Ditmas History: Aging Away

Today’s Ditmas History is a bit farther into Kensington than we generally tend to get, but the transformation is too dramatic to ignore. Currently, 390 Ocean Parkway is a six story apartment building sprawling about 1/3 of an acre and totaling approximately 42,000 square feet. Studios go for relatively cheap, although you’ll have to watch out for falling ceilings–but what did the piece of land hold before 41 units and an elevator?

This 1917 photo from Brooklyn Visual Heritage shows 390 Ocean Parkway around the time it was sold, according to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, to the managers of the Presbyterian Home for the Aged. Previously, the home had belonged to the Williamsburg Savings Bank, but seems to have fit the bill of local Presbyterians perfectly, says the paper:

For some years the Presbyterians of Brooklyn have been planning for a home. The Rev. Dr. Newell Woolsey Wells, pastor of the South Third Presbyterian Church, is president of the board of managers and some time ago made an appeal to the denomination for the funds to secure a place to provide for waiting old persons.

The current building that stands at 390 Ocean Parkway was built in 1937 and the driveways and open spaces on either side of it have long been closed in–but don’t worry too much about the Home for the Aged’s former or would-be tenants. Brooklyn Visual Heritage also has in its archive a 1945 photo marked “New haven for aged,” with the description “New haven for aged–This Park Slope mansion will be the Guest House of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Presbyterian Home for the Aged,” but the photo’s exact location is unknown. Anyone recognize that Slope-area building?

1917 photo via Brooklyn Visual Heritage