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Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Bay Ridge Mystery

Written by Cassie Mey on April 4th, 2012

Michael Bergen House Bay Ridge Shore Front, ca.1910, v1981.15.99; Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From the desk of Cassie Mey, Project CHART intern: While scanning parts of BHS’s Photography Collection, I have come across images that are difficult to historically verify, and this one in particular remains an unsolved mystery. This image from the Ralph Irving Lloyd Lantern Slides shows a house roof that clearly reads, “Steins Hotel and Bathing Pavilion [sic].” Yet the handwritten information on the undated slide (ca. 1910) names this as the “Michael Bergen House,” on the “Bay Ridge Shore Front.”

While searching for the Stein Hotel, I found the name of a Bay Ridge hotel proprietor, John P. Stein, through his obituary on June 6, 1902 in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle online. Further searching for the “Steins Hotel and Bathing Pavilion” in the Eagle did not retrieve any results for that particular name, but did lead me to a hotel listed by the name: Brooklyn Beach Park Hotel and Bathing Pavilion [sic]. A June 18, 1899 ad credits, “John P. Stein, Proprietor, Foot of 58^th street, on New York Bay, Brooklyn.”

As the “only summer resort on New York Bay,” this hotel promised such turn of the century decadences as, “1000 bath houses, 1000 feet sandy bathing beach, springboards, floats, showerbaths, alcohol, perfume, salt and oil rubbing, bathing at night by electric light; excursions in launches from Stein’s South Pier around the Bay in fast Naphtha Launches.”

I also found a Michael Bergen Estate lot map [1889?] in the Bay Ridge area, but this didn’t show specific evidence that Michael Bergen owned the shoreline house property between 58^th street and 59^th street. Adding these clues together, I can’t confirm the exact relationships between the Michael Bergen House in the lantern slide, the Steins Hotel and Bathing Pavilion [sic], and the Brooklyn Beach Park Hotel, but a connection seems to be there. Even though this historic mystery is not resolved, along the way it was fascinating to discover this turn of the century “New York Bay” summer resort in Bay Ridge.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Hidden Collections, Library & Archives | 2 Responses »
Tags: Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Hotel, Photo of the Week, Photographs, photography, Photography Collection

Map of the Month – April 2012

Written by Carolyn on April 3rd, 2012

This month’s featured map dates from 1828 and features the “country thirty miles round the city of New York,” including all five boroughs as well as portions of New Jersey, Long Island, and Connecticut. Drawn by J.H. Eddy of New York, this map is a new edition with edits by William Hooker and E. Blunt. While the map shows traditional elements such as roads, topography, and names of landowners (including the Lefferts, Cortelyou, and Vanderveer families in Brooklyn), it also shows more unusual things like taverns. The map appears to have been dedicated to Dewitt Clinton, Governor of New York, who died the same year the map was published.

Map of the country thirty miles round the city of New York. John H. Eddy. 1828. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Click here to see detail of the Brooklyn section of the map.

Interested in seeing more maps? You can view the BHS map collection anytime during the library’s open hours, Wed.-Fri., from 1-5 p.m. No appointment is necessary to view most maps. Our cataloged maps can be searched through BobCat and our map inventories through Emma.

Map of the Month is part of a project to catalog our map holdings, funded through the Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Collections program. If you would like to help us do more of this kind of work with our exciting map holdings, donate here.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Hidden Collections, Library & Archives | No Responses »
Tags: Map of the Month, maps

Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Apothecary Shop

Written by Susan Gamble on March 28th, 2012

Apothecary Shop owned by Case & Terry, ca. 1923, v1974.1.261; Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks, V1974.001, Brooklyn Historical Society.

This photograph was taken by Eugene Armbruster circa 1923. Armbruster was born in Baden-Baden Germany in 1865. In 1882 he immigrated to New York City and lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn until his death in 1943. Around the time of his retirement from the H. Henkel Cigar Box Manufacturing Company in 1920, Armbruster became an amateur photographer and local historian writing for the “Old-Timer” column of the Brooklyn Eagle and publishing pamphlets about local history. Armbruster illustrated these pamphlets with his personal line drawings, photographs, and copy photographs. In 1940, Armbruster developed cataracts which forced him to give up his favorite hobby and on September 21, 1943 he died at age seventy-eight.

