POTW: Meserole House

Meserole House, 1000 Lorimer St., ca. 1905, V1981.15.124, Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides, 1981.15; Brooklyn Historical Society

The photo of the week depicts the Meserole house located at 1000 Lorimer Street in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, around 1905. The Meserole family was one of the original five families who settled in Bushwick, then one of the five towns of Brooklyn, and  today known as the neighborhoods of Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Jean Miserol (d.1695), a French Huguenot, immigrated to New Amsterdam (now New York City) with his young son and wife in 1663. In 1667, Jean bought a farm in New Utrecht, now the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bay Ridge. He then bought another farm, Kyckout ("the Lookout") that ran along the East River. Today, this farm would be located in Williamsburg between North 1st Street and Broadway.  Over many generations, the family became prominent land owners, eventually resulting in the ownership of nearly all of the land that comprised present day Greenpoint as well as the riverfront area of Williamsburg, from 1727-1750.

The wood-framed home at 1000 Lorimer Street (above) was built and occupied by descendent Peter Meserole (b. 1768) and included an impressive 13-rooms on the grounds of the family apple and cherry orchard. The home was demolished in 1919, following the death of Peter’s youngest son, Adrian.

To learn more about the fascinating history of the Meserole family, be sure to check out the Meserole family papers comprised of a handwritten volume containing the Meserole family genealogy. The genealogy was written by Adrian Meserole, with additions by Francis V. Morrell in 1915. The volume consists of 123 pages and includes an index of names. Also included in the collection are a bill of sale for a sloop from Anson Benton to Abraham Meserole, 1816; and an oversized parchment documenting a legal decision pertaining to a land dispute in the present-day Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, circa 1717.

The photo of the week comes from the Ralph Irving Lloyd lantern slides comprised of (roughly) 400 black-and-white lantern slides, created by Lloyd, that depict 17th, 18th, and 19th century historic houses, homesteads, churches, storefronts, cemeteries and sepulchral monuments (gravestones), and schools in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan; and 19th and early 20th century street scenes of Brooklyn. The images of buildings are predominantly exterior views, but the collection does have several interior views. To see more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery.

If you’re interested in your own house research, we recommend starting your search with our House and Building Research guide. This guide highlights resources most frequently consulted by researchers of Brooklyn property and buildings.

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