Flashback: Brooklyn, 1943

In the past we've taken looks back at Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Navy Yard (and the Commandant's House), the Brooklyn Bridge, and the nearby area in 1936, amongst other corners of the borough. But here's a glimpse at what it looked like in 1943, from Sheepshead Bay to Prospect Heights to Red Hook.

This is the year the movie Whistling in Brooklyn came out and the year the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn hit bookshelves. Over at Ebbets Field, the 1943 Brooklyn Dodgers played 153 games during the regular season, winning 81 and losing 72 games (they finished 3rd in position).

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on June 30, 2010 4:32 PM

Comments [rss]

Kevin Walsh

Native American Indians lived in Gowanus then

www.forgotten-ny.com

Pete84

Brooklyn was NOT ALL white in 1943 but it was predominantly white. Most Black people lived in Downtown Brooklyn where Metro Tech is now and in the Brownsville section especially around Livonia and Rockaway Ave. In the Bed-Stuy area along Fulton St from Grand Ave to Ralph Ave and along Myrtle Ave and other undesirable streets that had an El or streetcar running through them. There was a Filipino community that lived near the Navy Yard on Sands St and a Puerto Rican community was growing in parts of Red Hook, Williamsburg and Brownsville by this time.

schizofriendly

...and they all had one thing in common with us Brooklynites of today: They were terrified by uncertainty.

DanielJ

The guy on the far left in the second to last photo just screams ICONIC BROOKLYN!

sossel

anyone have photos of the Crown Heights section?

melanarchy

The picture of the bridges shows the brooklyn bridge terminal station which is pretty cool.

RabbiLaFunque

Once again, not a single non-white face in any of the pictures. Way to showcase the diversity of the history of our great city, Gothamist.