BOERUM HILL TIMEWARP! (1922 vs. 2018)
Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes.
The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations.
Do you know the history of YOUR house?
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It’s always a blast to compare old photographs of Brooklyn streets with what is there now. Often the old buildings, street lamps, and flagstone sidewalks are long gone, but sometimes you are discover a treat that makes the journey worthwhile.
With a little help from the internet it’s easy to make these comparisons and then to even bring the past back to life.
Using the Old NYC app, which allows you to search a map of the city to find locations where old New York City pictures were taken (and are stored at the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections), you can search for any address within the five boroughs. With some luck you might find an actual picture of the building or location you are looking for.
With our case, we were looking for street addresses on Atlantic Avenue. Searching the database, we found 336 Atlantic Avenue. The picture was described as “336 Atlantic Ave., south side, west of Hoyt Street,” and this particular photograph had a little more information than you usually get on this site – information on the building’s conveyance from one owner to the next, likely around 1922.
The caption at the library’s site further notes that the photograph showed “a home bought by Mrs. Pruize from Samuel J. Krooks of No. 421 East 11th Street.”
Interesting, right!?
So, next we went to Google and did a search of that address to get a good street view image that we could compare the old photograph to – and we came up with this:
While the building looks roughly the same, the stunning contrast comes from the life around the location, which makes for a good comparison between 1922 and 2016.
With a little cutting and pasting, we were able to place the old picture over the over the new one and we came up with this:
Try it!
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Brownstone Detectives is an historic property research agency. Our mission is to document and save the histories of our clients’ homes. From our research, we produce our celebrated House History Books and House History Reports. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
