... Recommend this page to a friend.

First concerning this particular page, numero uno (no numero duo's necessary) this is one of few pages on the website that's pictures. And as you know, graphics take their time uploading, downloading, side loading, etc, so bear with it. There's a lot to see here if you have any interest in Brooklyn, NY, United States of America, North America, Western Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Mind of G-d. So, does anyone know what play almost has that line? Click here to find out and then scroll back.

This page is for Brooklyn aficionados only, now who else would care ... it shows two important thoroughfares as they appeared in early 1920's ... What makes them so very remarkable is that today, as most Brooklynites would attest to, they are two of the most traveled roads in Brooklyn, and very populated ... with the best people.

Ocean Avenue became the street of apartment buildings (some, very exclusive in its day), and traverses from the south-west corner of Prospect Park on Flatbush Avenue, and going all the way to Sheepshead Bay (Emmons Avenue) ... hey, that's close to where I live - a right turn, left at the beginning of the bay ... Oh forget it. One part of Ocean Avenue borders Ditmas Park which has the distinction of having the largest concentration of Victorian turn-of-the-century homes in the United States.

Kings Highway is one of the oldest roads in Brooklyn, and cuts diagonally across the gridded streets of which NYC is so famous; you will see this on the map (bottom of page). It includes one of the largest intersections in Brooklyn; the interstection of Linden Boulevard, Remsen Avenue, and Kings Highway - large enough for the bus to stop on both sides of the intersection.

There is a third avenue, picture #10, Avenue L: Now this is no major street but it was home to me, and the train picture that follows ... well, that I included because it is close to where I grew up. I might have gotten carried away in the Canarsie history, but what the heck; Canarsie was all I knew then. Have fun.

I added a few more interesting spots that are (and were) important to me; hope you don't mind.

Church Avenue Trolley by Ocean Parkway ... Date: Uncertain
Ocean Avenue looking south from Glenwood Road ... December 4th, 1924
Ocean Avenue looking south from Avenue L ... December 4, 1924
Kings Highway looking northeast from Nostrand Avenue ... October 3, 1923
Kings Highway looking west from Flatbush Avenue ... October 2, 1923
Kings Highway looking east from Flatbush Avenue ... October 2, 1923
Kings Highway looking northeast from Schenectady Avenue ... October 2, 1923
Kings Highway looking east from East 40th Street ... October 11, 1921
Kings Highway and Mill Lane near East 40th Street ... October 11, 1921
Avenue L in Canarsie, looking west from East 96 ... February 3, 1908
This is the famous 14th Street-Canarsie BMT ... now known as the LL line.
This is Emmons Avenue (Sheepshead Bay) ... approximately 1942
Lookie, lookie; just a few blocks from Ocean Avenue ... Jan. 1, 2001
A view off the terrace; another building like the one above ... April 1, 2002
And a map of Brooklyn, especially adapted to this page ... and just for YOU.

1) Church Avenue trolley running under Ocean Parkway. Date: Uncertain

I have to thank someone named "Stephano" for this gem. Personally I never knew the trolley did go under Ocean Parkway; that wasn’t my neighborhood.

2) Ocean Avenue looking south from Avenue G, now Glenwood Road. December 4th, 1924

In this picture and the one below, you can see trolley tracks. The trolleys have disappeared long ago from all Brooklyn avenues and have been replaced by buses. Very few know this but it was those trolleys, criss crossing all over Brooklyn that gave the Brooklyn Dodgers their name; people walking in the streets were always “dodging” those trolley cars. On this street we have today the Ocean Avenue bus. The tracks, as on many of the Brooklyn avenues, were either picked up for scrap metal or just buried under new pavement. Ocean Avenue is just that, one of the avenues that takes you down to the ocean, specifically Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, and Jamaica Bay.

