My Life In Brooklyn

Today I decided to head south and walked as far as the intersection of Flatbush and Bedford, then headed north again on Nostrand, weaving back and forth on some of the streets just on whim. Some notable (and large) constuction projects almost everywhere.

I decided to head west on Tilden and was glad I did. I saw a really striking building on the southeast corner of Lott Street and Tilden (Number 139 Lott St., if you wish to look it up.) Some really beautiful details in it, but clearly no evidence of use that I could see. Taking some time to speak with a few people in the area, no one could help me out with the building past or present in terms of use, other than to say it had been locked up tight for many years. At first I thought it seemed almost armory-like in nature, but as I walked to the rear of the building via Lott, I saw what looked like truck bays, again totally locked.  It is an odd building with few windows and to be honest I am not even certain where the entrance is/was.  In any case it is quite interesting and a mystery, to me at least.  It has made me very curious. I admit the above image doesn’t do it justice, especially with the grafitti, but check out the details below the cut.

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I was taken with this building the first time I saw it, located on the northwest corner of Ocean Avenue and Beverley Road.  PropertyShark info states it has thirty residential units and is dated 1912.

I’d like to do a little more research on this building.  There is no name visible on the building, but given the suggestion of both visual arts and literature depicted in the corbels (below), I can’t help but think there must be an interesting story attached to it.  And if there isn’t, there should be. I’d love to see what the apartments look like, with only thirty apartments in the building they could be quite large. 

This is an excellent example of why I love walking around Brooklyn. A few more pics and hi-res versions on flickr.

 

Today I walked around the perimeter of Prospect Park, it was just that kind of day for me.  I spent too much money at the Farmer’s Market at Grand Army Plaza, took lots of photos, and then heading home decided to pop into the former Panda-Chuchifrito-Sajoma place.  Now it will be called Brothers Seafood.  I am excited because in the 4+ years I have lived here, this is the first time I have bought sliced deli meat.  Locally that is.  It’s probably not a big deal to most of you but a decent deli has been on my retail wish list since I moved here.  One of the owners told me he worked for Dean and Deluca prior.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed but I am very happy with this place so far!

A few weeks ago I uploaded a series of images on my Flickr account, documenting the number of tear-downs and new builds of a particularly ugly nature between Maple and Midwood streets, New York and Brooklyn Avenues.  You can have a look at the images or map here, if you wish.

In the middle of this area I noted a section that is not being touched (on the linked map, the area is in green).  It is an interesting group of smaller homes, almost cottage-like in nature, clustered together.  There are definitely some element of this area that has declined and would benefit from general clean up, maintenance, and landscaping, but for the most part the buildings seem intact.  Given a little TLC, this would be a very cute little enclave that — for some reason — brings to mind Pomander Walk on the upper west side.  Anyway, I like walking around here now and then, and hopefully the grouping will prevent tear-downs.

Last week amid general business and friends from Australia visiting, I managed to spend a little bit of time at the BPL, where I have been researching non-real estate topics.  Looking though a 1925 reel of The Brooklyn Eagle, I happened upon a press release for the building of this very block.  Having this unexpected bit of info, I just thought it worth the share. 

I did wonder about the names I had seen: Miami, Tampa and Palm — and seeing it was named “Coral Gardens” did make me smile.  I walked over and photographed the same group of houses appearing in the 1925 article, remarkably similar as you are able to see from the two images.  This stretch is actually on New York Avenue — the worst part of this particular block is they must live amid the ugliness of Feddersland.  High res images are linked, though the panorama itself is far from perfect, you will get a sense of the place.

Entire article is reproduced on the jump.

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Westbury Court is a short street, a dead end overlooking the subway tracks (Q & B). The building in the image is situated at the southwest corner of Flatbush Ave (684 Flatbush is the primary address). Quite often there are groups of young men and SUVs hanging around, not necessarily in front of this building, but definitely on the street giving it a somewhat ominous appearance.

We nearly moved to a similar dead-end street in this neighborhood when we were house hunting and now rejoice in the fact we didn’t. The local precinct commander once told a group -– when he was asked about dead-end streets and criminal activity -– whether we ever considered why cowboys in old westerns liked to take refuge in canyons. Simply put, it is a means to advantageously use the natural configuration of the land to observe all activity: who enters, departs, etc. I guess the theory has some logic to it.

Anyway, this building is dated 1929 and PropertyShark reports 95 residential units and 10 commercial units. I keep trying to imagine what it would have looked like in 1929. It has a certain charm to it, even with this paint.

Brownstoner published a post today that talks about Victorian Flatbush.

I’ve been walking around Victorian Flatbush once a week for a while now. It made me want to sell our house and move to that neighborhood the first time I walked along Buckingham Road. I love the sense of suburban enclave in the midst of the city. The houses are drop dead gorgeous. Most anyway, some of the streets have some significantly newer homes that just do not fit in. Plus the appeal of a larger yard is always a huge draw for me because I love gardening. In fact yesterday my husband and I drove around that area just looking — he was tired of hearing me talk about it and wanted to see the place.

I do wonder what it is like actually living there. Having lived in the suburbs of western Massachusetts for many, many years, moving to Brooklyn—albeit from Manhattan—has been an interesting experience. People walk here. They walk past your house, sometimes everyday, and get on the subway or bus to work. They walk to stores. They walk to the park. And most of them say hello at least, and sometimes they stop to chat for a few minutes. After a while you learn their names and the names of their kids. There is a sense of connectivity. The houses here are significantly closer to the sidewalk than those in Victorian Flatbush and ultimately—like it or not—you get to know your neighbors.

