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.

“Clermont Avenue, south from Lafayette Avenue, showing St. John's Roman Catholic Chapel (white building) and the Church of the Messiah (cone-shaped Steeple). June 21, 1941.” Today, St. John’s is the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, named for the first Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn. In 1868, Loughlin and the diocese of Brooklyn purchased land on Clermont Avenue with the intention of building a massive cathedral. He was ultimately unable to finance the project, but did build the Bishop’s residence at the northeast corner of Clermont and Greene Avenues. The Church of the Messiah was razed after a five-alarm fire in February 1969. The distinctive “beehive” steeple was added after a previous fire in 1910 destroyed the original steeple and belfry.

The 19th century saw Fort Greene develop from farmland held by a few families to a residential neighborhood, populated by a mix of Brooklyn’s working, merchant, and upper classes. Today, much of the neighborhood has been well preserved, including several blocks of brownstone and rowhouse architecture, churches, parkland, and civic institutions dating to the 19th century. Even in areas transformed by postwar urban renewal and commercial development traces of an earlier era remain.