Sitting in Eastern Brooklyn, Brownsville has a long history. But how did the neighborhood develop? Its story begins with a small church in East New York.

In 1844, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle printed the following prediction “THE CITY OF CHURCHES — such, in time, will be the distinctive appellation of Brooklyn.” In the ensuing decades, the incorporation of new houses of worship matched the pace of residential development and reflected the diverse ancestry of the immigrant communities who settled there. The buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries express the evolution of American church architecture, as dictated by the pride and prosperity of worshippers from Bushwick to Bay Ridge.

The pastor's house of the New Lots Dutch Reformed Church, September 8, 1963. The adjacent clapboard church was completed in 1832, while parts of the cemetery date to the 17th century. The pastor's house — variously referred to as a rectory, Sunday school, and community center — was added later in the 19th century. It was razed ahead of the construction of the present-day New Lots Family Center, completed in 1972.

New Lots Reformed Church ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1824 STYLE: Gothic Revival New Lots Reformed Church is a small rural clapboard church. Constructed during the late Federal Period and displaying Early Gothic Revival details, it is provincial in character and as a wood church of this period is architecturally unique in New York City. Volunteer workers and well wishers, from far and near, came to help build the church and through their united efforts, this building was erected for a sum reported to have been about $35. The building, with timbers notched, jointed, and secured by pegs, stands today in its original form, and is a tribute to the soundness of its construction and the quality of its craftsmanship.

This is a collection of the smaller burial places that dot the landscape of the five boroughs. They are family burial plots and church graveyards, some full of 300-year-old grave markers and some with no monuments at all, some squished between storefronts and major thoroughfares and others hidden behind homes and walls. While most remain extant (if not always accessible), some have been lost to time and development.

"New Lots Reformed Church and Parsonage, showing side and rear of church and cemetery, as seen west from Jerome Street."

"Postcard showing the New Lots Reformed Church and cemetery on New Lots Road (now New Lots Avenue) and Schenck Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York." Constructed in 1823-1824, the wood-frame clapboard structure sits on a rough stone base. The community of New Lots was a large and humble farming community in the early part of the 19th century. The wood used for construction was cut from a vast number of oak trees that fell during a hurricane in the early 1820s. Construction of the structure was undertaken by the local community using notched and joined timber, and wooden pegs instead of nails. Similar to most churches built in the city before the 1840s, the New Lots Church has an attached cemetery. The cemetery is separated into two sections. The older section dates to the 18th century and includes graves of the Van Siclen family who donated the land for the church. The newer section was established in 1841 and continues to be an active place of burial today. It is one of only a few private cemeteries left in the entire city.

A collection of churches across New York City from the New York Public Library.

Between 1954 and 1957, the Municipal Art Society surveyed historic buildings in all five boroughs to create a database of potential landmarks to preserve. Local residents and MAS staff compiled individual sheets devoted to about 200 buildings. Each sheet outlined the building’s date, location, and style and provided a description and a small photograph. This is the list of Brooklyn buildings.