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Brooklyn is the largest of NYC's five boroughs, and is&nbsp;home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If it were still an independent city, it would be the 4th largest in the United States.&nbsp;

Brooklyn's oldest public building, Brooklyn Borough Hall holds the borough's civic offices.

On top of the copper shingles of the cupola is a bronze statue of Justice. The statue was part of the building's original plan but was not par of the building until renovations in 1988.

Want to learn more about the history of the city? Consider this book from former chief curator of the Brooklyn Historical Society-click the link below to learn more from Temple University Press. 

NYC Citywide Administrative Services website

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Brooklyn: An Illustrated History by Ellen Snyder-Grenier

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Built between 1846 and 1851, this building served as city hall for the formerly independent city of Brooklyn until 1898. In that year, the cities of Brooklyn and New York City agreed to a merger and this building later became known as "Brooklyn Borough Hall." Three years prior to that merger, the building was damaged when a fire in a waste receptacle spread throughout the upper floors. The fire damaged the chamber room (a court room today) and destroyed the building's original cupola. Today, the building hosts regular exhibitions of art and history in the rotunda-a beautiful two-story public space that has been completely restored. Visitors to the building should be sure to see the courtroom which was designed in 1903 and features carved wood paneling and a domed ceiling. 

Brooklyn Borough Hall

This short walk through downtown Brooklyn includes iconic landmarks such as the Brooklyn War Memorial, Abolitionist Place, Brooklyn Borough Hall, and several other landmark buildings and historical markers. The tour also stops at the New York Transit Museum and the Brooklyn Historical Society where visitors to the city should plan on spending several hours to experience world-class exhibits. The tour concludes at BRIC which offers free performances and art exhibitions.

Downtown Brooklyn Walking Tour

Test Tour

The first fire company in Brooklyn was chartered in 1772 to serve the roughly 300 residents in the Village of Brooklyn. Six firemen were appointed to serve for one year with no salary; two were named William Boerum and John Middagh. The Village bought its first fire engine in 1785 from New York City; it was essentially a wooden box holding a 180-gallon water tank that the firemen would pull by a rope. There was no hose, but a nozzle could shoot up to 60 feet. The wagon held 24 leather buckets so that bystanders could pitch in to help put out the fire. The fire company purchased a new fire engine in 1793. Engine Company No. 2 was formed in 1797 in Brooklyn Heights. By 1818, the force of 30 built a firehouse and bought a truck. The Fire Department's first annual parade took place on July 4, 1826. A paid firefighting force was established in Brooklyn in 1869.The architect of the Old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters building was Frank Freeman. The building was made of granite with red sandstone trim and dark brown Roman brick facing with terra cotta details. The red tile roof was trimmed in copper. The large archway at street level allowed for the entrance and exit of fire engines. The tall tower served as a watchpoint for spotting fires. Freeman also designed the Hotel Margaret, the Herman Behr Mansion in Brooklyn Heights, and the Eagle Warehouse in DUMBO.Once Brooklyn became a borough in the City of New York on January 1, 1898, the former Brooklyn Fire Department Headquarters became part of the consolidated fire department for all five boroughs, the Fire Department of the City of New York. Brooklyn's loss was Long Island's gain: in March 1898 a hose cart and hose from the former Brooklyn Fire Headquarters found its way to the Fire Department in Bay Shore, Long Island; it was the Enterprise Hook and Ladder Company's first hose cart. The Rescue 2 Unit was housed in the Old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters from 1929 to 1946; these are the folks who are called in to rescue the rescuers. In the 1970s, the days of firefighting from this building came to an end. The structure was leased for classroom space to Brooklyn Polytechnic University for a few years and then was vacant.When the MetroTech Center, a 16-acre industrial and academic park, was being developed in the 1980s, many lower-income residents were displaced. The developers, in consultation with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, worked to ensure that the nearby Old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters building would not be damaged. The city converted the building into affordable housing in the late 1980s. Two decades later, the apartments and the roof were in bad shape and the building underwent almost $6 million in renovations from 2013 to 2014. The building was essentially gutted and the 18 housing units were rebuilt. The windows were replaced to get the building into compliance with local codes, but the exterior was kept as close to the original look as possible. Street-level community space was added in the renovation project for affordable leasing to a community organization.

When the Romanesque style building at 365-367 Jay Street was completed in 1892, Brooklyn was an independent city, and the building was the city's new Fire Department Headquarters. Six years later in 1898, Brooklyn became a borough in New York City and the fire department's headquarters was in Manhattan. This building then became a neighborhood fire station and continued as this until the 1970s. The Old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters was one of the first buildings added as a New York City Landmark in 1966, soon after the Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC) came to be. The LPC deemed it one of the finest buildings, architecturally, in Brooklyn, with an unusual variety of harmoniously blended colors in costly and attractive materials. The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It was converted into affordable housing in the 1980s and was renovated in 2013 to 2014 while preserving the historic exterior.

