Comments on: New Construction, Caton http://mylifeinbrooklyn.com/2006/11/27/new-construction-caton/ A Perspective Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:35:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: TJ Christie http://mylifeinbrooklyn.com/2006/11/27/new-construction-caton/#comment-2028 Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:41:37 +0000 http://mylifeinbrooklyn.com/2006/11/27/new-construction-caton/#comment-2028 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. :-) 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. :-)

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