New York, NY - Urban Archive

South of Union Square

Story

Downtown Brooklyn Before MetroTech

The MetroTech Center is a large business and industrial hub in Downtown Brooklyn. Construction began in 1992, leading to the demolition of more than 100 houses and 50 businesses. Here, you can see what the streets looked like before MetroTech.

By

Urban Archive

1

304 Bridge Street

304 Bridge Street

West side of Bridge Street between Myrtle Avenue and Johnson Street, October 4, 1959. No 304 is third from left.

2

87 Johnson Street

87 Johnson Street

Wood-frame house at No. 87 Johnson Street, between Jay and Bridge Streets, October 4, 1959.

3

85 Johnson Street

85 Johnson Street

Luncheonette at the northeast corner of Jay and Johnson Streets, July 19, 1959.

4

310 Bridge Street

310 Bridge Street

L. Sisskind Co. Glass and Glazing, 310 Bridge Street, July 26, 1959.

5

290 Bridge Street

290 Bridge Street

Abandoned wood-frame dwellings at the corner of Bridge and Johnson Streets, July 26, 1959.

6

24 Lawrence Street

24 Lawrence Street

This two-story brick structure, long-since razed for the MetroTech development, sat the southwest corner of Lawrence and Tillary streets, a site formerly occupied by a series of churches from the 1830s to the 1890s.

7

30-34 Lawrence Street

30-34 Lawrence Street

"Sippy's Trucking" garage at 30-34 Lawrence Street (far left), July 26, 1959.

8

33 Lawrence Street

33 Lawrence Street

Boarded-up wood-frame houses on the east side of Lawrence Street, July 19, 1959. At far left is P.S. 5, which would become the George Westinghouse Vocational and Technical High School in 1963.

9

36 Lawrence Street

36 Lawrence Street

Dilapidated wood-frame houses on Lawrence Street, July 26, 1959. Photographer John D. Morrell's vantage point is roughly at the southwestern corner of the George Westinghouse Jr. High School (P.S. 5).

10

97 Johnson Street

97 Johnson Street

Abandoned buildings on the north side of Johnson Street, between Jay and Lawrence Streets, July 19, 1959. No. 97 is the tallest, at center.

11

93-97 Johnson Street

93-97 Johnson Street

Wood-frame houses on Johnson Street, July 19, 1959.

12

291 Jay Street

291 Jay Street

Abandoned wood-frame dwellings on Jay Street, between Johnson and Tillary Streets, July 19, 1959. The buildings were razed ahead of the 1962 construction of the New York City College of Technology's Klitgord Building, which was itself demolished in 2013. A new academic center designed by Perkins Eastman is presently under construction.

13

285 Jay Street

285 Jay Street

Jay Street between Johnson and Tillary Streets, July 19, 1959. No. 285 Jay Street (center, with three stone arches on the ground floor) housed a veterinary practice where, in 1901, a veterinary surgereon was fined $250 dollars for cruelty to animals.

14

303 Pearl Street

303 Pearl Street

No. 303 Pearl Street, on the east side of Pearl St. between Johnson and Tillary Streets, July 19, 1959. Today, Pearl Street no longer exists in much of Downtown Brooklyn, due to the development of MetroTech Center.

15

Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church

Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church

The Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest African American congregation in the Brooklyn and Long Island area, with origins dating to 1766. In 1817 The congregation formed a new church called the African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church (AWME), located near High and Jay Streets. In 1854 the growing AWME Church purchased a building previously occupied by the First Congregational Church at 309 Bridge Street. Today the building is owned and operated by NYU.

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