POTW: House Research

Tess Colwell

[#119 Milton Street ("Blue House").], 10/19/1958, V1974.9.130; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005, Brooklyn Historical Society. [#119 Milton Street ("Blue House").], 10/19/1958, V1974.9.130; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005, Brooklyn Historical Society.
One of the best parts of living in Brooklyn is the history; every spot of property in this borough has a story. Do you know the story behind your Brooklyn home? House history research is one of the most popular research topics at Brooklyn Historical Society. The extensive resources housed in the Othmer Library will help you get familiar with the history of specific homes and neighborhoods. A great way to start your property research and to get acquainted with our collections is to visit the House Research Guide on our website. It explains what resources are available here in our library, and it makes suggestions for additional resources found elsewhere.

The photo of the week comes from the John D. Morrell photographs collection. This collection contains over 2,000 documentary photographs of almost every Brooklyn neighborhood from 1957-1974 in color and black and white. This photograph is titled “Blue House” from 1958. The house is located at 119 Milton Street in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Personally, I love the surprise element of seeing a blue and white house pop among the (mostly) black and white photographs in this collection. Sadly, a quick Google search revealed that this house is no longer blue! To see more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery. If you’re interested in other property photographs, also check out the Eugene Armbruster and Edna Huntington photograph collections.

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. library@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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