In all honesty I know more people on my street now than I knew on the street where I lived for 10 plus years in Massachusetts. And that goes for Manhattan too, though I did know a group of alternate side parking regulars who were a friendly, entertaining group.

Some closer levels of community and neighborhood are not for everyone and I get that, but I have never felt the level of familiarity here something that was suffocating in any way. Still I cannot help but wonder what it is like to live in Victorian Flatbush in terms of community and the day-to-day familiarity. I could be wrong, but it just seems the physical layout of the place might not be conducive to interacting with neighbors in the same way people do here. Despite the fact so many homes have the Great American Front Porch. Of course if you it could be perfect for you, but as someone who has mostly lived in suburbia it isn’t something I am ready for again. Not yet. Though I won’t lie to you — there are occasions where I would have happily traded neighborhoods for even the suggestion of quiet.

At any rate, I would love to hear what it is actually like living there, not in the houses, but the community.

I keep forgetting to make mention of these large projects in process of being constructed, but I saw each one of these again yesterday, so duly reminded, just a mention before I forget again (images below the cut):

1. Northeast corner of Church and Ocean Ave — this has been ongoing for a while now.  Retail and office space certain, uncertain if there are residential units on upper floors.
   
2. Bedford Ave, corner of Caton (where it meets with Linden) — Residential.  This seems to have gone up pretty quickly.
   
3. Ocean Ave (Across from 560 Ocean) — This is a huge lot, located almost directly across the street from the notable “Cathedral Arms” building and next door (south) to the lovely “Embassy” building, number 555 Ocean. I assume it will be residential.
   

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A couple weeks ago I took some pictures of this building located on the southeast corner of Flatbush and Cortelyou, which pretty clearly indicates it was once a theatre.  It’s been nagging at me for a couple of weeks now, but today when I was looking through my postcards for something else I stumbled upon the vintage Rialto Theatre card.  What was amazing, to me at least, is I had by chance captured almost the exact same camera position.  This generally never happens to me, especially when I am actually trying to do this.

The “before” was published between 1916 - 1930; the “after” was photographed 28 September 2006.

Cinema Treasures has this on it.

Upon moving to Prospect-Lefferts in 2002, one of the first things I did was head to the Dutch Reform Church on the corner of Church and Flatbush Avenues.  We had driven past the church many times in our Brooklyn house hunt, though what intrigued me most was the cemetery.  If you have any historical interest in the area, it is well worth a walk through.  Some of the tombstones are in remarkably good condition, considering the age.  I spent a sunny afternoon creating a photographic inventory of stones, as I often do in cemeteries. Walking among the monuments you will see many familiar Brooklyn names, descendants of the early Dutch settlers.

One interesting stone is that of Richard Alsope [sic] of Middletown, Conn. “He came to Flatbush in August 1815, to visit his sister, the wife of Mr. Riley. He had retired on a certain day to his room in the house now occupied by Mrs. Schoonmaker, and was subsequently found dead sitting in a chair by the window. It is presumed he had been struck with apoplexy. The tomb-stone which marks the place where his remains lie interred, bears the following inscription: — In memory of Richard Alsop, Esq., of Middletown, Conn. Distinguished by genius and poetical talents, respected for integrity, and beloved for his amiable simplicity of character. He died suddenly, when on visit to this place, on the 20th of August, 1815, aged fifty-four years.” [from History of the Town of Flatbush, Thomas M. Strong, D.D., 1842.]

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On Monday I had walked east to Kingston Avenue, weaving back and forth on some of the side streets but focusing upon Maple and Midwood Streets.  I had been very surprised at the amount of construction: newly completed, in process, and vacant lots awaiting treatment of some kind. Despite taking some notes as I grabbed  pics, it was later confusing to sort it all out simply viewing files and notes.  There is that much construction within a couple of blocks.

Yesterday, I headed back with a more direct route in mind and, again, took lots more pics with a clearer sense of location.  I had thought it might be an interesting exercise to create an image map of this area based on newly constructed buildings, vacant lots, and construction in process.  Though when as I began to compile the data I realized my limited time wouldn’t do justice to the project.

I spoke to one long-term resident I encountered in this specific area on Maple who held a laissez-faire attitude about the change.  No, it didn’t bother him that much at all, “out with the old, in with the new,” he told me.  I cannot offer an opinion on what was torn down in order for the new buildings to exist because I never saw them.  But without a doubt, confirmed by Mr. Laissez Faire, there have been tear-downs of old buildings. 

For the sake of argument, lets just say the torn down buildings were in bad shape, really bad, and had nothing worthy of an attempted renovation. I can accept that.  What I have a great struggle with is 1) the design of these new buildings, 2) the lack of any kind of provision for usable outside space adjacent to the sidewalk (no sense of communication between the world and the building, and 3) turning front yards, stoop area, etc. into parking spaces. This is, of course, my opinion — you may feel differently.

Not to overlook my photos, I have placed them in a set on flickr.  If you would like to see something sad, to me anyway, have a look at some of the new or relatively new structures – all exisiting on these four blocks located only a couple of blocks from the Lefferts historic district. Then walk or drive by someday to experience the real impact.