By Phoebe Neidl
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN -- In the decades immediately following World War II, Downtown Brooklyn underwent an extensive “urban renewal� transformation that left it almost unrecognizable.

More than 300 buildings were razed, Fulton Street’s elevated train was dismantled, main thoroughfares were renamed, and the street grid was reconfigured to accommodate a large public plaza that runs all the way from Borough Hall to the Brooklyn Bridge – a plaza that planning czar Robert Moses said would “be as much the pride of Brooklyn as the Piazza San Marco is the pride of Venice.�

It’s reasonable to say Columbus Park and Cadman Plaza have not quite fulfilled that expectation, though it has served nobly as a civic space, regularly hosting a farmers market, as well as public demonstrations and press conferences. But one local preservationist thinks the space could be much improved if Brooklynites knew a bit more about the Downtown of old. Lost in the rubble, says Bob Furman, were streets and buildings of significance to Brooklyn’s heritage.

“While we can’t rebuild the way it used to be, I thought it would be appropriate to commemorate what it once was,� says Furman, a founding member of the newly formed Brooklyn Preservation Council, who is developing a project that would place a series of in-ground commemorative signs in and around Columbus Park.

“I always felt that the Downtown Brooklyn and Cadman Plaza renewals were disasters,� he said. “Its purpose was to reverse the decline of Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights, which it didn’t do.� And tearing down old buildings, he says, “was the only way they could think of doing it.

`Everything Old Should Be Replaced’

In this era of “adaptive reuse� and brownstone worship, it’s hard to believe that at any point, as Furman says, “The guiding principle was ‘everything old should be replaced.� But at the 1950s, city planners even considered tearing down Borough Hall and the General Post Office.

“And it wasn’t just government, old buildings were totally out of favor with the public. Everyone wanted modern,� says Furman.

One of the greatest architectural losses of the “renewal� was the old Kings County Courthouse, he says, which stood where Brooklyn Law School now stands at Joralemon Street and Boerum Place. It was one of several neo-classical buildings that for nearly a century defined Brooklyn’s civic center. It was built using Tuckahoe marble by Gamaliel King, the architect who also built nearby Borough Hall. Next door on Boerum Place, the Hall of Records, built of white limestone in the 1880s, was torn down in 1960 so that streets could be widened for automobiles approaching the Brooklyn Bridge.

Furman, who is currently working with an artist on putting together the proposal for the Downtown commemoration, also plans for the project to include decorative street signs that would indicate some of the extinct street names.

For example, Cadman Plaza Park is bordered by the streets Cadman Plaza West and Cadman Plaza East, but for most of Brooklyn’s history, those streets had been called Fulton Street and Washington Street, respectively.

`Newspaper Alley’

Washington was sometimes called “Newspaper Alley.� It was home to not only the Brooklyn Eagle, but also the New York Times and the Brooklyn Standard Union.

Washington was also at one point home to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science, which was the forerunner to the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

“There’s just so much here – and so little commemorated,� marvels Furman, who grew up in Manhattan and was jolted into his passion for Brooklyn history when he learned about the Battle of Brooklyn. “I was shocked that a major event like that took place and so few people even knew about it.

“We’re the city of the new, and we never felt strongly about preserving the past,� he said.

One of Furman’s favorite Downtown sites, on what used to be the corner of Washington and Johnson streets, was home to three consecutive historic Brooklyn buildings. The first was St. John’s Episcopal Church; the second was the Brooklyn Theatre, which saw the tragic death of 295 people when it burnt down during a performance in 1876; and finally, the imposing office building of the Brooklyn Eagle, built in 1892.

Another significant architectural loss was Minard Lafever’s Brooklyn Savings Bank (1846-47), which stood at the corner of Fulton and Concord streets. Its influence was enormous, according to architectural historian Francis Morrone. Had it survived, would have now been one of Brooklyn’s most revered landmarks.

“People should know these stories,� says Furman. “It’s our past, it’s our heritage.�

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