John Jay Pierrepont Home, 1879, v1986.66.70; John Jay Pierrepont photograph collection, ARC.197; Brooklyn Historical Society.

The next time you drive on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) through Brooklyn Heights, imagine what it looked like before there was a BQE. This photograph was taken by John Jay Pierrepont, son of Henry Evelyn and Anna Maria Pierrepont. John and his brother (Henry Evelyn II) lived in Brooklyn Heights and took over Pierrepont Stores, the family’s shipping storage business along the Brooklyn waterfront. In 1879 when this photograph was taken, it would have been very convenient for the brothers to descend the stairs from the backyard of 1 Pierrepont Place, where John resided, toward the offices of the Pierrepont Stores.

Many of the properties along Pierrepont Place enjoyed this aesthetically pleasing and direct route to the water until the BQE was built at the proposal of Robert Moses. After a grueling, public debate, the twentieth-century residents of Brooklyn Heights were able to strike a compromise that eliminated the backyards on Pierrepont Place and installed the Brooklyn Heights Promenade to accommodate the BQE running below instead of criss-crossing the historic neighborhood.

Incidentally, John Jay was also an amateur photographer who chronicled the progress being made on the Brooklyn Bridge and many other waterfront scenes.  He was the treasurer for the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society) and a member of the Committee on Brooklyn History.

Good Humor Ice Cream, ca. 1950, v1991.11.17.2; Harry Kalmus papers and photographs, ARC.046; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From the desk of BHS’s Photo Archivist, Julie May: I don’t have specific memories of the Good Humor Ice Cream truck coming to either the suburban neighborhood of my childhood in Pennsylvania or the urban neighborhood of my adulthood in Brooklyn.  However, it’s important to point out that Good Humor became very popular in the 1920s and hit its peak in the 1950s when this photograph was taken by Harry Kalmus. While this scene is likely somewhere in or near Kings County, it could have been taken anywhere as Good Humor trucks numbered in the thousands and were franchised from New York to California. And although some of us may not be able to associate green lawns, distant houses and huge dogs with our own summers, I think it’s fair to say a lot of us remember running up to the ice cream truck on a hot summer day and soon finding the drips of ice cream going down the arm holding the popsicle, fudgsicle, rocket popsicle, or chocolate éclair on a stick. On the other hand, perhaps we don’t need any reminder as many of us are trying desperately to cool ourselves in New York City right this very minute and finding a ton of ice cream, juice, and food trucks all over New York City. While I sit inside BHS’s air-conditioned library, I cling to an even more important memory this photograph calls up for me:  I shared the majority of my popsicles – delivered by the ice cream truck or my Mom’s station wagon — with my dog, Tobi, a stunning, svelte, and sweet Airedale Terrier who also suffered in the heat of the summer while waiting for the ice cream truck to drive by.