You’re welcome, Lou Rom. Although I was born in Bushwick, I never really lived there. I lived in Ridgewood, on Cornelia, between Cypress and Wyckoff, from my birth date until September 1991. Up until September 1968 I used the Irving Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, at Irving and Madison, then started using the Ridgewood library. I took walks with my Dad in Irving Square Park until September 1967.
My Dad was born in Bushwick, near Putnam and Howard, and lived first there, then at Evergreen and Moffat, 1070 Decatur, the 700 block of Chauncey Street, on Moffat between Central and Evergreen, and finally 1454 Bushwick between Chauncey and Pilling. Then he got married. For awhile he and my mom lived on Weirfield between Knickerbocker and Wilson, across the street from Irving Square Park. Then they bought their home on Cornelia Street, moved in, and then I was born.
My dad remembers seeing the Karloff “Frankenstein” at the Colonial as a boy of 12 when it first came out.
When I hear Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” I get this feeling of being safe in my dad’s parents' home, either 1454 Bushwick or the 700 block of Chauncey Street.
I still enjoy riding the 14th Street Canarsie Line between Halsey St. and Bway Junction and looking out over Bushwick and the cemeteries. My mother’s parents are buried in Most Holy Trinity Cemetery.
Do you consider the urban blight to be the arson and looting that started during the July 13 1977 blackout or sometime before that ?
I was born on Chauncey Street, between Bushwick Avenue and Broadway, in mid-November 1955.
Chauncey Street’s southern end is at Fulton Street in Brooklyn postal zone 33, Stuyvesant. It then runs approximately east northeast from Fulton Street to Broadway, turns to northeast in crossing Broadway, and ends at Central Avenue, three long blocks northeast of Broadway, in Brooklyn postal zone 7, East New York. I have always thought of that end of Chauncey Street as being in Bushwick, even though Bushwick, postal zone 21, is a few blocks away to the northwest.
It is easy to argue neighborhood boundaries and get confused because they are vague. The separate towns that the neighborhoods once were have merged into each other and no longer officially exist. Postal zone boundaries are definite but do not necessarily agree with the common understanding of the boundaries of some neighborhoods, as noted above.
About three to four weeks shy of fifty years (Thanksgiving weekend 1927 to Halloween 1977).
RobertR, the sign “THIS IS HOW YOUR ….” was either to get the RKO Madison rented, or to get NYC to do something about it, to protect the public, by keeping it from staying derelict.
I would think, nickelodeon, because of the small size. Yet, Thalia Soho, 15 Vandam St., off Avenue Of The Americas in lower Manhattan, was a small cinema in what looked like a former private house, complete with front stoop.
The old Glenwood Theater site and new Ridgewood post office was at the southeast corner of Myrtle Avenue and Decatur Street.
The older post office on Cypress Avenue became a disco known as “The Post Office”. In early 1989 I seem to recall learning of someone being arrested there for packing an illegal assault rifle.
I remember the older post office on Cypress Avenue being open as far back as I can remember (I lived on Cornelia from 1955 to 1991) and open until the new one opened at Myrtle and Decatur.
The post office was at 869 Cypress Avenue, on the northeast side, between Cornelia and Hancock Streets. Jefferson Avenue stops at Cypress Avenue, but Cornelia continues past Cypress to Forest Avenue. It used to extend to Fresh Pond Road, I think, before it became a named street.
lostmemory, when did the Cypress Avenue post office open ?
There also used to be another Ridgewood post office on Madison Street between Wyckoff and Myrtle Avenues, across the street from the “fire escape” side of the RKO Madison Theater.
The Imperial was on the northwest corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue, on the “Bed Sty” or southwest side of Broadway. It is now the Metropolitan Baptist Church. I think Bway posted a link to a recent photo of it on the Imperial’s page on this site.
The Luxor was on the northeast side of Central Avenue about 5/8 of the way from Woodbine to Madison Street. Again, Bway has posted a link to a recent photo of it on the Luxor’s page on this site.
My dad remembers it as being across Central Avenue from his Uncle “Doc” Atsert’s (sp ?) optical shop at Central and Putnam Avenues.
Sorry I haven’t posted yet at Brooklyn Friends, but I appreciate the frequent e-mail reminders, and so I know it’s there.
Perhaps the Brooklyn-Queens boundary changed between the date of the original deed and now. Brooklyn was a city in its own right until the five boroughs were incorporated in 1898. Hence the old expression “city line” for the Bklyn-Queens border.
