On April 1, 1949, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was full of news of workers on strike. The headline for the day announced that a taxi strike was on and "90% tied up," meaning that all but 701 of the city's 11,510 taxicabs had refused to start their engines. Meanwhile, CIO radio operators at Pan-American Airways had launched a strike over deadlocked contract negotiations, and in a slim article further down the page, readers learned that 7,000 brewery workers from Brooklyn's 14 major breweries--still at the top of its game in '49--had also organized and begun picketing. On the brewery workers' list of demands were an increase in pay, a shorter workweek, a pension plan, and a new, mandatory two-person model for deliveries

View west on Broadway toward the former Sparrow Shoe Factory (No. 195), ca. 1975. The cast iron-fronted factory was built in 1882 for the show manufacturing business of James R. Sparrow and his son James R. Sparrow, Jr. At right is the awning for the Peter Luger Steak House, a restaurant founded in 1887 as Carl Luger’s Café, Billiards and Bowling Alley. At left is the Williamsburgh Savings Bank.

Kings County Savings Banks ca. 1975 Post-Civil War elegance in this country always aped the grandeur of Second Empire Paris. This bank, with its high mansard roofs, quoins in the walls, and rusticated first floor, was no exception.

Little boys standing on the south side of Broadway between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue, ca. 1975. The elevated subway trestle east of the Williamsburg Bridge is visible between buildings at right.

Kings County Savings Bank ARCHITECT: King & Wilcox DATE: 1868 STYLE: Second Empire A four-story building with Mansard roof of the French Second Empire period, the Kings County Savings Bank has excellent proportions and many fine architectural details. The main entrance doorway is dominated by a handsome porch with elaborate carving in the pediment. A cast iron balustrade flanks the building on the property line enclosing the bank.

Kings County Savings Bank. ca. 1975. Built between 1860 and 1867, the bank building (at left) was designed by William H. Wilcox in partnership with prominent Brooklyn architect Gamaliel King. The four-story, Second Empire building (the mansard roof hides the 4th floor attic) was the first permanent home of the Kings County Savings Bank, chartered in 1860. The building was occupied by a number of different banks for more than 120 years, finally closing as a banking institution in the early 1990s. Since 1996 the building has been occupied by the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, a non-profit organization that presents art and history exhibitions, performances, cultural events, lectures, and educational programs.

411-415 Bedford Avenue, ca. 1975. Cast iron architecture is most well known in New York City in the SoHo and a few excellent examples in Fulton Ferry and Downtown Brooklyn. Williamsburg also had a smattering of cast iron building, including most notably the Smith, Gray & Co. building on Broadway and Bedford Avenue. This pair of cast iron facades, seen here in a 1970s era photograph, are unfortunately, no longer extant. The buildings still stand but the facades are now brick, and the fenestration (the arrangement of windows) has been drastically altered.

St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church, pre-1909. The community of St. Mark's was founded in 1838 and moved into their Gothic style stone church at the corner of Bedford Avenue and South 5th Street in 1841. After six successful decades in that location the church was informed that the land on which the church sat was being taken by imminent domain for an entrance to the new Williamsburg Bridge. The church was razed after the turn of the century and the congregation moved to a location in Crown Heights on Union Street and Brooklyn Avenue.

Sparrow Show Factory 183-195 Broadway is considered one of the finest surviving cast-iron buildings in Brooklyn. Its iron was cast by the Atlantic Iron Works of Manhattan, which cast pieces for many buildings in Tribeca and Soho. The cast-iron façade remains intact and features inventive ornamentation in the form of calla lilies, stylized drapery, and wreaths on the building’s pilasters. A similar spiral floral concept can be seen on other buildings, but the use of the calla lily is considered unique. The building was likely built as a shoe dealer’s factory and warehouse. In 1937, the building became home to the Forman Family, manufacturers of chromium tableware and metal gift items. Their signage remains between the second and third floors, though the building now houses loft-style apartments. While cast-iron buildings could once be found throughout Brooklyn, the four surviving cast-iron buildings clustered along this section of Broadway are among the borough’s only survivors, and the only substantial group outside of Manhattan.

Williamsburgh Trust Company Building (later Holy Trinity Cathedral) Historic District ARCHITECT: Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell DATE: 1905-06 STYLE: Neo-Classical Completed in 1906, the Williamsburgh Trust Company Building is a monumental Neoclassical style bank building recalling Williamsburg’s industrial prosperity of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Designed by Helmle, Huberty & Hudswell, major Brooklyn architects who designed some of the borough’s most significant early-20th-century banks and park structures, it initially served as headquarters of the Williamsburgh Trust Company. It is a superlative example of the luxurious “banking temples” constructed in Manhattan and Brooklyn starting in the late 19th century, featuring classical porticos with acroteria on its two street facades, as well as a saucer dome recalling that of the Pantheon. Originally intended to stand in isolation, the building is remarkable for its four fully developed classical facades as well as its unusual facing material of white terra cotta. The building was acquired by the City of New York and from 1916 to 1958, it served as Magistrates’ Court for the Fifth District of Brooklyn. The building’s cross-shaped plan and central dome made it attractive for conversion to an Orthodox church, and in 1961, it was acquired by the Holy Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church in Exile, which renovated it to serve as its Holy Trinity Cathedral. Since then, the church has diligently and sensitively maintained the building, enabling this lavish structure to endure as one of Williamsburg’s most prominent and imposing landmarks.

