bedstuy1923.jpg
This photo of Bedford Stuyvesant from 1923 looks like a movie set. Where are all the people? The local Musicians union was housed in this lovely wooden house at the corner of Lexington and Ralph Avenues, though their jam sessions must have been rudely interrupted by the rumbling of the elevated BMT subway line.
Photo from The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn by Kenneth T. Jackson and John B. Manbeck.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. My goodness I live right around the corner
    from the this site of where the picture was taken….and Thanks you for posting this pic. I always wondered what old Bed-Stuy once looked like, now I know!

  2. Mr. B,
    Why don’t you start a campaign to lobby NYC to build new buildings (within brownstone brooklyn) with the similar style of the “brownstone architecture”? It is done in other cities, so why can’t it be done in NY?

  3. Mr.B,

    I’ve enjoyed all of the historic tidbits that you have been posting lately. Please continue. They are a pleasing alternative to all of the attention given to new construction.

    Hopefully you will one day be able to post a least one thread per day that pertain to local history, or architecture, or an aspect of old house living. That would be great.

    Easier said than done, I know.

  4. just a point of history…if this was indeed 1923, then it is likely the train was actually the BRT and may not have been running at all, as the BRT faced severe troubles and was in receivership in 1923…but who knows.

    could be the reason not too many people around