Last week’s guest post was so well received, we thought we’d try it again this week. Today’s post is from Joseph Ditta, BHS friend, Reference Librarian at the New-York Historical Society, and born-and-bred Brooklynite. Joseph has a great new book out through Arcadia Publishing called Then & Now: Gravesend, Brooklyn. The book is packed with cool photographs comparing the same locations in the 19th and early 20th Centuries with modern day. It is really fun to see what familiar buildings looked like in their past, the way that people have attempted to modernize buildings (both to good and bad effect), as well as to realize just how well history blends in to the present and is really all around us. But enough from me; Joseph has been kind enough to walk us through one of these comparisons, so without further delay:
Take any subway bound for Coney Island. Hop off a few stops before the end of the line. You’re in Gravesend, the neighborhood descended from the 17th-century town by that name the City of Brooklyn annexed in 1894. Walk around. Look around. Chances are you’ll come across a scene like this:
Gravesend Neck Road, 2009, courtesy of Joseph Ditta
I know what you’re thinking. “This is Gravesend? What’s the big deal? Can we go home now?” No. Sorry. Not until you see why I’ve brought you here. I promise it won’t take long.
See that girl in the photo? She’s walking east along the south side of Gravesend Neck Road, probably on her way home from school. We can only guess her thoughts are on her homework, but it’s a safe bet they are not on the white house behind her at number 66. She must pass it every day without even noticing it. Why would she? It’s a nondescript building on an unremarkable street in southern Brooklyn. Or is it?
Suppose we pluck that girl out of 2009 and set her down on the same spot in 1879? Would she recognize this stretch of her daily route 130 years before it became her daily route? Here’s how it looked:
Gravesend Neck Road, 1879, courtesy of Joseph Ditta
Amazingly, the white house was standing, though configured a bit differently in its guise of combined post office, grocery, flour, and feed store. The men lolling on the porch were there for no reason more pressing than to share reports of crops and home, of politics and the world beyond. Back then, news spread faster by word of mouth than it did by letter. It seems 66 Gravesend Neck Road was an important social destination for this late-19th-century community.
I should let our schoolgirl continue on her 21st-century way (with my thanks for being such a good, if unwitting, sport). You’d probably like to return to the present, too. Feel free, but take with you the idea that even the most humdrum sites we encounter in our busy lives might once have held significance the way this stucco-covered house was once at the center of Gravesend life. Brooklyn is filled with similar stories waiting to be recovered. Just look around.
The images presented here appear in Joseph Ditta’s new book, Then & Now: Gravesend, Brooklyn (Arcadia Publishing, 2009).
If you want to read more, you can come in to the BHS library to read the full book, or purchase it in our Amazon Store. You can also become a fan of the book on Facebook.
I grew up on this street a couple of houses down.
I’ve already gotten and read this book, and, as Joseph Ditta so ably demonstrates above, it’s a very interesting read. I’m not certain if Arcadia is honing its approach to these books or if Mr. Ditta is an usually talented organizer/writer (or, maybe, a combination of both), but this book in the Then and Now series is about the best I’ve seen.
I grew up 2 doors down and my parents still live there. As a kid we always thought that house was haunted. But the owners where just dirty! I remember that someone died at this house. They had a truck that went on fire and the person was still in it.
I lived in the red brick house with the white garage door. Good memories!!!
i lived in corso court and went to ps 95 -97 22-(boody jr. hs and was in the first class when lafayette hs opened .
If pictues say a thousand words, two photos of the same spot over time can speak volumes beyond. In his Gravesend book Joseph Ditta not only documents a particular spot but sends a larger message as well. With so much recent development in the area, the architectural heritage of Gravesend is being eroded to the point where one can barely recognize the place. As a resident of nearby Kensington I can only hope that lessons can be drawn: homes and small institutions from the Victorian era and earlier are worth preserving, and community members need to educate themselves and brace themselves to preserve what they cherish.
Hi I am doing a personal quest for some information
on my family background my grandmother was married to a Gerard Ryder who was the fourth son
of Gerarad and Harreit Ryder she Harriet was Stillwell
my grandmother was MacKeever and her mother was
a Skidmore it is the Mackeever and Skidmore part of
the family I am trying to find some information about
it is very skechy when my grandparents married in1906 all of the infromation was in a Town all thatburned down. I am trying to find my grandmother’s more information about my grandmother’s parents that I know little about. If you help me out that would be great my great father’s name was Samuel T.J. McKeever. if you couldhelp me out with my great-great parents Skidmore from Jamacia New York that would be helpfful as well.I know this is a lot I have given you.
Hi I am looking for informaition about my Great-Great
parents there names were Henrietta Skidmore/
MeKeever ans Harriet Stillwell/ Ryder both married
second or third Cousins.The only information I have
on Grand-Mothers family the Skidmores is my Grand-
Morthers family was from Jamicia Long Island and they
were landed Espoisapailans, my other set of Great-
Great-parents the Stillwells and the Ryders are decended from Debra Moody that much I do kbnow.
The real person I want to find out about os my grand-mother’s Father Samuel T.J. McKeever of whitch I know little or nothing about since my grandmother did not talk much about him when she was alive. She died when she was 98 years of age.Oh by the way you folks have My Great=Great-Grandfathers Police uniforms in your Musueam he
jpined the force when it was the Key-Stones and also when Brooklyn was incoerperated his name was Gerard W. Washington Ryder his son was my Grandfather and my Uncle wasalso named after him as well.
Hi Cynthia,
Please check out the BHS Library’s website to find out how you can conduct research here: http://www.brooklynhistory.org/library/general.html
Best,
Sady
hi joe I just purchased your book greavesend today this phone of this house 66 my aunt and cousins lived in this house in the 60s and 70s. very interesting wire me back
mike
Hi, Joe,
One Maggie Winchester with whom you recently did some business, and whom I know, dropped me a line informing me of your having received a book of mine…a collection of short stories +. (NOSEBLEEDS FROM WASHINGTON HEIGHTS)
I was, of course, delighted to learn that the book is “alive and well”…even if in the throes of being donated!
Hope you get to read a few of the tales therein.
Thanks for not summarily discarding the epic!
Best,
Gary Alexander (Azerier)
Hi Mike. Sorry, I’m only now seeing your post from back in January! It’s amazing that your relatives lived in this house. You must have been inside. What was it like?
Hi Gary. Unfortunately, the donation of books to the New-York Historical Society that included your title, NOSEBLEEDS FROM WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, fell through, so we do not have a copy, sadly.
[...] Historian Joseph Ditta: The “forgotten” development was called “Manhattan Terrace.” At N-YHS we’ve got a circa 1902 booklet put out by the Manhattan Terrace Improvement Company that calls Avenue J “Jarvis Road,” though I don’t believe that name was ever official. [...]
I do trust all the concepts you have introduced to your post. They are really convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too quick for starters. May you please prolong them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.
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