A tradition here, apparently
Proclaiming their eternal love on an ancient outcropping of the Hartland formation at Pelham Bay Park
The former waterfront entrance to some old estate in Pelham Bay Park?
This "massive salvaged limestone sculpture" once "adorned a temple-like niche in Rice Stadium", a recreational facility built in the early 1920s here in Pelham Bay Park as a gift from Julia Rice (she of Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise fame) in honor of her late husband Isaac. The crumbling stadium was deemed a safety hazard and demolished in 1989, but the American Boy was rescued, restored, and reinstalled near a new running track in the park. The original plaque on the statue read as follows:
YOUTH IS ENTITLED TO FREEDOM
THE FUTURE OF CIVILIZATION DEPENDS
UPON OUR CHILDREN. IT IS
ESSENTIAL IF WE CAN HOPE FOR HUMAN
PROGRESS, THAT CHILDREN SHOULD BE
UNFETTERED BY THE DOMINATION
AND THE CONVENTIONS OF THE PAST.
WE OWE TO YOUTH AN UNTRAMMELED
HAPPINESS GUIDED BUT NOT STULTIFIED
BY STERN OBEDIENCE TO RIGID
RULES SET DOWN BY THEIR ELDERS.
THE PROPER SPIRIT OF PLAY MUST BE
ENCOURAGED; IT IS THE NATURAL
INSTINCT OF THE YOUNG.
HEALTHY CLEAN MIND IN A STRONG
CLEAN BODY IS THE IDEAL
FOR WHICH WE SHOULD STRIVE.
John is one of about 250 relic hunters issued metal detector permits by the Parks Department each year. (Here's a terrific article about metal detecting in city parks.) In addition to this ring, he found several other items today, including a 1944 Mercury dime and an 1898 Indian Head penny. He was very enthusiastic about answering my questions and encouraged me to take up the hobby, telling me it's a great way to meet girls!
Seen by relatively few people, thanks to its out-of-the-way location in Pelham Bay Park, this soaring World War I memorial is one of the city's most striking monuments. Here's a beautiful close-up of Winged Victory at the top of the column, and here's a shot of the inscription at its base.
at Co-op City and the Northeast Corridor rail bridge
This mile-long inlet was the site of the 1964 US Olympic rowing trials, and, as you can see, it's still a popular spot with the oar-bearing crowd.
Just a few days after the Boston Marathon bombings, paranoia is running high. Someone called 911 to report a "suspicious package" at the intersection of Farragut Road and East 105th Street. In Canarsie. On the corner of a vacant lot. The cop did a serviceable job of sounding serious when he told me that's why I couldn't pass through. "Hey, if someone calls 911, we can't just kick it into the gutter", he said with a smile. I had to circle back around later in the day, after the bomb scare was over, to pick up this block.
on East 100th Street. On its page about this playground, the Parks Department offers a nice little history of children's recreation in the city, featuring this quote from Teddy Roosevelt: "If we would have our citizens contented and law-abiding, we must not sow the seeds of discontent in childhood by denying children their birthright of play."
One of two synagogues I saw today that now share space with adult living facilities — a sign of Canarsie's shrinking Jewish population?
The parlor's been closed for more than two years, but the sign's still hanging in there. To quote a post from last March:
After struggling for years, all the NYC OTB parlors were finally shuttered in late 2010. A considerable number of them, however, have managed to eke out a pathetic sort of survival, courtesy of the sluggish economy: their signs and logos, or at least traces of them, still adorn many of the vacant, unrented storefronts that once housed the parlors. The former customers, of course, have had to move on, but what has become of Jesus Leonardo? Not to worry, friends: he just keeps on keepin' on.
This is the end of the line in Canarsie — the L train's terminal station. For much of the first half of the 20th century, however, there was a trolley extension that carried passengers from this point down to the old Golden City amusement park on the shores of Jamaica Bay. You can see some pictures of Golden City here, and read an article about its opening day in 1907 here (referring to one of the park's premier attractions, King Pharaoh, a sub-headline reads: "Educated Horse Sells Pictures").
From the station here on Rockaway Parkway north of Glenwood Road, the trolley ran along a private right-of-way, curving south for a couple of blocks before settling into a nice, straight course a little east of, and paralleling, East 95th Street. Looking at aerial photos, you can still see traces of the trolley route: an oddly shaped building oriented diagonally to the street grid; a curving backyard tree line; a slender, slanting mid-block parking lot. There are also some tangible remnants to be found: the pole near the right edge of this photo is one of several old trolley utility poles in the area that have been turned into lampposts.
His 1980 murder ended New York's first experiment with single-officer patrols.
