POTW: Willow Street

[79 Willow St. east corner of Pineapple Street, Brooklyn 1922.],1922, V1974.32.98; Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks, V1974.32; Brooklyn Historical Society.

The photo of the week depicts 79 Willow Street, which stands on the southeast corner of Pineapple Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, around 1922. This house was torn down only a few years after the picture was taken, and by 1927, the large apartment building that still stands on that corner today had taken its place. In the 1970s, the building was bought by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (also known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses) and continues to serve as a dormitory  today – though, as the New York Times reported last week, the religious organization is in the process of selling off its assets and relocating its headquarters from Brooklyn to upstate New York.

In November 1965, New York City Landmarks Preservation designated Brooklyn Heights as the city’s first historic district, protecting remaining historical buildings. Today, tearing down a house like the one pictured would not be possible because of the neighborhood’s landmarked status. To learn more about this, be sure to check out the exhibit Preserving Historic Brooklyn Heights on view now at Brooklyn Historical Society.

This photograph comes from the Eugene L. Armbruster photographs and scrapbooks collection. This collection includes black and white photographs taken by Armbruster, circa 1920-1930. Armburster was an amateur photographer who lived in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn and worked at a cigar box manufacturing company. He photographed extensively in the New York City area, including street scenes in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island. To view more photographs by Armbruster, 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