In the above picture, the buildings on the left might still be there; they were most exclusive when first built (note the fancy archway to enter the building). And the frame houses on the right have been replaced by buildings. The two gentlemen are discussing how great it is to be living in the “roaring twenties” with prohibition, and the many sordid vices and quasi professions that followed: gambling, prostitution, murder incorporated, rum running, political corruption, and especially law.

3) Ocean Avenue looking south from Avenue L. December 4, 1924

Those stately homes behind the modern-lookng cars also have been replaced with apartment buildings. Some of the apartment buildings that are north (that's back toward the viewer) closer to Prospect Park, were homes to some famous actors and actresses when movie making was also popular here in Brooklyn.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Mary Pickford lived on Ocean Avenue, on the sixth floor, facing Prospect Park. These owners of Universal Studios on Avenue M and East 14 Street built the apartment house for them so they would have easy access to the studio. What else did they get? Well, the bathtub had gold faucets. These Ocean Avenue buildings were the luxury buildings of those days.

4) Kings Highway looking northeast from Nostrand Avenue. October 3, 1923

First, and this is difficult to fathom from the picture, Kings Highway at this point is today a six lane highway including the two service roads. It sure is hard to believe from the pictures here. To the immediate left is a large general store (it's changed many times). On the right is the Kingsway Jewish Center. Further down on the left is our Beth Israel Hospital, and across from the hospital (that's on the right), you'll find Yeshiva Rambam teaching Hebrew and English studies to bright boys and girls.

5) Kings Highway looking west from Flatbush Avenue. October 2, 1923

Five or six blocks down (here I say “blocks” only jokingly; I only see the beginnings of streets on the left side) is a circle that Kings Highway has to go around. That's where a street, maybe two blocks long, enters the highway from Flatlands Avenue. I used to hang out near Flatlands Avenue on Remsen Avenue, but that's in Canarsie where I used to live. You can read my story in another section of this site.

6) Kings Highway looking northeast from Flatbush Avenue. October 2, 1923

Today you'll find some of the oldest streets in Brooklyn in this area, now called Flatlands. On the left side are: Hubbard Place, Alton Place, and Overbaugh Place. On the right are Lott Place, and Harden Street, and toward the viewer is Ryder Street. If I wanted to spend more time surfing the internet I'd know who these people are. I think they must have been somebodies as they had streets named after them. I don't mean to sound like that pedantic archeologist professor found in Grovers Corners, NH, in Thorton Wilder’s play, "Our Town" (you got it, that's where that earlier quote came from), but I'll offer some salient Canarsie-town details:

Flatlands (which included Canarsie) is a low-lying community. Note that all of south Brooklyn, including Canarsie, is really part of the outwashed plain of the terminal moraine. What? You ask what a terminal moraine is? Here we go …a terminal moraine marks the furthest position of advance of an ice sheet, and forms by the melting of ice and the release of the debris. When the edge of the ice sheet stays in the same place for a long period, the debris builds up to form a ridge. Each time the ice sheet stops for a period during its retreating phase, it deposits a new moraine which is perpendicular to the ice sheet's flow direction. What does all that mean? I don't have the slightest idea ;)

No, just kidding; that's the only thing I remember from geology class (ask me about rocks and I remember nothing). What it means is that this moraine is on huge pile of garbage that was picked up by the ice flow. In Brooklyn, the highest elevations (like Bay Ridge and Eastern Parkway) are part of that morraine. The entire north shore of Long Island is part of that moraine; the south shore, with all those nice beaches, is the outwashed plain

Anyway, Flatlands began life in 1636 as Nieuw Amersfoort (phew, that's some wild spelling), thus making it the oldest of the Dutch settlements. Many of the original Dutch farmhouses still stand in Brooklyn, including the Stoothoff - Baxter - Kouwenhoven House, an historic landmark at 1640 East 48th Street. Nearby is the Hendrick I. Lott House (1940 East 36th Street), first built in 1676 with small windows to guard against Indian attack.