Based on the maps I have, the Parthenon Theater was in Queens. The Brooklyn-Queens boundary runs down the centerline of Gates Avenue from St. Nicholas to Wyckoff Avenue, thence southeast along the centerline of Wyckoff Avenue to Eldert Street. This means that the Parthenon, which occupied the southern corner (Wyckoff and Palmetto)of the block bounded by Wyckoff, St. Nicholas, Palmetto and Gates, was unquestionably in the borough of Queens. It was, however, served by the Brooklyn post office until January 1980 when its zip code changed from 11227 to 11385.
Thanks, Bway, I was just looking at it, and just printed it. The photo of the trolley with the Ridgewood Theater in the background is similar to a photo in Smith and Kramer’s book, “The Brooklyn and Queens Transit : From Coney Island To Flushing” looking in the same direction. Perhaps it IS the same photo.
The other photo, looking north on Cornelia from Cypress and Myrtle, with the Renken’s milk wagon, I have seen before, but it’s good to see it again.
You can also see Howard’s clothing store in the trolley photo, on the northwest corner of Myrtle and Putnam. It had a vertical sign like the Ridgewood Theater once had. My parents got me two suits at Howard’s : one for First Holy Communion in spring 1963, the second, for my dad’s parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration in spring 1969. The second suit also lasted through my freshman year of high school (1969-1970).
It’s Wyckoff Avenue station, not Wyckoff Street. But thanks, Warren. As noted a few comments above by “bonnie', the Parthenon closed in 1959. I remember that as of September 1961 it had become a bowling alley. It’s too bad you can’t read what was on the Ridgewood marquee in that Brennan photo you mention. I have often experienced that myself, in looking at old photos, to gain information, that nagging feeling of having just missed some important detail, "so near, yet so far” : street signs, marquees, trolley and bus signs visible, but illegible. At once, the hope and despair, the pain and pleasure, of urban archaeology !
It’s as if, the further back one tries to look into the past, the fuzzier the view gets, because of having to look through more and more disorder, that goes with an increasing length of time.
That’s a good idea !
You’re welcome, Lou Rom. Although I was born in Bushwick, I never really lived there. I lived in Ridgewood, on Cornelia, between Cypress and Wyckoff, from my birth date until September 1991. Up until September 1968 I used the Irving Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, at Irving and Madison, then started using the Ridgewood library. I took walks with my Dad in Irving Square Park until September 1967.
My Dad was born in Bushwick, near Putnam and Howard, and lived first there, then at Evergreen and Moffat, 1070 Decatur, the 700 block of Chauncey Street, on Moffat between Central and Evergreen, and finally 1454 Bushwick between Chauncey and Pilling. Then he got married. For awhile he and my mom lived on Weirfield between Knickerbocker and Wilson, across the street from Irving Square Park. Then they bought their home on Cornelia Street, moved in, and then I was born.
My dad remembers seeing the Karloff “Frankenstein” at the Colonial as a boy of 12 when it first came out.
When I hear Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” I get this feeling of being safe in my dad’s parents' home, either 1454 Bushwick or the 700 block of Chauncey Street.
I still enjoy riding the 14th Street Canarsie Line between Halsey St. and Bway Junction and looking out over Bushwick and the cemeteries. My mother’s parents are buried in Most Holy Trinity Cemetery.
Do you consider the urban blight to be the arson and looting that started during the July 13 1977 blackout or sometime before that ?
I was born on Chauncey Street, between Bushwick Avenue and Broadway, in mid-November 1955.
Chauncey Street’s southern end is at Fulton Street in Brooklyn postal zone 33, Stuyvesant. It then runs approximately east northeast from Fulton Street to Broadway, turns to northeast in crossing Broadway, and ends at Central Avenue, three long blocks northeast of Broadway, in Brooklyn postal zone 7, East New York. I have always thought of that end of Chauncey Street as being in Bushwick, even though Bushwick, postal zone 21, is a few blocks away to the northwest.
It is easy to argue neighborhood boundaries and get confused because they are vague. The separate towns that the neighborhoods once were have merged into each other and no longer officially exist. Postal zone boundaries are definite but do not necessarily agree with the common understanding of the boundaries of some neighborhoods, as noted above.
Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be taking a trip to Elmhurst, Illinois to see a picture of a now-demolished Brooklyn NY cinema.
Thanks, Warren. Any chance of you scanning and posting a link to the aforesaid image ?
Dock Ock, Green Goblin, I’ll never tell !
Peter Parker will never tell !
About three to four weeks shy of fifty years (Thanksgiving weekend 1927 to Halloween 1977).
RobertR, the sign “THIS IS HOW YOUR ….” was either to get the RKO Madison rented, or to get NYC to do something about it, to protect the public, by keeping it from staying derelict.
I would think, nickelodeon, because of the small size. Yet, Thalia Soho, 15 Vandam St., off Avenue Of The Americas in lower Manhattan, was a small cinema in what looked like a former private house, complete with front stoop.
