Downtown Brooklyn Development Association records

This collection comprises the subject files of the Downtown Brooklyn Development Association. The papers are news clippings, correspondence, brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, legislative documents, photographs, city plans and maps, and other items relating to organizations and causes with which the association was involved or which the association sponsored. The majority of the documents were produced by external bodies or individuals but were integral the association's activities. The only materials produced by the members of the association are copies of correspondence. The three subjects most comprehensively addressed are the development of the Brooklyn Civic Center (Cadman Plaza), the redevelopment of Fulton Street, and traffic and transportation.

With regard to the Civic Center, the documents cover the renovation and construction of Borough Hall and the court houses as well as other buildings and facilities in the area such as the Red Cross building, Brooklyn Law School, the public library, and parking structures. The papers discussing the redevelopment of Fulton Street primarily address the removal of the elevated train and the development of the area as a downtown Brooklyn shopping district. The papers regarding traffic and transportation issues are tied in with Robert Moses. He was influential in the development of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and the Verazano Narrows Bridge, all of which were concerns of the Downtown Brooklyn Development Association. There are also papers which address the three lines of the subway system: the Independent Subway System, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, and the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Corporation.

Although the main interest of the association was the Brooklyn Heights area, they were also concerned with other areas of Brooklyn. This is predominately shown in the traffic files, but there are also papers concerning the redesign of the Pratt Institute Campus in Fort Green and information throughout multiple files on Prospect Park and the neighborhood of Park Slope. The only folder which is designated solely to the administrative concerns of the association is the Resignations folder. This contains correspondence from member businesses declining to continue their membership.