The community is also home to the landmarked Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church (3931 Kings Highway), originally erected in 1663 as one of three churches established by order of then Governor Peter Stuyvesant. In the adjacent cemetery, many early Dutch landowners are buried, including the Wyckoffs, Lotts, Kouwenhovens and Voorhees, in addition to native Americans and some of the earliest free blacks in Brooklyn.

What was that? Enough? Ahem, sorry ... got carried away by the urgency of the moment. Give us Brooklynites a chance to crow and you get the works.

7) Kings Highway looking northeast from Schenectady Avenue. October 2, 1923

No comment here except that when I got married, we lived two blocks south off Schenectady Avenue (that was on Avenue K) and it sure didn't look like this.

8) Kings Highway looking east from East 40th Street. October 11, 1921

This is also part of that Flatbush Avenue section as picture number five above, maybe two blocks further east. Makes no sense saying “blocks.” So do you see blocks? I don't. Today, that's all you have, avenues, streets, blocks, all gridwork.

9) Kings Highway and Mill Lane near East 40th Street. October 11, 1921

Remember now, today this is six lanes including the two service roads, and with beautiful homes on both sides of the highway. About Mill Lane, that beats me as Mill Lane today is a half mile down toward Mill Basin (another section of Brooklyn). But Mill Lane does kinda point in this direction so maybe then it went all the way through to Kings Highway.

Brooklyn history is fascinating as it always, and in a way, still does, consist of many different and distinct neighborhoods. Considering the number of people living here, it could easily be one of the most populated cities in the country.

When you get a chance (that's after you finish with this page), you might see an update on this Mill Lane issue sent to me by a "Jersey Guy" whose heart will always be in Brooklyn. It's an interesting part of Brooklyn and another indication of how things keep changing. He points out that much of the old Mill Lane became private property and small sections of it still remain.

10) Avenue L in Canarsie (a section in Brooklyn), looking west from East 96. February 3, 1908

This is the Canarsie town where I grew up (named for the Native American tribe that was the original inhabitants of the area). It became a popular seaside resort; its speakeasies, beer gardens, vaudeville houses and the Golden City Amusement Park (opened in 1907 near the current site of Canarsie Pier) made it a honky-tonk town for the amusement of other New Yorkers. I'm sure Canarsie's residents didn't miss any opportunities either.

My time was some 30 years later but this street was part of my neighborhood. I lived one block down and one block to the right (Medici's house and store, 9418 Avenue K). Those tracks you see were in 1906 steam engine tracks, an extension of the 14th Street BMT, that brought riders to what was then “Golden City Amusement Park” (opened in 1907), and in 1908 regular train service brought the folks to the pier. Stations existed at Flatlands Avenue, Avenue L, and Canarsie Pier. That's right, the Ave L Station of the Canarsie Railroad is visable at left. The building at the right is was still extant when I was a child and was occupied by a tavern. I haven't checked but maybe it's still there. Avenue L today is a commercial street, so which came first, the station or the commercial is a moot point.

In 1920 the last stop for the train became Rockaway Parkway (this was the only grade-level station in the system), and the tracks were used for a trolley line, going between the two streets (E. 95 and E. 96), this was actually in the people's backyards. This right-of-way ended in 1942 and the tracks were abandoned, and eventually people got their backyards enlarged (nothing was given away; the city just grabbed a little more taxes). The trolley line began operation to the Pier via Rockaway Parkway. Then in 1951, the trolley was replaced by the B42 bus. That's about it for subway history ... happy to hear that, right?

As for the Golden City Park, well that burned down during the 1930's, and the area was cleared (under the supervision of the Robert Moses organization) making jobs for the WPA and the building of the Belt Parkway. This parkway virtually goes all around the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

All I remember about that “park” was that the bars there made the wild west look tame by comparison, and that the "ladies of the night" were also 'ladies of the day" ... this was quite a honky tonk town. This street you see above became one of the main shopping streets of Canarsie, referred by the residents as “the L" and the train line from Manhattan to Canarsie is now called the LL ... I'm sure that's just a co-winky dink.

