This is one of our favorite early Brooklyn photos: Taken in 1906, it's called "Post Office and Eagle Building. Brooklyn, N.Y." The cobblestone street was named Washington Street. It is what we call Cadman Plaza East today. Make sure you go to the original site, Shorpy, to see the photo at full size. The detail is magnificent.
We're looking south. The buildings on the right, which include several dance academies and newspaper offices, including the Brooklyn office of the New York Times and the Standard-Union building, were knocked down to build Cadman Plaza Park. A couple of snappily-dressed men are walking in front of the dance studios. One is carrying several packages. We can see only one woman, on the far left, wearing a long skirt.
Straight ahead we can faintly see Brooklyn Borough Hall and the dome of the spectacular old Kings County Courthouse. Designed by Gamaliel King, it was razed in 1961 after "bitter controversy," according to Old Brooklyn. Brooklyn Law School is now on the site.
To the far left is the Alcazar Theatre where they held "smoking concerts." (The U.S. District Court is there today.) Continuing on the left, past the Alcazar, is the same Post Office we have today. (Tillary Street would later cross roughly between the Alcazar and the Post Office.)
According to Andrew Porter (see comment below), the Alcazar is where the 1920s addition to the Post Office building was erected. Tillary Street is roughly where the photographer is standing, so you can't see the elevated train there.
Just past the post office on the left is the beautiful Brooklyn Daily Eagle building. Make sure to look at the full size image to find the eagle at the top of the building and the great bronze eagle over the door at the bottom. (See another photo of this street on page 50 of Old Brooklyn.) The Eagle building and the building beyond it were later knocked down to build the Supreme Court building. Pity.
If you follow the trolley tracks you can see the top of a trolley car peeping out from behind the first horse wagon (best seen in the full sized photo). Those tracks were recently ripped out and thrown into a dumpster when they redid the paving in front of the courthouse at the Post Office, according to Andrew Porter at this post.
The snappily-dressed men, the Alcazar, the Brooklyn Eagle building, the dance academies -- they are all gone, but they live on in this photo.
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Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Time Travel: Washington Street, Downtown Brooklyn,1906
Monday, April 4, 2011
Brooklyn Bridge Closed to Manhattan at Night Again
The bridge will be closed to Manhattan-bound traffic daily based on the following schedule: Sunday-Friday 11PM-6AM, Saturday 12:01AM-7AM, Sunday 12:01AM-9AM. The bridge will remain open to Brooklyn-bound traffic, pedestrians, and cyclists at all times. Motorists will be detoured to the Manhattan Bridge or other crossings during closure times. For more info visit: http://bit.ly/hsbh3c
Photo by MK Metz
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Atlantic Yards Prokhorov Inquiry? Columbine Teacher Free; and More Brooklyn Briefs
- Atlantic Yards hitch? A NJ congressman demands a government inquiry into Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire poised to buy the Nets, for his illegal business dealings in Zimbabwe. NY Post
- Crocheted bike by Olek under the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO. Laughing Squid And more here.
- Author Anna Lappé and musician Dan Zanes will serve as chairs for a Heifer International gala to benefit Haiti on Tuesday, April 5 in Dumbo. DumboNYC
- Three shot, wounded at Brooklyn baby shower. NY1
- To the relief of parents at P.S. 9, the State put the brakes on the city's vote to co-locate a charter school inside their building. Brooklyn Eagle
- Survey: What new business should go in on Pacific Street? Brooklynian
- Photographers and artists are moving into DUMBO. Brooklyn Eagle
- Con Ed rates to go up 12 percent this summer. Gothamist
- Mad scientists producing human breast milk from cows. Gothamist
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Giant iPad2 Hovers Over BQE, Brooklyn Heights
As seen from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
Photo by MK Metz
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Friday, April 1, 2011
UFO Support Group; Sbarro Bankrupt; and More Brooklyn Briefs
- There is a Brooklyn support group for people who have seen UFOs. Brooklyn Eagle
- Brownstoner reports on Thursday night's Brooklyn Bridge Park alternative revenue meeting. Brownstoner
- Sbarro, the "king of mall food court pizza," is headed to bankruptcy court.(Sbarro started in Brooklyn.) Gothamist
- Heartwarming video: Three weeks after the tsunami, a dog was found alive on debris floating in the sea off the coast of Japan. Telegraph
- 14 of the city's 24 subway lines will be undergoing service changes this weekend. Gothamist
- Did you know a casino was opening in Queens? TRD
- Oh oh. Just what you don't want to hear about America's nuclear plants. NY Magazine
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Mayor Bloomberg: Major Shipping to Return to Brooklyn Heights Waterfront
Partially-Completed Park May Give Way to Massive Shipping Terminal
The familiar blue maritime sheds may return to the Brooklyn Heights waterfront -- along with billions of dollars worth of shipping business.
