South Brooklyn Railway at Gravesend and Ditmas Avenues, October 21, 1915.

The building that housed the Ditmas Cafe at 759 Gravesend Avenue still stands, and the ground floor space is still occupied by a cafe and coffee shop. In 1933 Gravesend Avenue was renamed McDonald Avenue. One source suggests the street was renamed for a Brooklyn Alderman who had died suddenly from choking on a chicken bone. Further investigation reveals that the man, John R. McDonald, (who actually died a few weeks after swallowing the bone in 1932) was, in fact, the chief clerk of the Surrogates Court of King's County.

The street-level trolley seen at left, running along Gravesend Avenue is the Prospect Park and Coney Island line, which was established in 1875 as a steam railroad. The third such railroad constructed to Coney Island, it initially ran between 9th Avenue and 20th Street in Park Slope to the present Shell Road and Avenue X. Built by Andrew Culver, the railway transported visitors to the resort Culver developed near present-day West 8th Street. His complex included a hotel, restaurants, amusements, pavilions, and bathhouses, a complete experience for revelers. In 1899 the line was electrified and converted into trolley service. Though the elevated station of the BMT (now IND) Culver Line at this intersection opened in 1919, the trolley service remained operational until 1956.

When pictured here in 1915, the trolley ran on a private right of way in the middle of Gravesend Avenue, not on the pavement. Photographs of this line in the 1930s seem to depict a fully paved street, so it is unknown when the dirt path in the middle of the street was filled in with pavement.