Alhambra Theatre

Hello Audrey – Sorry I don’t know when the theater closed – We moved onto Knickerbocker when I was about 5 years old (1952) and the building was “Old” and Dilipated then (Or so my brohter and sister tell me) – Do you remember “Morello’s Grocery” that I think was on the corner of Central and Cornelia? My best friends grand parents and then parents owned that store – and I spent many a summer painting (and re-painting) the walls – which they felt had to be done everyear – and my pay for this job was the best ham and swiss sandwhichs on Italian bread and a large (bottled) creame soda – and I thought that was just about the best pay yuou could get (lol)

YES – The candy store was “Hamms” – when I was small there were two
grocery stores on Kniockerbocker and Eldert – Across the street on the corner was “Costa’s” so I guess “Siegel’s” was the one on my side of the street (805 Knickerbocker?) – Coster’s closed and Paul’s cleanears who had been located in the middle of the blcok (799 Knick) moved into the corner store – Siegel’s became a butcher shop.
Sorry I don’t remember the dates – but somewhere there is a picture of me in front of Pauls Cleaners before it moved and I look like I’m around 10 years old, which would put the year at 1958. I didn’t remember the name of the school – we were just told to stay away from the kids tahat attened it.

the deli on Eldert and Knickerbocker was Siegel’s during the 40;s and early 50's
Hamm’s was the candy store then
The school across from the park was once Franklin K Lane and later ps85(where it got the name Halsey Junior High)and the East New York Vocational Annex a continuation school.(you had to go there if you quit school art 16)

Bway – Nope Thats a new name for me -
but in my limited knowledge – the “Alhambra” building is the only
one ever at that location – so if the Knickerbovker Airdrome was
anyplace – I’m gonna guess it was the precurser to the Alhambra

I remember those hamburgers well, and greatly enjoyed them, piled high with fried onions, on a Kaiser roll, with a big dill pickle spear on the side !

Lost – YES! I do remember that car dealership – BUT (Sorry) can’t remember the name either – The bar was an “Old Mans Bar” when my dad lived above it – smae people day in, day out. My dads apartment was right above the bar with the front windows facing Metropolitan. I think that this was the only place in the city where the tenants who lived above a bar where told to keep the noise down because we where bothering the patrons of the bar.

Thanks, groundstar. Did you serve in Vietnam in the army ? I saw “The Green Berets” at the RKO Madison with my dad on August 2, 1968. I had wanted to attend a Doors concert at the Singer Bowl in Flushing Meadow Park but in retrospect it’s better that I missed it.
It was more a riot than a concert.

I know what you mean about NYC food west of the Hudson. When my aunt and uncle moved from Bethpage, L.I. to Burlington, N.C. in 1976, my parents regularly mailed them packages of NYC food : veal cutlets, kosher dill pickles.

A college classmate of mine went into a bagel business with his brother down South, rather than engineering, because of how rare good bagels were there.

German potato salad “to kill for” at 850 Knickerbocker ! I can’t urge you strongly enough to e-mail Eleanor and get into “Brooklyn friends” !

I have an e-pal, about a dozen years older than you, who grew up in Cypress Hills, Bklyn, but who, like yourself, ended up relocated to Pennsylvania due to military service.

Pete – I moved to Rene Court about a block – west of Grover Cleveland HS between Meropolitan Ave. and Grandview then when I went in the army in 1968 – my sister had gotten married and my Mom had passed a few years earlier, so my Dad moved to a small apartment above a bar on the cornor of Metropolitan and Nurdge about one block up from Rene Court.( When I got out of the army I lived there for about a year and then got married – moved first to Philadelphia then to Lansdale, Pa. and there you have the story of my life in capsulated form.

Bway – I think that the neighborhod is coming back is wonderful – I’m not THAT old, but I can’t remeber a day that doesn’t bring a thought of all the good friends and good times I had on those streets – the smells the excitement the thrills of a whole community withing walking distance – here in Lansdale, Pa you use your car to go the the food store about a block away – and everything is gotten at the “Mall” – My current neighbors could never understand Myrtle Ave and corner Deli’s – I’m so glad that “Neighborhood” is returning.
The comments here want me to “come back” all the more – Thanks

Pete – Practcally neighbors – except that I’m a bit older then you
Those address sound right to me.
I was born in 1948 at Brookly Maternaty – or so I’m told – I walked your block many times as a kid – coming and going to the “Avenue” – Myrtle that is – my friends and I would walk up Halsey street to Wyckoff and then turn left (Halsey ended at Wykoff) and then take any number of the next rights – Cornelia included to get Myrtle always a different route to avoid boredom you know. By the way – my name is Pete also – and I now live in Pennsylvania and haven’t been “home” since about 1971.

Bway – I keep going back to look at that second photo you the took. That fire hydrant in the picture was my summer swimming pool – the wall to the very right of the photo was the side of apartment buildings on Eldert Street – but between that wall and the back of the now gone house was a court yard with the cloths lines from all of the knickerboker Ave apartments streatched across – and many a scaped knee or elbow was had my playing some type of ball in that courtyard – and just a quick note – in the Halsey street picture – the building on the extreme right was a Pharmacy on the bottom with entrance on Knickerbocker and that window was my dentist – entrance on JHalsey Street.

Thanks, Bway, for the second shot, looking north at the northern corner of Knickerbocker and Eldert St. It shows that Knickerbocker is now one way northwest, which confirms my understanding of the orientation of your first shot.

The school just beyond the former Alhambra was the original East New York Vocational High School. My dad attended it at its later location in the Bway Junction – East New York area. The school beyond it was St. Martin of Tours Catholic School. My oldest first cousin, born Sept. 3, 1955, was baptized at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, at Knickerbocker and Jefferson Avenues.

groundstar, here is the e-mail contact for Brooklyn Friends :

The drop ceiling in the “supermarket” must have been a “fake” ceiling covering up the high ceiling of the theater. It appears that the current “doorway” at the corner is in the same spot as it was when it was a supermarket. Obviously, the entire building was refaced on the exterior, at least on the Knickerbocker side. The Halsey St side looks to have the original bricks of the theater. They must have built a floor through the whole building giving it two stories, and cut windows into it. I assume the Knickerbocker side was resurfaced when they converted it from supermarket to whatever it became when they built a floor for the second level in the building.