29 Raw Photos Of Brooklyn In The 1960S Long Before Gentrification

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1 of 30Young street racers on Brooklyn’s Third Avenue, between 29th and 17th Streets. Soon after this photo was taken, the cops moved in and ended things. July 1968.Jerry Haynes/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images 2 of 30Men and boys listen to a Dodgers-Giants baseball game on the radio on a Brooklyn street. Circa 1960.Ed Clark/The LIFE Premium Collection/Getty Images 3 of 30Maxie Rosenfeld takes a swing with a sledgehammer at the concrete cornerstone of Ebbets Field during an auction sale on the old stomping grounds of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Balls, bats, bases, and other diamond bric-a-brac were sold at the auction. The stadium had recently been torn down to make way for a middle-income housing project. April 1960.Bettmann/Getty Images 4 of 30Police find a dead body in the trunk of a car at 3rd Ave., between Atlantic Ave. and State St. October 1962.Bettmann/Getty Images 5 of 30Several children flee police officers during a race riot in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. July 1964.Bettmann/Getty Images 6 of 30(Original caption) “Idle school drop-outs playing billiards.” June 1962. Grey Villet/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 7 of 30Father Benny Calleja, of Our Lady of Peace, gives last rites to a man identified as Joseph Magnasco at 4th Avenue and Union Street. Magnasco was shot and dumped on the street in what police said was an apparent gangland slaying. October 1961.Bettmann/Getty Images 8 of 30Patrolman Russell Blair plays basketball with local kids at Sterling Place playground. August 1962. Bettmann/Getty Images 9 of 30Side by side (on Avenue P and East Second Street) a Chinese restaurant, a pizzeria, and a kosher butcher. June 1960.Bettmann/Getty Images 10 of 30Burglary suspect Harrison Coleman is arrested by Patrolman Harry Batterbee at Packers Super Market on Columbia St. August 1963.Jerry Haynes/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images 11 of 30Police close in on the uncle of victim Edermilo Molina as he becomes hysterical after identifying the body of his young nephew, who was shot and killed. January 1966.Charles Frattini/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images 12 of 30A Brooklyn College student struggles with the police after her arrest as anti-war demonstrators tried to break up the recruiting efforts of two U.S. Navy officers. October 1967.Bettmann/Getty Images 13 of 30An unidentified man lies slumped in the front seat of a car, where he was seriously wounded by a gun shot. Another man, identified as Peter Likos, 42, was found murdered in front of the same car. May 1960.Bettmann/Getty Images 14 of 30Accused killer George Whitmore Jr., 19, of Brooklyn is led from Police Headquarters to be arraigned in the stabbings of Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert. He plead innocent and was remanded to the Brooklyn House of Detention. May 1964.Judd Mehlman/NY Daily News/Getty Images 15 of 30Beachgoers line the sands at Coney Island. July 1966.Harry Benson/Express/Getty Images 16 of 30New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller greets locals. June 1960.Ted Russell/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images 17 of 30Famous jazz musician Sonny Rollins plays his saxophone on the Williamsburg Bridge. June 1966.David McLane/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images 18 of 30The scene in the Park Slope neighborhood after two airplanes crashed to the ground. The planes had collided over foggy New York harbor. December 1960.Paul Bernius/NY Daily News/Getty Images 19 of 30Senator Robert F. Kennedy stands surrounded by children outside a building. Circa 1966. Buyenlarge/Getty Images 20 of 30Thousands of mourners overflow a South Brooklyn street for a glimpse of the funeral for mob boss and union leader Anthony Anastasio. March 1963.Bettmann/Getty Images 21 of 30Miss Coney Island Arlene Shaw takes a dip with Polar Bear Club members. May 1968.Leroy Jakob/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images 22 of 30Indignant Brooklyn Navy Yard workers offer thumbs down to express their ire over Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s order to shut down both Brooklyn’s Navy Yard and Army Terminal. November 1964.Bettmann/Getty Images 23 of 30Steve Whitaker and Bill Robinson of the New York Yankees visit children in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. July 1967. CBS/Getty Images 24 of 30Crowds gather around Nathan’s famous hot dog restaurant in Coney Island. June 1961.Bettmann/Getty Images 25 of 30An Italian-American family sits in front of a fence. Circa 1963-1964.Anthony Catalano/Flickr 26 of 30Eight-year-old student Mark Coleman of P.S. 244 uses an early computer. Watching the youngster operate the computer are school district administrators and the president of RCA, the developer of this machine. March 1968.Bettmann/Getty Images 27 of 30Seminary students Yuhuda Poliak, left, and Shraga Mendlowitz work on decorations for a sukkah, an outdoor covering used as part of a Jewish religious observance. September 1969.Bill Wunsch/The Denver Post/Getty Images 28 of 30Rev. William B. Glenesk leads church members in singing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” at the Spencer Memorial Presbyterian Church. July 1963.Arthur Schatz/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images 29 of 30A street market on Belmont Avenue in the largely Jewish neighborhood of Brownsville. 1962.Roger Higgins/World-Telegraph & Sun/Library of Congress 30 of 30Like this gallery?Share it:

