion

Hanover Club Image represented is one of a related set (CLUB 0369, CLUB 0370), some of which may also be described in this new record; Three exterior views, in different sizes, of the Hanover Club located at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Rodney Street. 0370 is a reproduction, retouched, and not dated.
Oscar Hawley Mansion image

Oscar Hawley Mansion

Hanover Club Image represented is one of a related set (CLUB 0369, CLUB 0370), some of which may also be described in this new record; Three exterior views, in different sizes, of the Hanover Club located at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Rodney Street. 0370 is a reproduction, retouched, and not dated.
Oscar Hawley Mansion image

Oscar Hawley Mansion

Young Israel of Brooklyn Close-up of facade of Young Israel of Brooklyn, a three-story, brick synagogue in Williamsburg with iron fence, traffic light, and pedestrian (woman) in foreground.
Oscar Hawley Mansion image

Oscar Hawley Mansion

Brooklyn: Oscar Hawley House, Bedford Avenue and Rodney Street, 1922. Later headquarters of the Hanover Club, 1891-1922.
Oscar Hawley Mansion image

Oscar Hawley Mansion

Hanover Club Image represented is one of a related set (CLUB 0369, CLUB 0370), some of which may also be described in this new record; Three exterior views, in different sizes, of the Hanover Club located at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and Rodney Street. 0370 is a reproduction, retouched, and not dated.
Oscar Hawley Mansion image

Oscar Hawley Mansion

Brooklyn: Oscar Hawley House, Bedford Avenue and Rodney Street, 1922. Later headquarters of the Hanover Club, 1891-1922.
Oscar Hawley Mansion image

Oscar Hawley Mansion

Brooklyn: Rodney Street - Bedford Avenue Rodney Street, south side, at and east of Bedford Ave., showing at the corner the Oscar Hawley Mansion, purchased by the Hanover Club in 1891 for 327,000 and enlarged. Ihh 1922, a Jewish Society known as the " Young Israel of williamsburg" purchased the club forS 35,000. 1922\. Eugene L. Armbruster Collection.
571 Bedford Ave image

571 Bedford Ave

\[#571 Bedford Avenue (East side of avenue between Rodney and Keap Streets).] \#571 Bedford Avenue (East side of avenue between Rodney and Keap Streets).
571 Bedford Ave image

571 Bedford Ave

\[#571 Bedford Avenue (on east side of avenue between Rodney Street and Keap Street).] \#571 Bedford Avenue (on east side of avenue between Rodney Street and Keap Street).
51 Lee Avenue image

51 Lee Avenue

\[David's Barber Shop] Two Hasidic women, man, and girl standing on sidewalk in front of David's Barber Shop, with portion of brick building with air conditioner in window above, at 51 Lee Avenue in Williamsburg; "Abrams" on awning above store front, barber pole in foreground and garbage can, and portion of shop front and brick building in right background.
Keap Street and Lee Avenue image

Keap Street and Lee Avenue

Board of Water Supply. City Water Tunnel No. 2. Sprague & Henwood, Inc., contractor. View of boring rig located at corner of Keap Street and Lee Avenue. November 13, 1923.
543 Bedford Avenue image

543 Bedford Avenue

\[Northeast corner of Bedford Avenue and Ross Street.] Northeast corner of Bedford Avenue and Ross Street. #543 Bedford Avenue corner house.
148 Keap Street image

148 Keap Street

148 Keap Street, Brooklyn, November 2, 1915. Photographed for Joseph P. Day.
575 Bedford Avenue image

575 Bedford Avenue

Sign for the YMCA, 575 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, undated \[ca. 1918]. Probably photographed for Lawrence L. Strauss.
575 Bedford Avenue image

575 Bedford Avenue

Sign for the YMCA, 575 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, undated \[ca. 1918]. Probably photographed for Lawrence L. Strauss.
575 Bedford Avenue image

575 Bedford Avenue

\[Williamsburg YM and YWHA] Four-story masonry building behind iron fence on Keap Street in Williamsburg, with large lettering ("Y.M.H.A. Y.W.H.A.") on stringcourse; fourth story partly enclosed, partly open air; bilingual sign (English and Yiddish) on corner of first floor, 'YM & YWHA of Williamsburg. Activities . . . Register Now!"; four girls crossing street at left; Hasidic man on sidewalk in central foreground; leafy trees, parked automobiles, lamppost, street signs, fire hydrant, and stop sign throughout foreground.
108 Lee Avenue image

108 Lee Avenue

\[Kosher pizza and falafel shop] Close-up of front of brick Williamsburg shop with sign over window: "Kosher pizza-falafel" and "Pepsi" sign on each side; neon sign in shop window; "108" on door.
122 Ross Street image

122 Ross Street

\[Brownstone at Bedford Avenue and Ross Street] Four-story corner brownstone, with two-sided bay window and pediment over entrance; lamppost and street sign on sidewalk in front of building; adjacent buildings at left and right. Caption: "Another old Eastern District landmark is to be razed to make room for a big improvement to be erected on its site. The building is the fine old dwelling at the southwest corner of Bedford Avenue and Ross street, occupied for the past twelve years by Dr. A. W. Lawrence. . . . The building was occupied for some time by the Nassau Wheelmen as a clubhouse."
572 Bedford Avenue image

