In the late 1800s, Brooklyn was emerging as and up and coming part of the city, largely due to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. There was a flurry of new construction in Brooklyn, and while much of it was industrial, there was also new residential construction as well. Louis Seitz, who was then only in his 20s, partnered with Montrose Morris, also in his 20s, to build some of the area's most imposing buildings. Seitz was rapidly becoming a successful developer and Morris was in the process of becoming an acclaimed architect.In the 1890s, Seitz and Morris partnered on three apartments in Brooklyn. The largest and most well-known of these is the Alhambra. The Imperial was the second of the three. Seitz instructed Morris to design a building with no thought as to its cost, a building which would be "handsome beyond compare." The building is on the east side of Grant Square and at the time of its construction, the area was beginning to attract a number of well-heeled residents. The building that Morris designed resembles a French chateau. It was built with elements of the Renaissance Revival style, including grand arches, Corinthian columns, and a slate mansard roof. The building's most distinguishing features are inarguably its three corner towers. The building's detailing gives it a similar appearance to the Dakota on Manhattan's West Side, and newspaper accounts from the time often compare the two. In the late twentieth century, the building sat empty and boarded-up for a number of years. Like many buildings in the area, it went into a long period of decline. In 2006, the building was renovated and is once again used for residences. Much of the building's interior has changed over the years, but the turret apartments remain largely as they were at the time of the building's construction.The building is a New York City Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Imperial Apartments, once considered one of the most imposing apartments buildings in Brooklyn, was built in 1892. It was one of three impressive apartment buildings built by developer Louis Seitz and designed by Montrose Morris. The buildings were part of a wave of new construction in Brooklyn following the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Imperial sat empty for a number of years but was renovated in 2006. It is now a New York City Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The Imperial Apartments 

This walking tour of Crown Heights history starts at a former armory and leads to apartment buildings, a 19th-early 20th c. brewery, two museums (Brooklyn Children's & Jewish Children's), and a synagogue. You'll end at street trees plus plaques along Eastern Ave. honoring the end of World War I.  

The 23rd Regiment of the New York Guard Reserve, nicknamed "Ours," served briefly in the Civil War in 1863. Their first armory in Brooklyn was built on Clermont St. in the early 1870s but proved to be too small. When the land on Bedford Ave. between Atlantic and Pacific Aves. was purchased for the site of a new armory, it held St. Bartholomew's school, a rowhouse owned by Halstead P. Fowler (one of the architects of the armory), and two farmhouses. Colonel John N. Partridge was the head of the 23rd in the 1890s. Partridge also was President of the Brooklyn City and Newtown Railroad Company. The cornerstone of the new armory on Bedford St. was laid on November 14, 1891. Construction was partly funded by a $300,000 grant from the state; the architectural firm was Fowler &amp; Hough. A fair was held that raised $70,000 to furnish the armory's interior.The building covers all but the west end of an irregularly shaped block and includes an administration building plus a drill hall. The dark red brick is accented by brownish-red Potsdam stone and terra cotta. The corner towers are circular and up to 136 feet tall; the main entrance is flanked by 70-foot-tall towers with a stone first story. The regimental motto and coat of arms ornament the main entryway arch in terra cotta; hydraulic pumps raised and lowered the metal gate. A large bronze high-relief panel on the outer wall on Bedford St. between the main entrance and Atlantic Ave. was created by sculptor J. Massey Rhind (1868-1936). It depicts life-size World War I soldiers leaving a trench and going into battle. During World War I, New York's 23rd Regiment was part of the U.S. Army's 106th Infantry Regiment. The upper corners are inscribed "1917" and "1919" and the monument is dedicated to the men of the regiment who lost their lives during World War I. The artwork was dedicated on November 11th, 1922.The armory was designed for military training and for a military club. The Council Room contains a massive fireplace that is 24 feet high. The armory building has been used for large meetings, including the 115th Annual Meeting of the Medical Society of the State of New York, held in May 1921. The large space of the drill hall has held auto shows; the first annual display of the Brooklyn Motor Vehicle Dealers' Association took place there in February 1911 and the armory was the chosen venue again in 1912. An auto trade journal in 1910 touted the armory as immense, with more floor space than Madison Square Garden; the color scheme was set as white and gold. The public was charged 25 cents admission to the first show in 1911, except for two days with special events, where ticket prices doubled. Brooklynites were said to own more cars than any American city's residents in 1910, except for Manhattan residents. Publisher William Randolph Hearst briefly leased the armory building in 1923 after the studio of his Cosmopolitan Productions company was lost in a fire.