Old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters (apartments)

Charles M. Gage opened a restaurant in Brooklyn in 1879 at 302 Fulton Street, specializing in oysters. One of his regular customers was Eugene Tollner, a cigar salesman. Gage brought Tollner in as a partner in 1884, renaming the restaurant Gage &amp; Tollner. The restaurant moved to 372-374 Fulton Street in 1892. The partners claimed their restaurant was the first in Brooklyn to be lit by the newfangled incandescent electric bulbs; the chandeliers were backed up by gaslighting, the tried-and-true lighting of the era.The partners retired in 1911 and sold the restaurant to xx Cunningham and xx Ingalls. Ingalls died a few weeks later, and Tollner returned to his favorite hangout and worked for another 24 years, for the rest of his life. Tollner died on his way to work on the day before his 86th birthday. Gage helped out, too, until he died in 1919. Also in 1919, Cunningham and Ingalls sold the business to Seth Bradford "Brad" Dewey. After the deaths of Brad in 1938 and his wife, their son, Ed Dewey took over the restaurant in 1949. Ed was an engineer, a World War II Navy veteran, and husband to Gertrude "Trudy." Trudy was very involved in the running of the kitchen and in keeping the company books. Ed's little brother, Tom, worked as a manager in the 1950s and 1960s.A man named Leon Gaskill began working at Gage and Tollner in 1904. The headwaiter continued to work at the restaurant until 1966, making him the longest-running employee in the history of Gage and Tollner. The restaurant was still known for its seafood and was called one of the best seafood restaurants in the world in 1952 in the first annual Restaurant Awards by Holiday Magazine; no other Brooklyn restaurant made the list. Gage and Tollner received the award many more times.Ed Dewey took on a business partner in 1973, John B. Simmons. Ed. Trudy, and John converted the second floor into two private dining rooms in 1977. Peter Aschkenasy bought the restaurant in 1988 and hired the renowned Southern chef Edna Lewis, who was 72 years old at the time. For the first time in a century, the menu included down home cooking like Charleston she-crab soup and spoon bread. The restaurant was restored to its Late Victorian original elegance by the man who bought the business in 1995, Joe Chirico, a restauranteur from southern Italy. The building's mahogany tables, cherrywood trims, brass gaslight fixtures, and mirrored/faux leather wallcoverings in the long, narrow dining room cost $500,000 to restore. Clam bellies, the tender middle of the clam, breaded and broiled were served with toast and were unique to Gage and Tollner. The last meal Chirico served at Gage and Tollner was on February 14, 2004. A developer named Joseph Jemel bought the structure and converted the upper two floors to office space. A number of fast-food restaurants and discount stores occupied the building for years.The latest phase of the restaurant includes its rebirth as Gage and Tollner in 2021 after several years of planning and renovation, with pandemic-related delays thrown in. The new restauranteurs are Ben Schneider, St. John Frizell, and chef Sohui Kim.

The four-story brownstone building at 372 Fulton Street has been standing since about 1875. Gage and Tollner's Restaurant began in 1879 and moved to the Fulton Street building in 1892. The wooden storefront was probably added in 1892. The restaurant went through a number of owners before closing in 2004. TGI Fridays then moved into the space and left in 2007, followed by an Arby's in 2010 and a jewelry and coat store by 2012. The interior was designated a New York City Landmark in 1975, to recognize its Late Victorian appearance; the building was listed in the National Register in 1982. Recently, Gage and Tollner reopened as an oyster and chop house under new ownership in its old location after renovations.

Gage and Tollner Building

227 Duffield Street was once home to abolitionists Thomas Truesdell and Harriet-Lee Truesdell who were leaders of the anti-slavery movement in New England before moving to New York. The Trusedells worked with William Lloyd Garrison, one of the most influential abolitionists in American history and the publisher of The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper. Harriet-Lee Truesdell worked as an officer in a woman's antislavery society during a time when women's anti-slavery societies engaged in substantial fundraising and advocacy work. Although disenfranchised, 19th-century women demonstrated considerable political influence through women's organizations, and the anti-slavery movement was largely shaped by their work. The Truesdells often used their home for anti-slavery meetings and it is possible that they also directly assisted enslaved persons as they escaped from the South to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Owing to the Fugitive Slave Act that made assisting enslaved persons a federal crime, this network of supporters and safe houses were clandestine which makes it difficult to determine the precise location and scale of many locations of the Underground Railroad. Former tenants of the home have reported findings of old stoves and iron cauldrons there, leading the current tenants to believe that the sub-basements of these houses served as feeding stations for escaped slaves passing through Brooklyn. While evidence connecting the home directly to the Underground Railroad has not yet been discovered, it is known that there were several anti-slavery families in this neighborhood. The area around Duffield Street is also rich in history. Polytechnic University's student center is located two blocks from Duffield Street. In 1860, the center was the Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church, Brooklyn's first African American church, as well as the center of abolitionist meetings and activity. Ten minutes from Duffield Street is Plymouth Church, which was attended by Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass. Like several other New York Black churches, Plymouth Church is deeply connected to the Underground Railroad because Black institutions formed the core of the abolitionist movement. Surrounded by luxury condos and hotels, the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and Department of City Planning announced in 2004 that they wanted to tear down the homes on Duffield Street as part of an economic development plan for downtown Brooklyn. Replacing many of the buildings on the street with new hotels, underground parking, and a park. The owners of these homes and local supporters fought against the city. Pressuring the Bloomberg Administration to honor the efforts of abolitionists in the nineteenth century.  Thanks to the work of historians, this home's connection to the anti-slavery movement is known even if some disagree on whether there is enough evidence to believe that this home ever served as a place to shelter those fleeing slavery via the Underground Railroad. Equally important, this connection led preservationists and city officials to broker a compromise to allow new development in the area without affecting the extant historic homes on Duffield. Once facing demolition, the building will likely be preserved but the effort to turn the home into a small museum and cultural center will require substantial resources.