Vowing to restore the Brooklyn waterfront -- from the Brooklyn Bridge to IKEA in Red Hook -- to its former glory as a center of commercial shipping and maritime trade, Mayor Michael Bloomberg today announced that the city's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) had issued an RFP (Request for Proposals) from major players in the deep-water shipping industry.
The proposal would extend the CPIP Brooklyn Waterfront Marine Industrial Zone north of its present configuration to DUMBO.
While the plan was sure to evoke the fury of neighborhood groups that have long supported the partially-constructed "Brooklyn Bridge Park" along the waterfront there, the Mayor pointed out that "economic realities" have changed in the years since the park was planned.
"We don't have the money to finish a park there, much less maintain it," the Mayor candidly told a business crowd gathered for an early power breakfast at Gracie Mansion. "And face it, it's the perfect place for a container terminal."
The Mayor said that national economic development funds were available for deep water dredging, a requirement for modern container ships. Those same funds, however, would not be available for recreational uses like parks.
An addendum to the CPIP Brooklyn Waterfront project extends the proposed Marine Industrial Zone north to DUMBO.
A Long Maritime History
The waterfront along Brooklyn Heights has a long history as a commercial port, dating back to the 16th century. Starting in the 1950s, however, the city began to lose much of its maritime trade to the container ship facility at nearby Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in Newark Bay, now the largest such port on the Eastern Seaboard.
"In the long run more New Yorkers will benefit from a container port than a park," the Mayor said. "Number one, the port will generate literally thousands of jobs. And the city will make millions in fees from the international maritime trade. Having a major port right in the city will also cut down on the massive number of trucks driving over the George Washington Bridge every day delivering goods from the port in New Jersey. The traffic and pollution in Manhattan from that alone is tremendous."
Shipping Lines Positive
While APM-Maersk and the Evergreen Line, two major shipping groups, said the surprise announcement would be "eagerly" examined, civic organizations appeared to be caught by surprise.
"WTF?" said a confused Regina Myer, President of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. "We just built a multi-million dollar park down there!"
Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, said she hadn't yet finished reading the proposal. "But if this thing is what I think it is, it's going to blow Brooklyn Heights back to the 50s."
Railroad fan Bob Diamond said he could see great potential for reconstructing the rail line that one ran along the waterfront.
Anthony Masullo, a retired longshoreman who frequently eats lunch at the senior center on Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights, was all for the idea. "Those were the days," he said. "Me and Tony, we used to work all day on the docks and then we'd drink all night at Joe's. We'd wake up on the street without a penny in our pockets.Then we'd just go straight back to work."
But Borough President Marty Markowitz had only one word for the proposal. "“Forgeddaboutit!” he said.
Top photo courtesy Brooklyn Public Library
This was an APRIL FOOLS story!
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The City's Gayest neighborhood; Pier 1 Dance Party; and More Brooklyn Briefs
- Five dead and gone classic Brooklyn restaurants. (And they really were.) Village Voice
- It's the little things: More than 3,000 kids didn't get into kindergarten this year, many in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Eagle
- If Movies With a View was too loud, what will noise-sensitive locals think of the Dance Party coming to Pier 1? Gothamist
- Census Bureau numbers show that the Columbia Street Waterfront District, the quiet enclave west of Cobble Hill, is the city's gayest neighborhood. Brooklyn Paper
- Gas lamps (well, reproductions anyway) are lighting up the Flatbush Avenue triangles. Brownstoner
- A woman was run down and killed by a van on Columbia Street in Carroll Gardens yesterday. Carroll Gardens Patch
- A NY1-Marist Poll revealed that New Yorkers think Mayor Bloomberg is suffering from "third term-itus." Reuters
- Nothing's ever simple: Automatic faucets are germier than the old fashioned kind you had to touch. MSNBC
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
Housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park Meeting Tonight: Pros and Cons
The Cobble Hill Association is urging folks to testify today (Thursday, March 31st, 6 p.m.) and speak out against housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Here is their message:
Though developers try to convince the community that five additional buildings are the only solution to finance the park, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund and many other sensible community advocates know this is not true. Bigger revenue opportunities include selling the Jehovah Witness properties immediately adjacent to the park, as well as creating an Atlantic Ferry Landing concept that would serve as an entertainment and recreational draw on Pier 6.
St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street (between Court and Clinton Streets) 6 - 9 p.m. (map)
UPDATE1:
Here is the Draft Report of the study on alternatives to housing in the park.