The trolley that ran through the back yards was replaced by a bus in 1942 and the bus route was now Rockaway Parkway (last stop, Canarsie Pier). And the “ladies of the night?” ... they must be around someplace; this is NYC.

An interesting piece of trivia is the following (and I've never heard it taught in schools): In 1626, Peter Minuit offered to buy what was then called New Amsterdam, and now is southern Manhattan, from a tribe that some say were Canarsee Indians. Minuit, who was director general and colonial governor of the region, had become friendly with the Indians. The chief agreed to sell ther land to Minuit for an amount that has been calculated at somewhere between $24 and $39 ... Remember, this has been considered one of the great bargains of all time ... particularly for these Canarsee Indians, who were simply camping in the area at the time and did NOT own the land ... those "Injuns" certainly knew a good deal.

11) This is the 14th Street Canarsie BMT, now known as the LL line.

I know, this isn't very old; the cars tell you that; though I'd say the train has seen it's years. I remember when all the cars had woven cane seats, overhead fans, and yellow lights that would make the car seem to be an island of warmth and light as it hurtled through the darkness of the subways. I place it here only to show the only two places in New York City where the trains run and the stations are on ground level. Those two stations are the East 105th Street station, and the last stop, Rockaway Parkway. This is the only street in the city (East 105th Street) where the subway system has a railroad crossing. It's an old part of Canarsie.

I read (here online, where else?) though I haven't seen it, that in 1983, this became no longer a railroad crossing (also called a grade crossing). Article said that it was rebuilt; Allan Rosen (who came across this website), says “the train was left at ground level. The street was cut in two so that no traffic crosses the tracks and an overpass was built for pedestrians to cross.” I take his word and I have no plans of visiting it to find out. But until then, it sure was and is unique; the only grade crossing in the NYC Transit System.

Someone named Alex corrects me here saying, “Just wanted to let you know, one statement you made about where the subway trains and stations at ground level in New York City. There is another place that I know of where the station and the tracks are at ground level. That would be the last stop on the M line, Middle Village, Queens. I'm a Brooklynite from way back, but lived in Queens for a while so I know and have taken the train from there. You get the feeling of it being a real train, not just a subway” … All right, I stand corrected. I mean, what would I know about that farmland then called Queens?

Back to Canarsie, I was never too familiar with the part of Canarsie west of Rockaway Parkway; we just didn't "mix" ... not that there was anything wrong with the children there; it was just "the other side of the Parkway". The only time I saw it was from this train; I always felt it was real country. I can see something in this picture that is a favorite of mine; happens to be a weed that grows all over Brooklyn. Known as "mugwort" and tradition has it that it was always good for pre-menstrual cramps. To me it is a constant reminder of my youth in Canarsie; the aroma of it permeated all the empty lots where we played different games. So whenever I see some in season, I rub a few leaves between fingers to get the aroma and I'm eight years old again. I notice that if you go to Google, type in “mugwort” there's more info.

Canarsie spent the colonial period as part of the township of Flatlands, a quiet fishing and farming village. In the 1870s, large numbers of German immigrants discovered Canarsie, and by the turn of the century its population consisted of about 3,000 German, Dutch, Scottish, Irish and Italians -- mostly fishermen who mined the rich oyster beds of Jamaica Bay. There is this church founded by the German community, the Canarsie Reformed Church (on Conklin Avenue), built in 1877, which is a reminder of this immigrant era. It is still there on Conklin along with many other old historic houses.

Traces of Canarsie's bucolic past remain in spots, most obviously in its network of alleys, that formerly were cowpaths and dusty lanes (and in some cases, still are). Some of the alleys have been lost: The oddly-named “Road To Lott's House,” “Lane To Tyler Davis,” and “Battle Row” are no more, but enough of them are still there to set Canarsie apart from other neighborhoods that have mostly eliminated their aboriginal roads.