This castle-like structure in the heart of Brooklyn served as an armory for the Twenty-Third Regiment of the New York State Militia and was built from 1891 to 1895. The brick and brownstone armory takes up much of the block between Atlantic and Pacific Avenues and became a New York City landmark in 1977 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The building has been used as a homeless shelter since the 1980s and has acquired the nickname "Castle Greyskull." The City of New York restored the structure in 2003. Alternate future uses were proposed in 2012, including use as an ice-skating rink, climbing facility, or concert hall.

Twenty-Third Regiment Armory

The 1880s brought the introduction of apartment style living to the Brooklyn middle classes, but the trend didn't reach the Crown Heights neighborhood until the 1890s. Multi-family housing had gotten a reputation for inferior living conditions as seen in tenement housing crowded with poorer residents. Architect Montrose W. Morris and developer Louis F. Seitz collaborated on The Bedfordshire and several more apartment buildings in Brooklyn. One, The Imperial, is directly next door at the corner of Pacific St. and Bedford Ave. The Imperial (1892) is one year younger than The Bedfordshire. Morris designed both the Alhambra (1889-1890) and the Renaissance (1892) on Nostrand Ave., as well as a limestone double house (1890) for financier Henry C. Hubert at 50 Prospect Park West.The first story of The Bedfordshire is faced in brownstone; a brownstone stoop leads to the central doorway. A frieze band in terra cotta supported by dwarf pilasters is labeled "BEDFORDSHIRE" above the entrance. The angled window bays with stained glass transoms are framed by three-story brick and brownstone arches on the second through fourth floors; the light-colored brick is curved at the inner edges of the arch. The fourth and fifth floors are separated by a molded crown with leafy decorations. The top (fifth) floor has six smaller arched windows. The main facade is capped by a foliate frieze and bracketed, cast metal cornice decorated with modillions. Brownstone quoins define the building's front corners. The wrought iron fencing between the sidewalk and stoop or basement windows is a later addition.One of the early residents of The Bedfordshire was Charles W. Field, who lived there by 1898. He was one of hundreds of people appointed by their local alderman as one of the Commissioners of Deeds for the City of New York in April 1898, as the former City of Brooklyn transformed into one of the five boroughs of New York City. Three of the eight flats were occupied in 1900 by tenants who listed their occupation as a capitalist, a lawyer, or a produce merchant; each was a married man with one child. One new resident of the building in 1912 was the Reverend Uriah T. Tracy.

The five-story brick building with the multistory brownstone arches at 1200 Pacific St. is The Bedfordshire, an apartment building constructed in 1891. Montrose W. Morris designed the Romanesque Revival style building which helped to house the rapidly increasing population of Brooklyn in the late nineteenth century. The Bedfordshire is part of a neighborhood of hundreds of buildings south of Atlantic Ave./ north of Eastern Parkway/ east of Bedford Ave. that was designated the Crown Heights North National Register Historic District in 2014. The building still holds ten residential units that are now condominiums.

