POTW: Basketball in Brooklyn

Tess Colwell

[Emmanuel House Basketball Team], ca. 1910, V1981.284.26; Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, 1981.284, Brooklyn Historical Society. [Emmanuel House Basketball Team], ca. 1910, V1981.284.26; Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, 1981.284, Brooklyn Historical Society.


It’s basketball season in Brooklyn! I recently saw my first Brooklyn Nets basketball game and was reminded how much fun watching and playing basketball can be, especially when the weather makes me want to hibernate inside. Basketball has a long history in Brooklyn. In the photo above, young men from the Emmanuel House basketball team are pictured in 1910. The Emmanuel House was located in the Clinton Hill neighborhood and served the community as a civic center and place of outreach.

Run by the Young Men’s League of the Emmanuel Baptist Church, the Emmanuel House offered Sunday school and recreational activities to children of the church and neighborhood. The Emmanuel House is no longer standing, as it was demolished in the mid-20th century during an expansion of the Pratt Institute campus. To view more images from the Emmanuel House lantern slide collection, check out our gallery here.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. photos@brooklynhistory.org

 

This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.

 

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