This Photo of the Week celebrates the dog days of summer with a pup lounging in a lush bed of grass. Whether you love the heat or are pining for a crisp fall breeze, we can all appreciate this dog's sun-drenched rest as the shadows of the trees lengthen across the lawn. This particular lawn lay behind 1 Pierrepont Place in Brooklyn Heights, which was a mansion designed by Richard Upjohn. According to our directories, Henry Evelyn Pierrepont, “the father of Green-Wood Cemetery,” and his son, John Jay Pierrepont, a financier, lived at this address in 1877, the year the photograph was taken. Anna Maria (nee Jay) Pierrepont, Henry’s wife and John’s mother, also lived here, though she is unlisted (as married women typically were). Presumably, this hound was a member of the Pierrepont family and likely lived a life of canine luxury at the intersection of Pierrepont Place and Pierrepont Street.
Like thousands of homes across Brooklyn, this one was razed in 1946 as part of Robert Moses’ Brooklyn-Queens Expressway project (learn more about the lost homes with Segregation by Design). However, this lot was not steamrolled into the highway, but rather transformed into a public playground, Pierrepont Playground. Set back from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade with the East River and Manhattan skyline in the distance, the space still offers a variation on the Pierrepont pup’s relaxation experience, now accompanied by the squeaks of a jungle gym’s bridge. Here’s to hoping that the grown-ups of each Pierrepont Playground-bound child can, if only briefly, steal a moment reclining in the sun.
Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.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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