A Glimpse Of Cortelyou’s Past

Looking at this Brooklyn Historical Society photo taken in September 1958 of the south side of Cortelyou Road, between Marlborough Road and E. 16th Street, it’s not hard to imagine our poodle skirt-clad neighbors gabbing and shopping in Savarese’s & Schiro’s Meat Market or perusing the “fancy fruit” at the grocery store next door.

If you haven’t already checked out the Brooklyn Historical Society’s treasure trove of old photographs, you should definitely go take a gander! With pics of a long-ago Cortelyou to the old Maple Court Cafe on Church Avenue and gorgeous historical scenes in Prospect Park, we could spend hours and hours gawking at them.

The photos come from John D. Morrell, an assistant librarian at the Long Island Historical Society (now known as the Brooklyn HIstorical Society) who donated more than 2,600 photographs taken throughout Brooklyn to the library.

If any of our readers remember these shops, we’d love to hear about them! Comment below or email us at editor@ditmasparkcorner.com. And, if you have any old photos of the neighborhood, we’d love to see those too!