This photograph is one example from the many in the Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks housed at Brooklyn Historical Society. The collection contains over 4,000 black-and-white photographic prints taken by Armbruster. The photographs document elements of many Brooklyn neighborhoods, circa 1920 to 1930, including views of streets, ferry terminals, church buildings, schools, wooden-frame houses, and elevated train track and stations.

According to a note written by Armbruster on the verso of this photograph, this image shows an apothecary shop that was located on the southside of Church Avenue. The shop was once the rear extension of the Old Waldron House before it was converted into a grocery store in 1873. The store was turned it into an apothecary/ tinsmith shop in 1920. The building was torn down in February 1925.

Interested in seeing more photos 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’s Othmer Library Wed-Fri, 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Hidden Collections, Library & Archives | 2 Responses »
Tags: Brooklyn, Eugene L. Armbruster, Photo of the Week, Photographs, photography, Photography Collection

Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Ebbets Field Rotunda

Written by Michael Satalof on March 21st, 2012

Ebbets Field rotunda, ca. 1950, v1991.11.16.1; Harry Kalmus papers and photographs; Brooklyn Historical Society.

As spring awakens, so does baseball. This photograph comes from the Harry Kalmus collection and shows the rotunda entrance of Ebbets Field, the majestic Flatbush home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It appears to be a slow business day for the snack booth outside the ballpark. Perhaps it is still morning and the stadium crew is preparing for game day behind the closed gates. Seasoned Brooklynites may recall being able to enter the rotunda through one of twelve turnstiles. The interior of the rotunda featured a chandelier with twelve baseball bats holding twelve baseball lamps. The Dodgers have long since left Flatbush and Ebbets Field has been replaced by a housing complex, but the Dodgers and the legacy of Ebbets Field live on in BHS’s current exhibition Home Base: Memories of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field on view through April 1, 2012.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Exhibitions, Library & Archives | 2 Responses »
Tags: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Dodgers, Dodgers, Ebbets Field, Harry Kalmus, Photo of the Week, Photographs, photography, Photography Collection

Mapping Weeksville

Written by Carolyn on March 16th, 2012

Recently, BHS staff had the privilege of touring the historic Hunterfly Road Houses at the Weeksville Heritage Center (WHC) in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The houses are original structures dating from the 1840s to the 1880s, and offer an intimate look into the lives of African Americans in Brooklyn. Founded by James Weeks in 1838, Weeksville was a free African American community with an independent infrastructure, including schools, an orphanage, churches, and newspapers.

Below are some images that I took during our visit to WHC:

Hunterfly Road Houses at Weeksville Heritage Center.

After visiting WHC, I was inspired to see if Weeksville was represented in the BHS Map Collection. In particular, I was curious to see if Weeksville was shown on 19th century maps of Brooklyn. The results were interesting; although I did find Weeksville represented on a handful of maps, the majority did not show the community. The reason for this omission is not clear from the maps themselves, and is open to interpretation.

First, an example from 1856 that shows some of the infrastructure of Weeksville, although the map does not actually have the name Weeksville on it. The community was located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and its modern-day boundaries are roughly Atlantic Ave., Kingston Ave., St. John’s Place, and Ralph Ave. On the following map, you will see the former site of Berean Baptist Church as well as “P. Col. S. No. 2,” which stands for “Public Colored School No. 2.”

Detail from: Map of the city of Brooklyn : being the former cities of Brooklyn & Williamsburgh and the town of Bushwick. Matthew Dripps. 1856. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Next, an example from 1849 that says Weeksville. Unfortunately, the map was dissected and mounted on linen, and “Weeksville” is on the dissection line.

Detail from: Sidney's map of twelve miles around New York : with the names of property holders, &c. J.C. Sidney. 1849. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

The final example is from a map of the area around New York City, from 1852:

Detail from: Map of the country thirty three miles around the city of New York. J.H. Colton. 1852. Brooklyn Historical Society Map Collection.

Visiting WHC was an amazing experience, and if you’d like to learn more about the vibrant history of Weeksville, visit the WHC website. You can also read more about In Pursuit of Freedom, BHS’ partnership with WHC and the Irondale Ensemble Project, on the BHS website.

Posted in Brooklyn Past & Present, Hidden Collections, Library & Archives | No Responses »
Tags: African Americans, Bedford-Stuyvesant, maps, Weeksville

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