Home to Harriet and Thomas Truesdell when the couple moved here in 1851, this modest brick building on Brooklyn's Duffield Street was saved from demolition by preservationists and historians owing to its connection to New York's abolitionist movement. The Truesdell's were anti-slavery activists in Rhode Island and close associates of William Lloyd Garrison. In 2020, the New York Landmarks Commission decided to consider this building, known now as "Abolitionist Place" as an official New York landmark. The building is located on a street that included seven buildings that are associated with the anti-slavery movement and were home to supporters of those who resisted the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and actively supported the Underground Railroad. The building was officially named Abolitionist Place in September of 2007. 

The Harriet and Thomas Truesdell House (Abolitionist Place)

Between the 1830s and 1860s, Brooklyn became not only the largest settlement of Kings County&nbsp;but the third largest city in the country. By 1860, more than ninety-five percent of the County’s population lived in Brooklyn, after it merged with Williamsburg and Bushwick. New York, on the opposite side of the river, was a bustling trading port, and both cities were home to a steadily more affluent population. Where these two cities met, the demand for banks rose because of this increased population.

It was here that the Dime Savings Bank built their home office in 1906, on a plot of land which was previously occupied by the Fleet Street Methodist church and school, an oil cloth factory, and the Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. Established in 1859, the premise of the Dime Savings Bank was that customers could open up a savings account with only a dime. Before the building was built, they based their operations in the Post Office Building at 211 Montague Street, but as the business grew, they relocated to a number of locations before settling on the corner of Albee Square. Between 1910 and the 1930s, the bank grew rapidly, and by 1932, the deposits they held had almost tripled to $170 million dollars. At this point, they began opening further branches around the city, and the extension to the headquarters was made.

After the First World War, New York became the world’s foremost financial center. Banking in New York during the early and mid-twentieth century was no easy matter. However, in the 1970s, higher interest rates and growing restrictions placed on loans offered by mutual savings banks meant that many banks and customers were very limited in what they could do. By 1978, the Dime Savings Bank had eleven branches around the city, some of which were forced to merge due to the stagnant financial climate. In response to the heavy regulation in 1983, the Dime Savings Bank came under a federal charter, and three years later, it became a publically owned stock savings bank.

By 2002, the bank closed, and in 2015, two developers, Michael Stern and Joe Chetrit, purchased the old Dime Savings Bank building for $90 million. They have plans to build a one thousand foot high residential tower at their adjacent property on 340 Flatbush Avenue. The bank itself will be refurbished and incorporated into the tower but will likely keep many of its historic features due to its landmark status.

The Dime Savings Bank of New York was a state-chartered savings bank dating back to 1859, which became New York’s second largest bank during the 1980s and one of the country’s largest bank buildings. The Beaux Arts building that served as its headquarters, based loosely on the Parthenon in Rime, was built in 1906 by architects Mowbray & Uffinger. The misshapen, triangular building was given a rectangular extension on the back in 1918. In 1931, the bank was enlarged by architects Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, who were well-known at the time for designing bank buildings. The classical elements of the building’s pentelic marble architecture were emphasized, with stately Ionic colonnades and a domed roof.  The entrance through a chamfered corner crowned with a bracketed cornice and clock led to a large rotunda ringed with red marble columnns. A circular, forty-foot diameter round skylight, made of copper and stained glass, adorned the ceiling. The basement still contains many of these original features, in addition to basement bank vaults and a firing range used by the bank’s past guards.

Dime Savings Bank of New York

When New York's subway opened in 1904, seven years after Boston became the first American city to operate a system of underground trains. New York's first line,&nbsp;the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) connected Grand Central with lower Manhattan. Today, New York operates the largest subway system in the United States, transporting an average of over four million passengers daily.&nbsp;&nbsp;

An increasingly popular destination with tourists and residents, the New York Transit Museum is the largest of its kind in the United States. Exhibits preserve and share the history of New York's fabled underground transportation network as well as the larger history of urban public transportation that includes trolleys and jitney cars as well as buses and ferries. In addition to operating this museum and a small archive, the NY Transit Museum creates exhibits within an annex gallery within Grand Central Terminal. 

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Brooklyn Borough Hall

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