Love Lane

[View of Love Lane (south side.) #35 Love Lane (right) and #37 Love Lane (left.)], 1958, V1974.4.170; John D. Morrell photographs, ARC.005; Brooklyn Historical Society.

With the Valentine’s Day holiday right around the corner, the photo of the week depicts a view of the south side of Love Lane in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Love Lane is a one block mews that connects Henry Street to Hicks Street. Dating back to the Revolutionary War, Love Lane divided the estates of the DeBevoise and Pierrepont families. Members of the DeBevoise family adopted the daughter of their housekeeper, Sarah, who grew up to charm many suitors. According to Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss in their book Brooklyn By Name, the name Love Lane, “comes from the so-called love-lines—initials of Sarah DeBevoise and her suitors—scrawled across the fence near their home.” To learn more about the street names in Brooklyn, be sure to check out Bernando and Weiss’ book available at the Othmer Library.

This photograph comes from the John D. Morrell photograph collection. Morrell was an assistant librarian at Long Island Historical Society (now Brooklyn Historical Society) for many years. He donated over 2,000 black and white and color negatives and prints to the photography collection. The collection includes documentary-style photographs of nearly every neighborhood in Brooklyn. To see more photographs from this collection, check out this gallery.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org