The Bedfordshire

In the late 1800s, Brooklyn was emerging as and up and coming part of the city, largely due to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. There was a flurry of new construction in Brooklyn, and while much of it was industrial, there was also new residential construction as well. Louis Seitz, who was then only in his 20s, partnered with Montrose Morris, also in his 20s, to build some of the area's most imposing buildings. Seitz was rapidly becoming a successful developer and Morris was in the process of becoming an acclaimed architect. In the 1890s, Seitz and Morris partnered on three apartments in Brooklyn. The largest and most well-known of these is the Alhambra. The Imperial was the second of the three. Seitz instructed Morris to design a building with no thought as to its cost, a building which would be "handsome beyond compare." The building is on the east side of Grant Square and at the time of its construction, the area was beginning to attract a number of well-heeled residents. The building that Morris designed resembles a French chateau. It was built with elements of the Renaissance Revival style, including grand arches, Corinthian columns, and a slate mansard roof. The building's most distinguishing features are inarguably its three corner towers. The building's detailing gives it a similar appearance to the Dakota on Manhattan's West Side, and newspaper accounts from the time often compare the two. In the late twentieth century, the building sat empty and boarded-up for a number of years. Like many buildings in the area, it went into a long period of decline. In 2006, the building was renovated and is once again used for residences. Much of the building's interior has changed over the years, but the turret apartments remain largely as they were at the time of the building's construction. The building is a New York City Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Brewing beer in Brooklyn began in the 1850s, with German immigrants behind most of the breweries in the nineteenth century. Creation of the Ridgewood Reservoir brought a steady supply of fresh water to Brooklyn. By the 1880s, there were 35 breweries in Brooklyn, selling about $8 million annually. For the first few decades, the breweries served local neighborhoods. After refrigeration came into use, breweries started shipping beer to non-local markets. Brooklyn held 45 breweries in 1898. Breweries took a major hit when national Prohibition made alcohol illegal from 1920 to 1933. There was a legal loophole that kept at least some beer brewing going in Brooklyn - it was legal to make low-alcohol beer, so if inspectors found regular beer being brewed, the owners could claim this was beer that was in the process of being turned into the low-alcohol brew. The low point came in the mid-twentieth century when economic and crime woes reduced Brooklyn's population and led many to move out. There were no breweries left by 1977, but the first craft beer brewery opened in the Bushwick neighborhood in the 1980s. Craft breweries and the more recently introduced home brewing have made the gentrifying Brooklyn a beer-making mecca once again.The Nassau Brewing Company may have started in 1866 as Bedford Brewery under George Malcolm, a Scottish brewer. Malcolm lost the property for non-payment of taxes, and it was auctioned off in 1871 to Ferdinand Munch and Christian Goetz. The owners lost the business in 1883 for violating laws against selling beer on Sundays; William Brown bought the complex in 1884 and called it Budweiser Brewing Company of Brooklyn. The company was not related to the St. Louis Budweiser brand, who sued and forced the Brooklyn company to change its name. Nassau Brewing Company became the new name in 1898; the complex closed in 1916.The oldest part of the first building was constructed at the northwest corner of Bergen St. and Franklin Ave. (947-949 Bergen, A on map) in the mid-1860s and added onto in the 1890s; this red brick building is three stories tall along Bergen (south side) and two stories tall on the north. The simple architectural style, with its round-arched windows, is Rundbogenstil; the architect was Philip Engelhardt. The first addition, immediately to the west of A (943-945 Bergen, B), is slightly taller and once held ale vaults. By the mid-twentieth century, it held an auto body shop. The massive, brown brick addition to the west (937-941 Bergen, C) is three stories tall along Bergen and six stories to the rear. Designed by Charles Stoll, C was used for ice storage in front and a new, gravity-driven cold brewing process in the back. C has been re-labeled "NASSAU BREWING COMPANY" in white lettering facing Bergen St. The final, large addition to the west (925 Bergen, D) was designed by John Platte and built around 1885 in Romanesque Revival style. Ghost (faded) labeling remains on D's main facade from former tenants, reading "HEINZ/ 57 Varieties/ Food Products" and "Monti Moving &amp; Storage." Huge underground vaults were needed under the brewery complex (A, B, C) for aging lager beer in cold temperatures. The brewery industry used blocks of ice cut from local waterways or ponds for cooling, until refrigeration was introduced. D was built to hold artificially refrigerated storage and brewing. A few businesses occupy D now.When constructed in the mid-1880s, the rear of the surviving building on Dean St. (1024, E) was connected to the rear of the 1880s Bergen St. addition (D) by a hyphen. E was an engine house for the brewery and was originally two stories tall. In 2003, when the building was converted to apartments and studio space, a rooftop addition and a westward extension were built, including modern metal balconies. Parts of the rear of the three oldest portions of the Bergen St. building (A, B, C) were removed in 1919. The L-shaped complex (Buildings A-E) was listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places in 2014 for its architectural significance and relation to the history of the beer-brewing industry in Brooklyn.

