Photographs often hold mysteries and memories of our past. In this vivid and captivating new photographic history, readers are transported back to an exciting time, when the town of Gravesend, Brooklyn was one of the six original towns later to become part of the great City of Brooklyn. Originally an isolated English-speaking community amidst many other Dutch areas in the region, Gravesend developed into a thriving seaside resort, with Coney Island becoming the "playground of the world," and Sheepshead Bay an important fishing community with fabulous places to dine and enjoy the fruits of the sea.

Permanently settled in 1645, the farming town of Gravesend, Long Island, was annexed to the city (now borough) of Brooklyn, New York, in 1894. Few reminders from Gravesend's rural days survive around the urban landscape it has become. Even its more recent past is quickly disappearing.

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A major new history of Brooklyn, told through its landscapes, buildings, and the people who made them, from the early 17th century to today.