House and Building Research

Our Historic Atlas collection serves a multitude of purposes and is particularly helpful when trying to determine the age of a building.  The atlases are also helpful in determining addresses, many of which changed circa 1871–72. The bulk of the atlases are bound fire insurance maps, which show Brooklyn block by block. As the atlases advance chronologically, they also advance in technical sophistication. Depending on the level of detail, atlases can include information such as the material content of buildings, houses and block numbers, content and condition of pavement, street status and usability, locations of sewers and water mains, locations of subway and rail lines, ward division lines, early 19th century farm boundaries and landowners, and locations of churches, schools, and factories. An index of the atlas collection, including years, surveyors and neighborhoods, is available here.

With a BPL library card, you can also access FIMO—the Fire Insurance Maps Online database. You can search the maps by address, or browse by area and date. A tutorial is available here.

You can also access many digitized insurance atlases from New York Public Library's Digital Collections here and Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from the Library of Congress here. 

The following booklists highlight a number of titles in our collection that relate to popular house and building research topics:

• Architectural Elements of Historical Buildings
• Historical Interior Design
• House and Building Research
• Neighborhood Guides and Histories

Because these lists are not comprehensive, researchers are encouraged to browse the catalog for additional titles. As the book collection is non-circulating, titles cannot be placed on hold online. To request books, please contact us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org. Click the heart beside the book title to create your own booklist (sign in to your account first).

The Brooklyn Land Conveyance collection documents Brooklyn land transfers from 1699 through 1896. Organized by block, these abstracts show seller (grantor) and buyer (grantee) information. To determine the block number for a specific property, just enter the address into the New York City Department of Buildings’ online database.  A tutorial is available. Please note that these are just abstracts, not the actual deeds. In many cases these abstracts are the only records for these early land transactions that have survived. Additional information on land transcations can be found in the New York City Grantors and Grantees indexes, available in the library. These indexes are arranged by name of the grantor or grantee and document who sold and purchased the property and on what date. Also includes is a liber and page number that enable location of the deed. The deed should include additional information, such as location of the property. The originals are held with the City Registrar, 144-06 94th Avenue in Queens. Microfilm / microfiche of these records is available at the Brooklyn office of the Department of Finance at 210 Joralemon Street . To view the land deed, take the liber/page numbers to Room 203 on the second floor. Here you can request the microfilm of the deed. Copies of the microfilm are available at $1 per page.

For records covering years outside of the Center for Brooklyn History's collection, see the following:

• New York City Department of Finance - Includes abstracts and deeds for property transfers post-1900
• New York Public Library - Includes Brooklyn land conveyances records for 1679-1850 and indexes for 1683-1950

The collections include several types of city directories spanning the years 1822 to 1967, with one 1796 Brooklyn directory and one 1786 New York directory. The bulk of the directories are devoted to the city and borough of Brooklyn. A smaller portion of the collection covers or includes Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, and Newark, New Jersey. Many of our directories have been digitized and are available through the Internet Archive. A finding aid is available.

City Directories—Residential. Organized alphabetically by last name, similar to a phone book, these directories list the name and address of an individual, often a resident’s occupation and work address, and sometimes race.

Business Directories. Most are organized alphabetically by trade, then alphabetically by last name, and list business address. Finding the relevant trade listing can sometimes be tricky. For example, when searching the address of an ancestor’s drinking establishment, no trade listing might be found under “Bars,” “Public Houses,” “Taverns,” “Liquors,” “Saloons,” or any other alternative term for a business premises where alcohol is served. But the address may be found under the antiquated “Wine and Liquors.”

By Address—Elite Directories (1873–1913).  These directories, issued by the Elite Publishing Company, are organized by address instead of by last name. By providing information on former residents, these are often helpful when tracking the social history of a particular building, and are often comprehensively cross-referenced with the “by name” directories.

Blue Books (1904–1962).  As the name suggests, these directories are a collection of society listings. They have a “by address” search in the back of the book, which is helpful when trying to discover who might have lived at a particular address.

Directories on Microfilm The following directories are available on microfilm. Please note that some years may be stored off-site and require two weeks for delivery.

• Brooklyn and New York City Directories
  • Brooklyn: 1796-1910, 1912-1914, 1933-34
  • New York: 1786-1926, 1931, 1933-1934
• Brooklyn Elite Directories
  • 1878-1882, 1885-1890, 1897-1899, 1901, 1905-1908, 1913, 1914
• New York Telephone Directories, including Brooklyn White Pages
  • 1905-1920, 1924-1947, 1949-1950, 1952-1955, 1957-1977
• Brooklyn Classified Telephone Directory (Yellow Pages) 
  • 1944-1977
• Brooklyn Address Books ("criss-cross” directories)
  • 1929-1931, 1933-1961, 1963-1970, 1972-1980, 1986

The Brooklyn and Long Island Scrapbook collection is a collection of newspaper clippings arranged by librarians at the Long Island Historical Society—the predecessor to the Center for Brooklyn History—between the 1860s to the early 1970s. The complete scrapbooks have been transferred to microfiche and are searchable by a subject card catalog index in the library. For building research, the scrapbooks card catalog includes numerous subject headings for individuals and Brooklyn addresses.

Brooklyn Newsstand is a collection of digitized Brooklyn newspapers made possible through a partnership between Brooklyn Public Library and Newspapers.com. Brooklyn Newsstand (2,402,000+ digitized pages) contains 44 newspaper titles-including the full run of the Long Island Star (1809–1863), Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841-1963), and Brooklyn Life (1890-1931), a Brooklyn Society Magazine. These represent some of the most useful resources available for any type of nineteenth and twentieth century Brooklyn research. Searching these newspapers often yields a wealth of information about past residents of a particular address, construction and architectural details, notable events and occurrences at the building, or advertisements seeking maids or boarders.