Then and Now Thursday: De-Mapped on Flatbush

There are very few instances of streets being entirely wiped off the map in our neighborhood. In the South Slope, we've got the parts of 17th Street displaced for the Prospect Expressway, and in the far North Slope, parts of Fifth Avenue, Dean Street, and Pacific Street have have been de-mapped, all within the past couple years, for construction of the Barclay's Center.

In the above 1914 photo, we see one of those rare views that simply does not exist anymore. It's looking northeast, at the tail end of Fifth Avenue from Flatbush, toward Dean Street. Joseph Kaiser's Clothier, Furnisher, and Hatter flanks a bicycle shop on Fifth, and a butcher shop named Berger & Son Company "Of America" is on Dean.

These buildings were demolished long ago (the above shot is the most recent Google Maps image of the same spot), but it was only last year that this intersection, along with the surrounding streets, were de-mapped entirely.

Looking beyond the new tail end of Fifth Avenue today, it's hard to believe that the neighborhood once simply continued northward. Construction of the Barclay's Center continues apace, while, for now at least, the stalwart Triangle Sporting Goods looms over the proceedings.

Top photo: Merlis and Rosenzweig, Brooklyn's Park Slope. 1999.