I was in the old neighborhood and had my camera with me so I took a few shots of some things you might remember if you grew up there. Sorry this may not be of much interest to you if you weren't from the area.
(Click on any photo to enlarge.)
The corner of 127th Street & 95th Avenue, with the Youngs' house on the corner.
A full view of Youngs' house with Mc Cauley's house to the right of it.
Youngs' house from the front.
My old house at 127-04 95th Avenue.
Hattie & Nettie's old "general store" has been renovated again;
looking really nice!
Hattie & Nettie's place with Walsh's old house on the left.
Jones' Candy Store is now a deli/bodega.
Smokey Oval Park is now officially
"Phil 'Scooter' Rizzuto Park" because
he played a few high school baseball games here (!?)
Looking along the walkway at the park,
looking west toward Jones' candy store corner at 125th Street & 95th Ave.
The basketball & handball courts.
We used to play stickball on this large flat area
in front of the park house; it's been planted over for many years.
The north side of the handball courts, looking toward the park house.
Looking at the ball field from the handball courts.
Chuck Johnson's old house stood on the corner of
127th Street & 94th Ave.
His address was 127-04 94th Ave.
even though it took up two lots and faced 127th Street.
(Above photo copied from Google Maps online,
which still has the view from about the late 1990s or early 2000s.)
These new homes have just recently been built on the site of the
Johnson property and are still unoccupied
(at the time of this post)
but the addresses are 94-01 through 94-11, 127th Street.
These two houses were built on the vacant lot
we use to play in next to Chuck's house, on 127th Street,
but they've been there for many years now.
There is another new house a little further up the street
on the right in this photo.
I don't know if it's on the site oif the old Dowd's place
of if the old Dowd's place is the house next to it, on the left.
Below is a video of the park, taken from the corner of 95th Ave. & 126th Street.
Posts
4 comments:
LOVED it!...............and ALL of your writings and pix. Mark Young has forwarded them to me. He and I were "best friends" growing up. I lived at 129-11-95th Ave., and you'd drive by from time to time & interrupt our "slapball" games. Then, Mark would ask you to "peel out", for our amusement. Keep it up!
Tom Dougherty, living in Georgia for 20 years
Great pics and video. From 1966 to 1973, I lived at 95-13 126St about 125 ft away from where the video was shot. It was a Victorian that was converted to a 2 family house. Neighbors said it was the caretakers house for the Van Wyck estate but I never did any research. While remodeling the kitchen, I found a fireplace that was covered over and piping for the gas lights originally used before electricity. It had 2 dormers with a cupola on one dormer. From the attic, I could see over a good portion of the neighborhood. I would love to see a picture of the house when the porch was open before the conversion. I remember coming home late at night in the winter when it was very still and being able to hear the words on the loud speaker in the railroad yards. It was only interrupted by the auto body tow trucks racing on Atlantic Ave :). Then there was the time that the helicopter from the Pan Am building made an emergency landing in Smokey Park. They had to partially disassemble it and take down some fencing to get it out. I also remember the gas fire on the other side of Van Wyck when a number of houses burned down. I could see the flames from my attic windows. Again thanks for the pics.
Tom & Billy: thanks for your interest in this blog and your comments on the old neighborhood. --Ken
Billy said... contact me; I have a photo of your old house from 1940, showing the way it originally looked. -Ken
Post a Comment