POTW: Martense Farm

Tess Colwell

[Farm field, Brooklyn], 1880, V1974.7.9; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Historical Society [Farm field, Brooklyn], 1880, V1974.7.9; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Historical Society
It wasn’t so long ago that what is today the borough of Brooklyn was a center of agricultural production. Kings County was once one of the leading vegetable producers for over 250 years, as late as 1880. It took just twenty years for areas in outer-borough Brooklyn to shift from agricultural to entirely urban residential between 1890 and 1910. To learn more about the history of agriculture in Brooklyn, be sure to check out Of Cabbages and Kings County: Agriculture and the Formation of Modern Brooklyn, available at the Othmer Library, as well as our online exhibition, “An American Family Grows in Brooklyn: The Lefferts Family Papers.”

The photo of the week depicts the Martense farm located in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, in 1880. The Martense homestead stood for several generations until it was sold in 1889, when Flatbush was transitioning from a farming community to a residential one.

This photograph comes from the Adrian Vanderveer Martense photograph collection. This collection comprises lantern slides and photographs taken by Martense from 1872-1889. Highlights include street scenes in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, and the Blizzard of 1888. To view more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery.

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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