This stack of glass boxes, still under construction last year when the Googlemobile passed by, rises incongruously from a row of low-slung brick warehouses here in Gowanus.
This block of 13th Street, just west of Prospect Park, is lined with old-timey-looking gas lamps evoking the horse-drawn days of yore. Even the oldest lamps, however, date back only as far as the 1960s, when the Brooklyn Union Gas Company began its "Cinderella" program. Worried about the deterioration of Brooklyn as people began fleeing to the suburbs — you can't very well sell gas to a vacant building — the company started purchasing abandoned properties in declining neighborhoods, renovating them, equipping them with gas appliances and lights, and then selling them, all in an effort to show the potential of those neighborhoods and encourage others to buy and improve the surrounding houses. Exterior gas illumination, with all its attendant quaintness, proved to be quite popular here in Park Slope, and many homeowners have since chosen to install lamps of their own.
According to a sign on the wall, this formerly mysterious and fence-shrouded Department of Health building we saw tucked beneath the White Plains Road Line back in September used to be the Williamsbridge Baby Health Station, but it currently serves as a Parks Department district headquarters and comfort station.
It looks like a giant mud pit today, but this patch of dirt on the bank of the Bronx River is actually a volunteer-built racecourse for radio-controlled cars. Check out this video of an official race here at the track.
Perhaps a remnant of the old Lorillard estate — the Lorillards started what is now the Lorillard Tobacco Company (which makes Newport and Kent cigarettes, among others) in 1760, building a still-standing snuff mill down by the Bronx River in the 1840s — this little overlook now sits alone in the woods just off the Bronx River Parkway.
hardened into stepping stones at the end of Lester Street
We've seen this place before, but it's even more of a spectacle around Christmastime. Unfortunately, because of the rain this evening, most of the celebrity mannequins were either wearing ponchos or were tucked away inside.
"FREAK'N HOT" is what's written on that chili pepper's chef's hat, in case you were wondering.
coin-operated kiddie sidewalk ride so far.
(Just for the record: I still have yet to see a kid riding one of these things.)
As we learned a while back, Satchmo resided here in Corona from 1943 until his death in 1971.
Day 358
Back in action soon!
December 22nd, 2012The Greens are doing very well now (some family health issues kept me sidelined for much of the fall), and I'll be back to full-time walking by the new year! In the meantime, I'll be posting some backlogged photos below. Thanks to everyone for all the support during the hard times!
