New Construction, Caton
I haven’t published pics of this construction site before, though I have a few images archived during earlier stages of this build.
It is located on Caton Ave, almost directly facing the intersection of East 18th St. I am guessing this will turn out to be condos, though with all the press lately about condos becoming rentals (or in some cases hotels or discarded plans) one cannot predict. Sadly, at this point the slots for the requisite air conditioners are evident, looks like there will be balconies, and I can only guess the roof level will be some sort of penthouse offering.
Now, while this is indeed Caton Ave, there are some elements of this neighborhood I like quite a bit. It is a short walk to the Parade Ground, Prospect Park, and Q train. It is just on the outer edge of Victorian Flatbush. There are some really nice larger buildings in the area as well as limestones, though ultimately I am not able to say what the place is like at night, for example. But I can’t imagine it to be very bad. On the down side, on Woodruff, which isn’t too far away there are three buildings I suspect to be SROs: broken windows and shades, graffiti and generally poor shape.
Again I have to remind people to have a look at various online mapping resources, you will note there was a teardown in order for this structure to be built. I am not saying all teardowns are unjustified, but I plan to continually remind everyone that they are consistently happening. My own personal opinion is teardowns balance out to be more on the unjustified side in terms of how it ultimately will modify the nature of a neighborhood, but that is how I feel. It isn’t just the teardowns that are worrisome, but moreso the poorly designed buildings that replace them. The city needs to establish some serious guidelines. The following image shows what was torn down for this building (the red “pushpin” is pointing to the intersection of E. 18th and Caton Ave):
Image from Microsoft, Local Live
Explore posts in the same categories: Brooklyn, Construction
August 12th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Oh… oh my gosh… I REMEMBER that house! I remember a LOT of what you have shown here….
I was brought home from Midwood Hospital in the spring of 1956 to a fourth floor walkup apartment at 1710 Caton Avenue, between East 17th and 18th Streets. Later, I lived as a “house mother” in a brownstone on St. Paul’s Place off the corner of Woodruff Avenue (it was the Tau Epsilon Phi frat house), and then moved again - around the corner - onto Woodruff itself (the ground floor apartment of a brownstone owned by Mr. & Mrs. Thomas, later sold to Ms. Dozier), and my back yard adjoined a part of the back yard of the residence on St. Paul’s. When the Thomases sold their brownstone, I moved to 500 Ocean Avenue, just down from the corner of Church Avenue. What an elegant building that was! Marble hallways, brass mailboxes, a garden courtyard and elevators! I remember going to the movies at the RKO Kenmore and Loews Kings. I remember passing Erasmus Hall H.S. as a little kid and being scared of the statue in the courtyard when it was dark out. I attended a parochial school at Beverly Road and East 18th Street; high school at Ocean Avenue and Avenue T. I got my first real job at the brand-new McDonald’s on Flatbush Avenue down the block from the Diplomat Bowling Alley (was the McD’s near the corner of Snyder?) that was owned by a guy named Eddie. He owned a second bowling alley below-ground level, near Jahn’s Ice Cream parlor on the other side of Flatbush on Church. Across the corner there was a big, old Dutch Reformed church (hence, Church Avenue?) with a large, ancient cemetary… and an old fashioned “cigar store” on the opposite corner. Oh man… I have not been back there since 1980, when I left to buy my first home in Long Island. Nearly thirty years… Brooklyn was the COUNTRY when I was a child. I could walk across the street to the Parade Grounds… down the block to Prospect Park, to roll down the grassy hill from this BIG white pavilion with dozens of columns and a red brick floor. The zoo… the Botanical Garden… the Museum. It was all a long walk… an adventure away! Even apartment buildings had yards, and lawns and trees! Long Island was the sticks… all potato farms and cows. Then, they built Kings Plaza, and the word “mall” entered our language. Now it’s all so citified…. I grieve for what once was. I am 51 years old and a grandmother now, and these pictures brought back a lot of memories. Thank you.