For many decades of its history, Canarsie had been derided as a backwater, a place somehow left behind on the evolutionary scale that other New York City neighborhoods were measured by. Just take a look at how the neighborhood has been described in the WPA Guide to New York City, published in 1939:

“Canarsie's residential section of one and two family houses and shacks is broken by weedy lots and small truck farms. Along the uninviting waters of the bay is a forlorn beach resort and an amusement park called Golden City, a fishing boat center, a beach backed by a dump, and beery dance halls ... all with an outlandish quality that made Canarsie the butt of many vaudeville jokes. A trolley car extension of the BMT subway runs through a littered lane between the back yards and unkempt gardens of run down houses..."

12) Emmons Avenue near the western end of famous Sheepshead Bay

This is close to the part of Brooklyn where I live now. In the background we see Lundy's, one of Brooklyn's famous restaurants. In the foreground we see part of Sheepshead Bay, and off to the right would be all the fishing boats that daily take “plain ordinary people” out to try their luck (and skill) with the sea. I leave it to our sartorial giants to guess when this picture was taken. The lady's dress, the kids wearing white shirts and leather shoes, bamboo fishing poles, men wearing hats, the trolley car with the “island” stop, the sailor (strange that in summer he's not wearing white), and the lack of cars on the avenue (gas rationing during the war?, “the big one” as Archie Bunker would say); I'd say maybe the summer of 1942.

All right, all this was Old Brooklyn. Much of it still remains, and we Brooklynites are as proud of our heritage as, I'm sure, you are of yours. That's the way it should be, one should appreciate, appreciate, appreciate.

13) Well lookie lookie. See what's happening to my Brooklyn. Just a few blocks from Ocean Avenue. Jan. 1, 2001

Would you believe that the corner condo apartment, top two floors (it's a duplex), I think three bedrooms and two baths, and terrace, is going for $2,500,000? It's not easy to believe but lookie, lookie ... that's what's happening to Brooklyn.

14) Now even with this terrace and magnificent view, what do you think? Two million dollars? Yes, I know, we say Brooklyn is great; I love it here, but still...

Now look at the pictures above, one more time ... you've come a long way, baby !!!

15) Brooklyn, with all its interesting neighborhoods, peoples, shopping districts, and the little dots showing intersections we just spoke about. The little red dots were painstakingly placed there by “you know who.” I'm just letting you know ... just letting you know (smile).

First you'll note that Kings Highway is that crescent shaped road starting way up there by the map's legend and curving all the way to Bay Parkway. Other than that road, most of Brooklyn is all gridwork; you can see rectangles all over the map. It's really easy to get around when you get to know the neighborhoods.

Ocean Avenue and Glenwood Road is just below the last "e" of "Ocean Avenue."
Ocean Avenue and Avenue L is two lines below it (lot of condensing went on here).
Kings Highway and Nostrand Avenue is right in the center of the "o" of "Nostrand."
Kings Highway and Flatbush Avenue is to the left of the "F" in "Flatlands."
Kings Highway and Schenectady Avenue is one line about the first "l" in "Flatlands."
Kings Highway and East 40th Street is above and to the left of “Flatlands.”
Kings Highway and Mill Lane was also above and to the left of Flatlands.
Flatlands Avenue and Remsen Avenue is right under the "d" in "Flatlands Avenue."
Rockaway Parkway station of the BMT is right above the "v" in "Flatlands Avenue."
East 105th Street station is above and to the right of the "e" in "Flatlands Ave."
East 93rd Street where I used to live is way above the "0" zero in "East 80th St."
Avenue K and East 95th Street is to the right of the above near edge of map.
Avenue L is the next street. Sorry, but the East 96th Street part is off the map.
Those beautiful new buildings are below and to the left of "Brighton Beach."
And I live? Well, I live close enough and high enough ... to enjoy it all.

Any corrections? ... ... you be my guest.