This image is the cover for the book Gravesend, Brooklyn, Then and Now

Gravesend, Brooklyn, Then and Now

Experience the old farming days of what was once the agricultural community of Gravesend, Brooklyn and how the town has transformed into the urban neighborhood it is today.


Permanently settled in 1645, the farming town of Gravesend, Long Island, was annexed to the city (now borough) of Brooklyn, New York, in 1894. Few reminders from Gravesend's rural days survive around the urban landscape it has become. Even its more recent past is quickly disappearing.

Joseph Ditta

In Gravesend, Brooklyn lifelong resident Joseph Ditta, reference librarian at the New-York Historical Society, traces the evolution of this historic neighborhood through a fascinating selection of rare and never-before-published views.

Arcadia Publishing