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29 Raw Photos Of Brooklyn In The 1960s, Long Before Gentrification View Gallery

A far cry from the gentrified boomtown that is modern Brooklyn, the old Brooklyn of the 1960s was a gritty place defined by starkly drawn ethnic enclaves, urban decay, and devastating crime waves.

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2 of 30Men and boys listen to a Dodgers-Giants baseball game on the radio on a Brooklyn street. Circa 1960.Ed Clark/The LIFE Premium Collection/Getty Images

3 of 30Maxie Rosenfeld takes a swing with a sledgehammer at the concrete cornerstone of Ebbets Field during an auction sale on the old stomping grounds of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Balls, bats, bases, and other diamond bric-a-brac were sold at the auction. The stadium had recently been torn down to make way for a middle-income housing project. April 1960.Bettmann/Getty Images

4 of 30Police find a dead body in the trunk of a car at 3rd Ave., between Atlantic Ave. and State St. October 1962.Bettmann/Getty Images

5 of 30Several children flee police officers during a race riot in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. July 1964.Bettmann/Getty Images

6 of 30(Original caption) “Idle school drop-outs playing billiards.” June 1962. Grey Villet/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

7 of 30Father Benny Calleja, of Our Lady of Peace, gives last rites to a man identified as Joseph Magnasco at 4th Avenue and Union Street. Magnasco was shot and dumped on the street in what police said was an apparent gangland slaying. October 1961.Bettmann/Getty Images

8 of 30Patrolman Russell Blair plays basketball with local kids at Sterling Place playground. August 1962. Bettmann/Getty Images

9 of 30Side by side (on Avenue P and East Second Street) a Chinese restaurant, a pizzeria, and a kosher butcher. June 1960.Bettmann/Getty Images

10 of 30Burglary suspect Harrison Coleman is arrested by Patrolman Harry Batterbee at Packers Super Market on Columbia St. August 1963.Jerry Haynes/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

11 of 30Police close in on the uncle of victim Edermilo Molina as he becomes hysterical after identifying the body of his young nephew, who was shot and killed. January 1966.Charles Frattini/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

12 of 30A Brooklyn College student struggles with the police after her arrest as anti-war demonstrators tried to break up the recruiting efforts of two U.S. Navy officers. October 1967.Bettmann/Getty Images

13 of 30An unidentified man lies slumped in the front seat of a car, where he was seriously wounded by a gun shot. Another man, identified as Peter Likos, 42, was found murdered in front of the same car. May 1960.Bettmann/Getty Images

14 of 30Accused killer George Whitmore Jr., 19, of Brooklyn is led from Police Headquarters to be arraigned in the stabbings of Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert. He plead innocent and was remanded to the Brooklyn House of Detention. May 1964.Judd Mehlman/NY Daily News/Getty Images

15 of 30Beachgoers line the sands at Coney Island. July 1966.Harry Benson/Express/Getty Images

16 of 30New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller greets locals. June 1960.Ted Russell/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

17 of 30Famous jazz musician Sonny Rollins plays his saxophone on the Williamsburg Bridge. June 1966.David McLane/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