Smith Building, ca. 1977. Smith-Gray, was a popular manufacturer and retailer of boys and men’s clothing in New York City. In the mid 1870s they moved into a new building on the corner of South 8th Street and Bedford Avenue, after outgrowing a number of other spaces in the Williamsburg area. That four-story, iron-fronted structure, called the Lyceum Building, was destroyed in a fire in 1888. The building that replaced the destroyed one is seen here at right. Called the Smith Building, it was designed by Peter J. Lauritzen, who would go on to construct other stores for the Smith-Gray Company. The building was demolished in the late 20th century and today the lot (and those around it) are occupied by a large apartment house.

Smith, Gray & Company Building ARCHITECT: attributed to William H. Gaynor DATE: 1870 STYLE: Cast-iron The Smith, Gray & Co. Building is an early, significantly intact, 5-story and 25-foot-wide cast-iron-fronted store-and-loft building in Brooklyn. The firm was founded by tailor Edward Smith, who began his business in 1833. This structure, constructed in 1870, is attributed to William H. Gaylor, a prominent Brooklyn architect who designed three other cast-iron-fronted structures for Smith between 1873 and 1884. This iron front was fabricated by George R. Jackson & Sons, and the builders were probably Thomas and William Lamb who, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, built all of Smith, Gray’s stores. Typical of cast iron designs in the Second Empire style, the building’s main facade features tiered upper stories with segmental-arched fenestration framed by Corinthian columns and pilasters.

The former Novelty Theatre on Driggs Avenue, 1917. The theater was demolished in 1919, with an apartment building named Novelty Court built in its place. It was there that NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico was shot in suspicious circumstances during a 1971 drug bust. Serpico, portrayed by Al Pacino in the film of the same name, was a vocal critic of the widespread corruption in the department.

99 Broadway entrance detail, ca. 1975.

109 South 6th Street, ca. 1975. This Romanesque Revival/Queen Anne building was constructed in 1891 and designed by William H. Gaylor. originally built as the Bedford Avenue Theatre, it opened in October of 1891 with a production of a musical called Jolly Surprise. The theatre became the Empire Theatre in 1893 and by 1903 its life as a theatre was over. The construction of entrance roadways for the new Williamsburg Bridge caused the entire back half of building, including the stage, to be demolished. In the 1930s the building became a warehouse for the Fruitcrest Corporation (the painted sign is seen on the side facade in this photograph). Fruitcrest was a manufacturer of jams, jellies, and fruit juices. The company later developed the popular Juicy Juice and moved out of this building, first to Long Island, then to California. After Fruitcrest vacated the building it suffered from deterioration. In 2007 it was purchased by a fitness company that completely restored the exterior. Today, the red brick and terra cotta trim and medallions are in excellent condition.

View of the Williamsburg Bridge from South 6th and Berry Streets. Berenice Abbott, April 28, 1937.

112 South 3rd Street, adjoining the southeast corner of Berry Street, showing the old Brooklyn Hospital and Dispensary. It first appears on an 1886 atlas of the City of Brooklyn. Sperr refers to it as "The Relief," probably referring to it being used, at this time, as a station of the Home Relief Bureau. May 1, 1936.

Williamsburgh Savings Banks ca. 1975 After the Greek Revival, very few purely classical buildings were erected until the World's Columbian Exposition rerouted interest in the beauties of the ancient world. This Classic building, erected in 1875, is one of the few, and must have seemed imposing to a city of brownstone, brick, and Ruskinian polychromy.

142 South 8th Street ARCHITECT: William H. Gaylor DATE: 1895 STYLE: Romanesque Revival Designed by William H. Gaylor, the Long Island Business College was built by Henry C. Wright, who founded Wright’s Business College in Williamsburg in 1873. In 1920, the college itself was sold and moved to a different Brooklyn location, and in 1922, the building reopened as Public School 166. Gaylor based the school’s design on Brooklyn’s recent public schools. The building, which combines the Romanesque Revival and Second Empire styles, and incorporates elements of other contemporary styles, features rough-faced brownstone trim, a five-part facade with a central tower and end pavilions, slate-covered mansards, and a convex roof with a square cap.

Williamsburgh Savings Bank ARCHITECT: George B. Post DATE: 1875 STYLE: Italian Renaissance An imposing building of monumental proportions, this bank with its dome and handsome lantern impresses one with its massive strength and quiet dignity. Classic Revival in style, this four story building of limestone, sandstone and marble contains a wealth of architectural detail and ornament. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank is an unusual domed structure, with many diverse architectural elements in its composition. Interior: Inspired by Renaissance models, the centrally-planned, domed banking room is a precursor to the temple banking halls which came into vogue in the period following the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. A rare intact example of a mid-nineteenth century ornamentation scheme, the banking hall features a mixture of Renaissance and Neo-Grec motifs and contains an abundance of rich materials and elaborate polychromy. Dominating the space is the soaring cast-iron dome which rises 110 feet above the banking floor and is capped by a beautifully painted vault with an unusual abstract design.