The Old Bushwick Church L.I. Built in 1711

The First Dutch Reformed Church, pictured here, was constructed in the town of Bushwick (north of the town of Brooklyn) in the octagonal shape typical of Protestant churches in the Netherlands. This church was an important center of civic life, helping to preserve Dutch language and culture for its congregation. In the middle of the nineteenth century, both nostalgic and antiquarian interest in the region’s past fostered a demand for images of historic buildings, including this one, which had been destroyed in 1828.