UPDATE 2:
We have just received this (very long) message from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. Here it is:
Since 2004, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy has supported the General Project Plan (GPP) for Brooklyn Bridge Park, which calls for a limited amount of residential and commercial development to fully finance the maintenance and operations of self-sustaining Brooklyn Bridge Park.
While supporting the plan, we have also consistently advocated for the least amount of development possible to adequately sustain the park. In that spirit, we welcome the work of Brooklyn Bridge Park's Committee on Alternatives to Housing and the most recent study on revenue alternatives.
Of the alternatives studied, the Conservancy believes that the careful and judicious use of private events, the exploration of sponsorship opportunities and private philanthropy in support of capital projects, and the metering of existing street level parking spaces hold some potential as revenue sources.
But let's be clear that these and other revenue alternatives outlined in the report will not be sufficient to replace the Pier 6 and John St residential sites, which are expected to contribute approximately $8.25 million in revenues per year, nor the Pier 1 residences. However, as we have advocated, these new funds could help to reduce the scale of residential development in the park. We call on Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation to examine that potential quickly and thoroughly.
Here's why this discussion is so important right now.
Brooklyn Bridge Park isn't fully funded yet - the park still needs approximately $130 million to complete its construction. The City of New York has said that it will provide the capital dollars to build the rest of Brooklyn Bridge Park, but those dollars will flow only if the park has a viable plan to fund its maintenance and operations.
That means that $44 million in funds in the short term along with an additional $85 million that has been promised, but not allocated, is hanging in the balance. We cannot afford to walk away from that, and lose the promise of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
If we want the rest of the park - Piers 2 and 3, the outer section of Pier 6, the section in Dumbo, and Brooklyn Bridge Plaza - to be built, we need certainty about when we will have the funding to maintain them and where that funding will come from. And we need that certainty now.
The current park plan - which proposes an achievable strategy for self-sustainability with only 9% of its footprint devoted to revenue-generation (less than half of what was originally authorized) - is still a good plan. And the development parcels that are under review comprise 3 plots with footprints of approximately 10,000 square feet each - in total less than 3/4 of an acre.
Some have expressed concern that the housing contemplated in the current plan will privatize the park.
We've had a year to test this concern. One Brooklyn Bridge Park has been occupied since before the opening of Pier 6, and we have no indication whatsoever that it has compromised the enjoyment of the thousands of children playing in the water lab, visitors catching the free ferry to Governor's Island, or bikers taking the interim greenway to Pier 1. And it certainly has not discouraged those from outside the neighborhood coming to the park - surveys showed that visitors flocked to the park from over 175 zip codes, all across the city, and the world.
Limited residential development actually privatizes the park far less than some of the alternatives outlined in the BAE report, such as taking up more open space by spreading additional retail stores across the park's boundaries, or building a parking garage on what could be open space, or charging fees for basketball courts that are free at every other park in the city.
We think the park's designers are right when they note that in the case of Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is cut off from surrounding neighborhoods by the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, having people live on the park's edges will help activate and energize the open spaces and provide critical "eyes on the park" for what can be an isolated area. And additional residents will support the retail activities already envisioned in the park's plan.
In closing, Piers 1 and 6 of Brooklyn Bridge Park opened last winter and captured our hearts. But let's reiterate - much of the rest of the park may never be finished if we cannot implement a revenue plan. The basketball and handball courts of Pier 2 may never be built, the John St. section of the park may remain as a garbage-strewn and fenced-off field, Pier 3 may degrade and fall into the East River, and the back half of Pier 6 may never open.
It's time to decide whether we want Brooklyn Bridge Park, or not. Whether we want a fully built park, or whether we want to stop with only 2/3 of our park built and walk away from the rest because we cannot reach agreement on its funding.
The Conservancy wants a fully built park, and we want it as quickly as possible - with no delays and no more uncertainty over its future.
To that end, we call on the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, the Mayor, and our local elected officials to reach an agreement and move forward now with a revenue plan that fully funds a safe, beautiful, and vibrant Brooklyn Bridge Park and fully commit the remaining $130 million in capital funds to complete the world-class, waterfront park this community has worked for over the past twenty-five years.
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A Night In a Leaky Lifeboat: A 96-Year-Old Survivor Tells the Story
A man gives a talk about the neighborhoods of Brooklyn at the University Club. He's seated at a table with a sweet 96-year-old woman, and overhears her tell someone she once spent the night in a leaky lifeboat. He asks her to tell him her story and the most amazing tale unfolds . . .
Brooklyn Eagle
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'Georgetown' Wraps Up Filming in Brooklyn Heights
According to IMBD, the show focuses on a group of young people working in Washington.
The sidewalks of Brooklyn Heights were full of film equipment yesterday.
Photos copyright MKMetz
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