18 of 30The scene in the Park Slope neighborhood after two airplanes crashed to the ground. The planes had collided over foggy New York harbor. December 1960.Paul Bernius/NY Daily News/Getty Images

19 of 30Senator Robert F. Kennedy stands surrounded by children outside a building. Circa 1966. Buyenlarge/Getty Images

20 of 30Thousands of mourners overflow a South Brooklyn street for a glimpse of the funeral for mob boss and union leader Anthony Anastasio. March 1963.Bettmann/Getty Images

21 of 30Miss Coney Island Arlene Shaw takes a dip with Polar Bear Club members. May 1968.Leroy Jakob/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images

22 of 30Indignant Brooklyn Navy Yard workers offer thumbs down to express their ire over Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s order to shut down both Brooklyn’s Navy Yard and Army Terminal. November 1964.Bettmann/Getty Images

23 of 30Steve Whitaker and Bill Robinson of the New York Yankees visit children in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. July 1967. CBS/Getty Images

24 of 30Crowds gather around Nathan’s famous hot dog restaurant in Coney Island. June 1961.Bettmann/Getty Images

25 of 30An Italian-American family sits in front of a fence. Circa 1963-1964.Anthony Catalano/Flickr

26 of 30Eight-year-old student Mark Coleman of P.S. 244 uses an early computer. Watching the youngster operate the computer are school district administrators and the president of RCA, the developer of this machine. March 1968.Bettmann/Getty Images

27 of 30Seminary students Yuhuda Poliak, left, and Shraga Mendlowitz work on decorations for a sukkah, an outdoor covering used as part of a Jewish religious observance. September 1969.Bill Wunsch/The Denver Post/Getty Images

28 of 30Rev. William B. Glenesk leads church members in singing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” at the Spencer Memorial Presbyterian Church. July 1963.Arthur Schatz/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

29 of 30A street market on Belmont Avenue in the largely Jewish neighborhood of Brownsville. 1962.Roger Higgins/World-Telegraph & Sun/Library of Congress

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29 Raw Photos Of Brooklyn In The 1960s, Long Before Gentrification View Gallery

29 Raw Photos Of Brooklyn In The 1960s, Long Before Gentrification

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In Brooklyn, as in much of America, the 1960s was a time of tumult. Government workers, from teachers to transit laborers, were striking across the borough. Meanwhile, crime ran rampant as large swathes of Brooklyn were controlled by Italian and Irish criminal organizations. At the same time, smaller neighborhood gangs claimed blocks all around Brooklyn.

While crime had not yet reached the fever pitch that it would in the New York of later decades, 1960s Brooklyn represented the beginning of Brooklyn’s long descent — one from which it has only recovered in recent years. In the 1960s, as the booming economy following World War II began to wane, neighborhoods across Brooklyn fell into poverty and violence.

Manufacturing jobs started to leave the borough, and in 1966, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a source of jobs for 12,000 people and the very symbol of industry in Brooklyn, was closed down.

By the late 1960s, these economic factors, as well as racist views towards the growing African-American population in the borough, led many families in white neighborhoods to leave Brooklyn for the suburban communities of Long Island. This “white flight” only sped up the process of urban decay in the borough as more and more people left Brooklyn.

Nevertheless, the racial tension underscoring this white flight continued to bubble over within Brooklyn’s borders. In 1966, for example, riots broke out after the police killed an 11-year-old African-American and the resulting street clashes brought 1,000 police officers to the scene.

Despite these dire social conditions, 1960s Brooklyn was also a place of vibrant culture and art. Tight-knit communities brought and their cultures from their homelands and both preserved and modified them in their new adopted homeland, creating a tapestry of different cultures within Brooklyn. Thus the same ethnic divisions that created social tensions also made for an increasingly rich tapestry of culture across the borough.

Ultimately, whether in terms of culture, crime, ethnic makeup, or otherwise, the Brooklyn of the 1960s was a place in transition — much like the Brooklyn of today.

Next, see more vintage photos that reveal what Brooklyn looked like before the hipster invasion. Then, see the gritty pre-gentrification 1970s and New York of the 1980s.