“The Beeches” 2nd Avenue and 72nd Street, Bay Ridge, ca. 1910, v1981.15.66; Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides, v1981.015; Brooklyn Historical Society.

This week’s photo brings us once again to the work of Ralph Irving Lloyd. Lloyd’s lantern slides of Brooklyn give us a real sense of how  much the borough has changed in the last one hundred years. With a quick search using Google Maps Street View one can see that the Bay Ridge neighborhood of the photograph is no longer the palatial hideaway it once was. Today, Bay Ridge is a bustling urban community with just as many cars now as there were trees back then.  The home to Brooklynites of many different ethnicities, it is also a much more diverse neighborhood than it was when Lloyd captured this image.   If you are interested in a more comprehensive history of Bay Ridge or any other neighborhood in Brooklyn visit our online store and browse through our Neighborhood History Guides.

Interested in seeing more photographs from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery  which includes a selection of  our images.  To search our entire collection of images, visit BHS Othmer Library Wed-Fri 1:00-5:00 p.m.