Two buildings remain from what was once Nassau Brewing Company, just east of the elevated viaduct. One spans Bergen Street from the northwest corner with Franklin Avenue and was constructed from the corner (947-949 Bergen) to the west in four phases, from the mid-1860s to the 1880s. The second building (1024 Dean St.) was added in the 1880s, connected to the rear of the 1880s Bergen St. addition. Both buildings together formed an L shape by the 1880s. Beer brewing attracted many German immigrants to Brooklyn in the second half of the nineteenth century. Nassua Brewing Company closed in 1916. The first building (A on map) and the 1860s (B) and 1870s (C) additions along Bergen St. are vacant. The 1880s addition on Bergen St. and the Dean St. building (D and E) were rehabilitated in the 2000s to hold offices and residential condominiums.

Nassau Brewing Company

The museum's origins lie in the&nbsp;establishment of&nbsp;the Apprentices' Library in 1823, which&nbsp;served as a free library for&nbsp;children and apprentices. Two years later, a new building was constructed, whose cornerstone was laid by Marquis de Lafayette,&nbsp;the French military officer&nbsp;who fought for the Americans during the American Revolution.&nbsp;By 1843, the name of the library&nbsp;changed to the Brooklyn Institute Library. In the early 1890s, another building, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, was built with the purpose of becoming a&nbsp;general, all-purpose&nbsp;museum. One of the institute's curators suggested that a new children's museum be constructed in a nearby house that the museum bought to store its scientific collections and library books.&nbsp;The Institute also allowed the public to use the collections and books&nbsp;to conduct&nbsp;research. The new children's museum opened at the house in December&nbsp;1899. A few years later, Anna Billings Gallup was appointed curator and later became the director until she retired in 1937. Over the next several decades, the museum's reputation grew. By 1940, approximately 9 million people had visited the museum. In 1977, the museum moved into&nbsp;a new building which was later renovated in 1995. The museum&nbsp;underwent another renovation between 2002 and 2008.&nbsp;

The Brooklyn Children's Museum, founded in 1899, is one of the first museums of its kind and the only one in New York City. It's educational programs, which explore cultures, arts, science and the environment, are geared toward students from preschool to high school. It is one of the few children's museums to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is also one of the few children's museum to have its own permanent collection of man-made artifacts and natural history specimens. 

Brooklyn Children's Museum

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement was started in 1775 by Rabbi Shneur Zalman in the village of Lyady. The village was once part of the Russian Empire, but today, it sits on the border of Belarus. This subdivision of Hasidic Judaism spread rapidly throughout the Tsar’s Empire and neighboring lands. However, followers were persecuted harshly by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution&nbsp;and were fearful of the growth of the Nazis in Germany. Therefore, the movement – then led by their sixth Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn – moved to Poland, then to Latvia, and to New York in 1940. They chose a former doctor’s clinic in Brooklyn as their headquarters. This is the same building they use today.

