Day 267

LIRR Sub-station 2

September 22nd, 2012



Here in East New York stands one of the five original substations built by the Long Island Rail Road around 1905 when it first began electrifying its tracks. Now abandoned, the substation will start to reveal its true identity to passersby a little later in the year.

Day 267

La Sinagoga

September 22nd, 2012



George Gershwin was born in a house that once stood across the street from this synagogue turned church.

Day 267

Rose of Sharon

September 22nd, 2012



She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.

Day 267

Shea Stadium

September 22nd, 2012



Looks better than the real one (now a parking lot for Citi Field).

The two adjacent ball fields here at Breukelen Playground are also named for demolished stadiums: Yankee Stadium (the old one) and Ebbets Field.

Day 267

With a name like Gormigor

September 22nd, 2012



you pretty much have no choice but to become an exterminator.

Day 267

Home Run

September 22nd, 2012



This 24-year-old mural once wrapped around the corner of this building in East New York, but most of it has now been painted over. I believe that's Jackie Robinson's silhouette on deck; the artist apparently included all of her favorite players somewhere in the scene.

Just a few blocks away from this spot, on the Brownsville side of the train tracks, once stood Eastern Park, the home of Brooklyn's National League ball club for several seasons in the 1890s. In fact, it was supposedly at this park that the team acquired the original version of the name by which it is still known in its current, distant home of Los Angeles. A number of surface rail lines ran through the area in those days, and so a walk to the ball park could require a fair amount of maneuvering on the part of the pedestrian to avoid being hit. Hence the club's new nickname: the Trolley Dodgers.*

After seven years of low attendance and mediocre baseball, the Dodgers left Brownsville and returned to their old stomping grounds in South Brooklyn, where they built the second Washington Park (whose sort-of-not-really remains we saw back in April), catty-corner to the site of their former home of the same name.

* Some sources claim that "Trolley Dodgers" referred more generally to Brooklyn's late-19th-century profusion of street car lines, rather than the specific lines that ran past Eastern Park.

Day 267

The Atlantic Avenue fire

September 22nd, 2012



On June 5, 1998, two firefighters lost their lives in a five-alarm blaze that destroyed the four wood-frame houses that once stood on this site. Lt. James Blackmore was killed and Capt. Scott LaPiedra was fatally wounded when the floor beneath them collapsed after they had rushed into one of the buildings in search of an elderly woman who — unbeknownst to them, obviously — had already escaped by the time they entered.

Day 267

Still at it

September 22nd, 2012



Those crazy critters!

Day 267

To be recycled

September 22nd, 2012



Bottles, post-redemption

Day 267

Red Road to Mars

September 22nd, 2012



If I had passed by a week and a half earlier, I would have seen Buzz Aldrin at work on this mural!

Day 267

“Sunnydale Farms”

September 22nd, 2012



Looks like an undercover Mister Softee operation to me.

Day 267

Cozine Iron Workshop South

September 22nd, 2012



Perhaps the home of these guys?

Day 267

1000 Alabama Avenue

September 22nd, 2012


Day 267

Portal of the day

September 22nd, 2012



Brooklyn North District 16 Sanitation Garage

Day 267

Hands and Heart Garden

September 22nd, 2012



East New York Farms!

Day 267

Welded to the curb

September 22nd, 2012



These trees don't mess around, unlike those jokers in Sunnyside.

Day 267

Bushwick Multi-Service Center

September 22nd, 2012



If you look closely, you can see that this was once the Evangelical Home for the Aged (a.k.a. the German Evangelical Home for the Aged), an institution established in 1879 "to provide food, shelter, clothing to persons 60 yrs. and over."

Day 267

Sam Deli & Grocery

September 22nd, 2012


Day 267

Your move

September 22nd, 2012



Bushwick's checkerboard Ocean Blue Residence

Day 267

It’s Your Move

September 22nd, 2012



Not to be confused with the previous post!

Day 267

St. Barbara’s

September 22nd, 2012



A baroque beauty built by beer

Day 267

St. Barbara’s up close

September 22nd, 2012


Day 267

Bushwick-Ridgewood War Memorial

September 22nd, 2012



This statue, quite lonely when first unveiled, was fashioned by Pietro Montana, who also sculpted the nearby Victory with Peace.

Day 267

A Flatiron Popeyes

September 22nd, 2012



I hope that's not dinner escaping back there.

Day 267

Barberz #26

September 22nd, 2012



(Note the connection to a Canarsie Line subway standpipe in the foreground.)

Day 267

Heaven Scent

September 22nd, 2012


Day 267

Guerrero does it all

September 22nd, 2012