572 Bedford Avenue

On Bedford Ave Close-up of three Hasidic girls wearing winter coats playing on Williamsburg sidewalk with two stores in background; store on left has partially open steel gate and several unidentifiable objects in window and store is right has sign in window, "S. Weinberger's Fruit & Vegetable, EV4-5791."
114 Lee Avenue image

114 Lee Avenue

\[Hasidic man at 114 Lee Avenue] Close-up of elderly Hasidic man wearing glasses and white shirt with left sleeve rolled to elbow standing in front of building at 114 Lee Avenue in Williamsburg.
114 Lee Avenue image

114 Lee Avenue

114 Lee Ave Close-up of three Hasidic men standing, back to camera, in bookshop at 114 Lee Avenue, Williamsburg.
114 Lee Avenue image

114 Lee Avenue

Bookstore, 114 Lee Ave Elderly Hasidic man standing in doorway of Williamsburg bookstore with signs over doorway and window: "Hayim David Aryeh Aynhorn, 114, ST2-7782; For weddings and bar mitzvahs; Available here: 10 vols. 4 parts of Shulhan Arukh, 7 v. Turim, 10 v. Sde Hemed; complete in deluxe bindings; the nicest sable hats." Young woman with child are standing in foreground with two garbage cans on far right.
114 Lee Avenue image

114 Lee Avenue

Book seller, 114 Lee Ave Close-up of elderly Hasidic man wearing glasses sitting and looking a sheet of photographs with several books on shelves in background. It is assumed from inscription that he is manager of a bookshop at 114 Lee Avenue in Williamsburg.
Public School 16 image

Public School 16

Cramped play yard Caption: "Cramped play yard behind old building is hemmed in by other buildings and its pavement is crumbling, further arousing ire of the parents. Doctors' reports to parents indicate children suffer from bad sanitary facilities and poor lighting and ventilation during their school hours;" laundry hanging on clothesline in background. The school is located at 157 Wilson Street.
Public School 16 image

Public School 16

P.S. 16 Caption : "Date of building, 1858, appears proudly on front of P. S. 16, 157 Wilson St. ..;" flag is flying from window above sign.
Public School 16 image

Public School 16

Brooklyn: Wilson St. - Bedford Ave. Wilson Street, between Bedford and Lee Avenues, showing the old Public School No. l6. : new addition was later built to the left of this building. Board of Education of the City of New York June 25, 1931
Public School 16 image

Public School 16

P.S. 16 Caption: "One of the most famous schools in all the city is old P. S. 16, \[157] Wilson St., \[a large, three-story, brownstone building] between Lee and Bedford Aves., just over the Williamsburg border in Brooklyn. Known as the old Eastern District school. Built 1858 and added to in 1887, 1918 and 1924;" attached buildings on both sides, six women pedestrians on sidewalk, and parked automobile in far left foreground.
Public School 16 image

Public School 16

\[PS 16] Portion of classroom at PS 16, 157 Wilson Street.
Public School 16 image

Public School 16

Brooklyn: Wilson St. - Bedford Ave. Wilson Street, north side, between Bedford and Lee Avenues, showing the new addition to Public School No. 16. The old school building is on the right. Board of Education of the City of New York June 23, 1931
Public School 16 image

Public School 16

P. S. 16 Five-story brick and masonry school building in Williamsburg; "Public School 16" in Gothic lettering above entrance on right; bare trees on sidewalk in front of school; high-rise apartment buildings in left background.
157 Hooper Avenue image

157 Hooper Avenue

Board of Water Supply. Laying water distribution pipes. Beaver Engineering and Contracting Company, contractor. View taken opposite 126 Hooper Street, just east of Bedford Avenue, looking east. Showing the condition of the pavement after the excavating and pipe laying machinery had completed the steel pipe laying operations. The pavement in this block was laid in 1895. June 22, 1925.
115 Lee Avenue image

115 Lee Avenue

Mrs. Martin Weiss Mrs. Martin Weiss standing in front of Martin Weiss hardware store at 115 Lee Avenue in Williamsburg with many buckets, two boxes, bushel basket, and three garbage cans on sidewalk, and assorted merchandise in store window; large sign above entrance, "Martin Weiss" and smaller sign on far left, "Crystal, gifts, hardware."
115 Lee Avenue image

115 Lee Avenue

115 Lee Ave Close-up of entrance of Martin Weiss hardware store at 115 Lee Avenue in Williamsburg with man, back to camera, entering store and two beach chairs and stack of pails on sidewalk in right foreground.
206 Wilson Street image

206 Wilson Street

Torah Wadath Close-up of portion of facade of Mesvita Torah Vodaath, a large, four-story masonry high school for boys on South 3rd Street in Williamsburg; sign above doorway in Hebrew: "Metivta Torah Vo-daat;" iron fence along front and mail box and portions of two parked automobiles in foreground.
Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre image

Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre

Corse Payton's Theatre.
Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre image

Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre

Payton Theatre, Brooklyn.
Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre image

Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre

Payton Theatre, Brooklyn.
Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre image

Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre

Brooklyn: interior view from stage, packed house full of children at a performance for the Sunshine Society at Corse Payton's Lee Avenue Theatre \[?], undated.
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