At first, the synagogue was small and isolated. The congregation that met in the basement of the building at 770 consisted of very few members, due largely to the actions of the Nazis in Europe. In 1950, the sixth Rebbe was replaced by his son-in-law, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The seventh Rebbe encouraged outreach, unlike many other Hasidic movements, and he initiated the construction of Chabad centers – gathering places for Jewish communities - across the globe. Young families known as Shluchim managed these centers, encouraging dispersed or secular Jews to become involved in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. These centers are often exact replicas of, or closely resemble, the building at 770 Eastern Parkway; similar buildings are found in Israel, Canada, Italy, Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Australia.&nbsp;

The synagogue on 770 Eastern Parkway, Crown Heights, Brooklyn may seem unassuming when judged on its outward appearance alone. However, the apparently plain neo-Gothic style building is the headquarters of the Congregation Lubavitch of Agudas Chasidei Chabad. Lubavitch Chassidim has grown from its isolationist tendencies at the beginning of the 20th century to become one of the most globally recognized and influential Jewish movements. This growth is largely due to the efforts of their Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), a man that many in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement believe to have been, or will yet become, the Jewish Messiah.

770 Eastern Parkway (Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters)

The museum is located in a building with 50,000 square feet plus a 10,500 square foot lower level that contains a theater and other activity spaces. It was the first of its kind and has had hundreds of thousands of visitors since it opened. Prior to the building of the museum, thousands of people attended years of the Jewish Children’s Expo. The event shared the history and values of the Jewish people. As demand increased, the idea for the museum was born.

The museum, which was funded in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, provided a permanent home that uses innovative multi-media technology to share the Jewish culture. It offers hands-on exhibits that focus on Jewish holidays, biblical history, the land of Israel, contemporary Jewish life and more. It houses an art gallery, state-of-the-art computer labs, a game show studio, a craft workshop and even a miniature golf course.

The museum offers a variety of rotating exhibitions and educational programming for children in an entertaining package. Its mission is, in part, to inspire an increased interest in Jewish culture. While it is catered to elementary-age children and strives to be an educational resource for Jewish themes, the Jewish Children’s Museum welcomes people of all faiths in the hopes of increasing awareness of Jewish heritage and fostering tolerance.

The largest Jewish-themed children’s museum in the United States is the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn. It showcases Jewish history and heritage in a hands-on, interactive environment. It is open to everyone. The museum opened in 2004 and has hosted numerous celebrity visitors. The museum is dedicated to the memory of Ari Halberstam, a teenager who was gunned down on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994 in the wake of Crown Heights race riots. His mother, Devorah, was instrumental in the creation of the museum to honor her son’s legacy and his love of his own heritage. The museum is dedicated to teaching tolerance to all children so that we can live in a peaceful society.

Jewish Children's Museum

The first trees along the Eastern Parkway marked the Armistice that ended World War I. After the Armistice, local residents planted more trees honoring their fallen along Brooklyn's historic Eastern Parkway. In front of each tree was a plaque containing the soldiers name and unit. The soldiers honored had all been residents of the local community.Over the course of the following century, many of the veterans of World War I were forgotten and many of the plaques that used to line the Eastern Parkway have been stolen or vandalized. In some cases, metal runoff from the plaques were poisoning the very trees they had dedicated to the dead. Few of the original plaques remain at the by the turn of the century. In 2005 Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to restore the Eastern Parkway, along with the forgotten memorials to the fallen. In recent years, the plaques that remained are once again visible as the city has worked to remove weeds and grass that had covered some of the plaques. Some new trees have been planted to keep their memories alive, but the remains of partially destroyed plaques still dot the pathways of the Eastern Parkway.

During the 1920s, hundreds of plaques were dedicated alongside trees that were planted along Eastern Parkway. These trees and plaques each honored one Brooklyn resident who had lost his life during the Great War, known today as World War I. The plaques contained the soldiers name and information about their service. As a century has passed, many of these plaques have been stolen or destroyed and some of the trees have been removed by the city. 

Crown Heights Historical Walking Tour, Brooklyn

The Imperial Apartments

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources