Shanties, 4th Avenue

Here's a George Bradford Brainerd  (1845 - 1887) photograph of Fourth Avenue, part of a large collection of Brainerd's work at the Brooklyn Museum.  According to the notes accompanying the photograph, this was taken in the 1880s close to the southern edge of Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, where a number of shanties lined the avenue. This must be just before a building boom along the avenue, as the city developed, later accelerated by the presence of the BMT subway line on Fourth.   Pre-parkway, pre-subway, and of course, over a century before today's land-rush.  Brainerd's photographs offer a fascinating look of city life in the 1870s and 80s.  Go and take a look.