Boys Club, ca. 1910, V1981.284.51; Emmanuel House lantern slides, V1981.284; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Here are a group of young boys from the Emmanuel House, circa 1910.  This image titled “Boys Club” comes from the Emmanuel House lantern slides collection. The Emmanuel House was located at 131 Steuben Street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. As a civic center and place of outreach run by the Young Men’s League of the Emmanuel Baptist Church, the Emmanuel House offered Sunday school, Kindergarten, and recreational classes to children of the church and neighborhood. Emmanuel House was demolished in the mid-20th century during an expansion of the neighboring Pratt Institute, at which time outreach and recreational activities were resumed at the Emmanuel Baptist Church. The recreational activities varied from sewing classes for girls and camping trips for boys to  Avon, New Jersey.  There was also a gymnasium at the Emmanuel House and sometimes they would host gymnasium exhibitions.

Some of the boys here look like they are getting ready to go out on the baseball field, with baseball equipment, gloves and gear in tow. Appropriate for the spring training that is currently under way, getting ready for the 2013 Major League Baseball season to begin on March 31!

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.

Where the Old Woodpoint Boulevard stops, ca. 1905, V1981.15.115; Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides, V1981.15; Brooklyn Historical Society.

This photograph depicts the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn around 1905.  The photographer titled it “Where the Old Woodpoint Boulevard stops.” But in researching more, I realize it is actually Woodpoint Road!  The photographer, Dr. Ralph Irving Lloyd, mistakenly labeled it Boulevard, but in fact it has been referred to as “Old Woodpoint Road” or simply Woodpoint Road in several places (including Forgotten NY) going back to the 19^th century.  Woodpoint was one of the earliest roads in the area of Bushwick, dating back to the 1630s. Back then, the road was much longer and used to zigzag its way through Greenpoint and Williamsburg until Neziah Bliss developed the area. In Bliss’s 1876  obituary he is given credit for furthering Brooklyn’s growth and development and was especially praised for making Greenpoint a destination by connecting the streets of Greenpoint to Williamsburg.  Old Woodpoint Road was also mentioned in the early Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper more than a few times. One article on paving Woodpoint Road, describes the road as “ancient” in 1894!  Today, Woodpoint Road is just a four-block strip between Frost Street and Maspeth Avenue.

According to the Encyclopedia of New York City by Kenneth T. Jackson, the neighborhood of Bushwick was first secured from the local Lenape people, when the Dutch West India Company secured a deed from them in 1638. Peter Stuyvesant then chartered the area in 1661, naming it “Boswijck,” meaning “little town in the woods” or Heavy Woods” in 17^th century Dutch. This chartered area included the modern day Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint, the three neighborhoods that Woodpoint Road use to go through.

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.

Workers Buying Lunch From a Food Truck, ca. 1965, v1988.37.39; The Anthony M. Costanzo Brooklyn Navy Yard collection, ARC.023; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Today gourmet food trucks can be found in every major U.S. city, but the initial concept of the food truck and “mobile kitchens” have been around since the 1860s. It came as a part of the westward migration which helped in defining the U.S. as a pioneering country. The first transportable meals came from the American West and chuck wagons. The invention of the chuck wagon is attributed to the Texas Ranger, Charles Goodnight. He realized that having a mobile kitchen would make it easier when feeding hungry cattlemen.  On the East Coast this same concept became known as the lunch wagons, which later on become diners.

The humbler beginnings of these mobile eateries have been elevated to a nationwide sensation, even spurring a TV show.  There was also a recent episode on the History Channel which delves into the origins of the food truck in America.

The image above depicts Brooklyn Navy Yard workers buying lunch at the Mobile Canteen lunch truck, most likely a quick lunch option for the workers on a busy schedule while also being a suitable and affordable alternative to bringing their own lunch.

This image comes from the The Anthony M. Costanzo Brooklyn Navy Yard collection, which was donated to Brooklyn Historical Society in 1987. Anthony Costanzo was employed by the Navy as a Public Information Officer for the U.S. Department of the Navy at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in its declining years of the 1960s. He held this position until the decommissioning of the Navy Yard in 1966.

Readers might also be interested in the Lunch Hour exhibit ongoing at New York Public Library and Food Truck Rally at Prospect Park.

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.