George Gershwin was born here

[242 Snediker Street, East New York, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Last Sunday I posted a photograph of the building that, unbeknowst to me, was the birthplace of Ira Gershwin. This Sunday I’m posting with deliberation: here’s the birthplace of George Gershwin.

Here’s some background, some more background, a 1976 New York Times article about an effort to save the building, and a Chicago Tribune article about the building’s demise. You’ll notice that the building in the Times photograph looks nothing like the building in this tax photograph. A comment on a post in a Brooklyn-centric Facebook group says that the building was “bricked over” in the 1960s. The Gershwin side of the street is wholly industrial now. The synagogue at no. 247 is now an Assemblies of God church, Iglesia Pentecostal, still with a Star of David above the doors.

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More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)