POTW: Carroll Park after Hurricane Sandy

Our public historian, Julie Golia, tweeted a downed tree just outside of Carroll Park caused by Hurricane Sandy.

@JulieThePH One of many old, large trees down near Carroll Park. @brooklynhistory #brooklynphotos #carrollgardens pic.twitter.com/ZdFKSTzn

As many of you can probably guess, Carroll Park is in Carroll Gardens and takes up the block between Smith and Court Streets and Carroll and President Streets.  NYC Parks Department identifies it as the 3^rd oldest park in Brooklyn – it was established in the 1840s, around the time when brownstone development began in the neighborhood.  While Brooklyn Historical Society doesn’t have a photograph of the park back then, we do have pictures from our Praeger Department of Parks survey and photographs (v1974.003) taken in the 1930s.  By that time, Carroll Gardens had become a predominantly Italian American neighborhood.

Children in Carroll Park, 1934; v1974.3.33; Praeger Department of Parks survey and photographs, v1974.003; Brooklyn Historical Society.

 

Carroll Park Swings, 1934; v1974.3.34; Praeger Department of Parks survey and photographs, v1974.003; Brooklyn Historical Society.

From Julie G’s photographs, you can’t really see the park at all since the tree that fell was full-grown, about 70 years older (at least) than the trees in the two photographs above.

John D. Morrell photographed the block that stands just across the street from the park in 1964.  You may be able to identify the block, but the businesses have certainly changed – all except perhaps the Brooklyn Social Club, which is today an upscale bar drawing on the neighborhood’s Italian history.

View of east side of Smith Street, 1960, v1974.4.1357; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Once again, the face of Brooklyn has changed after a visit from Hurricane Sandy.

Everyone at Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) is keenly aware of the wide impact that Sandy has had on Brooklyn and surrounding areas and we hope that services are reaching you and life is getting back to normal.

We wanted to make you aware that BHS is working on collecting information about Sandy and the effects of the storm on our borough [photos, accounts, observations, blog posts, tweets...] to add to BHS' collections. We will be dedicating PHOTO OF THE WEEK for the coming weeks to documenting Sandy and we encourage you to check out our Storify website, documenting our progress so far. Click here: Hurricane Sandy: Brooklyn Stories.

Interested in seeing more photographs 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 Othmer Library Wed-Fri 1:00-5:00 p.m.