Brooklyn-Queens, welcome to Cinema Treasures ! I hope you like it here. I’ve had lots of fun with it, and have posted here a lot.
Knitting mill is quite possible, as Ridgewood abounded, and still abounds, with them.
Yes, 11227 is now a “Dead Zone”, to borrow the title of the Stephen King novel and film, as far as NY is concerned.
The old Glenwood Theater site and new Ridgewood post office was at the southeast corner of Myrtle Avenue and Decatur Street.
The older post office on Cypress Avenue became a disco known as “The Post Office”. In early 1989 I seem to recall learning of someone being arrested there for packing an illegal assault rifle.
I remember the older post office on Cypress Avenue being open as far back as I can remember (I lived on Cornelia from 1955 to 1991) and open until the new one opened at Myrtle and Decatur.
The post office was at 869 Cypress Avenue, on the northeast side, between Cornelia and Hancock Streets. Jefferson Avenue stops at Cypress Avenue, but Cornelia continues past Cypress to Forest Avenue. It used to extend to Fresh Pond Road, I think, before it became a named street.
lostmemory, when did the Cypress Avenue post office open ?
There also used to be another Ridgewood post office on Madison Street between Wyckoff and Myrtle Avenues, across the street from the “fire escape” side of the RKO Madison Theater.
Ridgewood was 11227. Wyckoff Heights was 11237.
BushwickBuddy :
The Imperial was on the northwest corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue, on the “Bed Sty” or southwest side of Broadway. It is now the Metropolitan Baptist Church. I think Bway posted a link to a recent photo of it on the Imperial’s page on this site.
The Luxor was on the northeast side of Central Avenue about 5/8 of the way from Woodbine to Madison Street. Again, Bway has posted a link to a recent photo of it on the Luxor’s page on this site.
My dad remembers it as being across Central Avenue from his Uncle “Doc” Atsert’s (sp ?) optical shop at Central and Putnam Avenues.
Sorry I haven’t posted yet at Brooklyn Friends, but I appreciate the frequent e-mail reminders, and so I know it’s there.
Ridgewood 3 may be a reference to the Ridgewood when it was a triplex as opposed to a five-plex, as in summer 1981.
Perhaps the Brooklyn-Queens boundary changed between the date of the original deed and now. Brooklyn was a city in its own right until the five boroughs were incorporated in 1898. Hence the old expression “city line” for the Bklyn-Queens border.
Based on the maps I have, the Parthenon Theater was in Queens. The Brooklyn-Queens boundary runs down the centerline of Gates Avenue from St. Nicholas to Wyckoff Avenue, thence southeast along the centerline of Wyckoff Avenue to Eldert Street. This means that the Parthenon, which occupied the southern corner (Wyckoff and Palmetto)of the block bounded by Wyckoff, St. Nicholas, Palmetto and Gates, was unquestionably in the borough of Queens. It was, however, served by the Brooklyn post office until January 1980 when its zip code changed from 11227 to 11385.
Why 1961, and not 1960 ?
Have you found out when the Parthenon ceased to be a bowling alley ?
Thanks, Bway, I was just looking at it, and just printed it. The photo of the trolley with the Ridgewood Theater in the background is similar to a photo in Smith and Kramer’s book, “The Brooklyn and Queens Transit : From Coney Island To Flushing” looking in the same direction. Perhaps it IS the same photo.
The other photo, looking north on Cornelia from Cypress and Myrtle, with the Renken’s milk wagon, I have seen before, but it’s good to see it again.
You can also see Howard’s clothing store in the trolley photo, on the northwest corner of Myrtle and Putnam. It had a vertical sign like the Ridgewood Theater once had. My parents got me two suits at Howard’s : one for First Holy Communion in spring 1963, the second, for my dad’s parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration in spring 1969. The second suit also lasted through my freshman year of high school (1969-1970).
Ride, Sally, Ride ! Fast Eddie’s posts are INSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE !!!
It’s Wyckoff Avenue station, not Wyckoff Street. But thanks, Warren. As noted a few comments above by “bonnie', the Parthenon closed in 1959. I remember that as of September 1961 it had become a bowling alley. It’s too bad you can’t read what was on the Ridgewood marquee in that Brennan photo you mention. I have often experienced that myself, in looking at old photos, to gain information, that nagging feeling of having just missed some important detail, "so near, yet so far” : street signs, marquees, trolley and bus signs visible, but illegible. At once, the hope and despair, the pain and pleasure, of urban archaeology !
It’s as if, the further back one tries to look into the past, the fuzzier the view gets, because of having to look through more and more disorder, that goes with an increasing length of time.
It was kind of you to pay Bela Lugosi’s final hospital and funeral bills.