Though I lived in Bay Ridge and knew Dyker Heights, Brooklyn well, I had never thought to walk or even cycle 13th Avenue its entire length. It’s a compact avenue exactly 50 blocks long between 36th and 86th Streets, and since I’m doing the walk–the-entire-avenue thing lately, I thought 13th would be a lot quicker than, say, Bedford Avenue, which I’m also working on.
I lived in Dyker Heights for about a year, too, but always felt somewhat detached from it. It’s a land of two-family houses, sprinkled with the occasional apartment building, and some blocks have those gorgeous attached brownstones you find more frequently in Bay Ridge, Sunset Park or Park Slope. I rented the bottom floor of a two-family house in 1990 for the sum of $700 a month and at the time, that was a bit much for me to afford. (How today’s prices of $1400 a month for one bedroom apartments in NYC are considered reasonable escapes me; when salaries are raised in tandem with rents, get back to me and we’ll talk about affordability.) I am so naive.
Anyway, Let Us Bring You Back to all those years ago when I lived in Dyker Heights, however briefly, in 1990-1991.
This was my view out the enclosed porch which had a huge picture window. On snowy days it was quite soothing.
And, this is what you saw when you went out the front door and walked a block away. That house was razed soon after I moved.
Dyker Heights was first settled by, most likely, a Dutch family named Van Dyke (who knows, maybe relatives of Dick’s) in the 1660s and it remained farmland into the early 1900s. Because of its position on a hill overlooking the Narrows there were several fancy mansions built mostly along 11th Avenue from 1880-1910, but some along the other avenues. See the yellow and green, mansard-roofed beauty on the left side of the right-hand picture? I marvelled at it every time I walked past it. Soon after I left Dyker Heights in 1991, the building was razed in favor of multifamily homes, a sad trend throughout NYC. The neighborhood still has plenty of expensive mansions, most of newer vintage.
Anyway, I was fairly miserable in Dyker Heights. As shallow as it seems my mood from month to month sometimes depends on my financial situation and at the time, the apartment was beyond my means, so I was losing money. In a happier situation it would have been a marvelous place, but with 6 rooms and no one but me there, I felt sort of like Charles Foster Kane at Xanadu after he had driven his wife away. And, subways don’t serve Dyker Heights, really; I had to walk about 12 blocks to the nearest station at Ft. Hamilton Parkway and 62nd Street. In the rain, that’s unpleasant. Then there was the obligatory break-in burglary since I was on the first floor. So, I left Dyker Heights after a year.
I took the B64 bus a few weeks ago from a “Nostalgia Train” ride to Coney Island, got off, and finally walked an avenue I had biked past or rode a bus on for so many years.
Why did 13th Avenue become the main drag of Dyker Heights? After all, many skyscrapers actually skip the 13th floor. (NYC hasn’t shied away from the #13 in any of its numbered street sections.) The trolley line that predated the #1 bus route ran along 13th between Bay Ridge Avenue and 86th Street, and early on, the Brooklyn, Bath Beach and West End Railroad constructed a station at 13th Avenue and 55th Street. The avenue does sit at the bottom of Dyker Heights’ heights and is lower than 10th, 11th and 12th Avenues. In any case I have never run into any bad luck there.
13th Avenue begins at a massive Knights of Columbus hall on 86th Street on a site originally owned by the former Dyker Heights Country Club, which ran the Dyker Heights Golf Course. Dyker Heights has the greatest feel of a small town between the golf course and about 81st Street. My father actually preferred to use this post office at 13th and 83rd, preferring it to the nearer one to where we lived at 4th and 87th. Perhaps he liked this more stylish building, or maybe the lines were just shorter.
Dyker Heights actually has a national shrine, the Church of St. Bernadette on 13th and 83rd Street. The parish originated only in 1935–relatively recently, since the area wasn’t built-up on every block until then–and the building itself was constructed in 1937 by architect Henry Murphy.
Closer to 82nd Street you find what the AIA Guide to New York puckishly calls a “kitsch rock-piled shrine” to the titular saint, St. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) who, according to Catholic tradition, spoke to Jesus’ mother, the Virgin Mary, seventeen (or eighteen according to the version you read) times in a grotto near her home in Lourdes, France. Bernadette uncovered a spring of running water at Mary’s direction and since then, the spring has gained worldwide renown for its healing power. Mary is rendered in stone and terra cotta above church doors.
Much like my father with the post office, I preferred this library at 13th and 82nd to others in Bay Ridge at 4th Avenue and 95th Street and Ridge Blvd. and 73rd Street, probably because it was brand new then. And you can pretty much tell this is 1970s architecture, though the barbed-wire decoration came later on.
Sirico’s catering hall is across the street. Couldn’t behim, could it? Well, the actor was born in Brooklyn.
At 7010 we find the former Endicott Theatre. This had to be a theatre at one time; what bank building would include a frieze of pan-pipe and tambourine playing fauns?
According to the nonpareil cinematreasures.org:
Situated in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, the theatre was the flagship of the Endicott Circuit, which also had its headquarters in the building. In “the old days”, the circuit was never more than minor-league, running only late-run houses in Brooklyn and Queens/Long Island.
In 1945, besides the Endicott, they included the Avon, Garfield, Hollywood, Metro, 16th Street, and Sun Theatres, all in Brooklyn; the Boardwalk in Arverne, the Edgemere in Edgemere, and the New and Rivoli in Rockaway Beach.
St. Bernadette’s is only the largest shrine in the neighborhood; Dyker Heights, a heavily Italian Catholic neighborhood, has dozens in houses’ front yards, most of them dedicated to Mary.
This one near 67th Street features Francesco Forgione (1887-1968) of Pietrelcina, Italy, who was much better known as Padre Pio (“pious Father”) after his ordination to the priesthood in 1910. He served in the Italian medical corps in World War I and much later, in 1956, opened what is regarded as the most efficent hospital in Europe, the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, or “Home for Relief of the Suffering.”
It is his mystical aspects, however, for which Padre Pio is best known: he was a renowned miracle worker and reputedly carried stigmata, or bleeding in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, from 1918 till the end of his life, and believers maintain he could bilocate, or be in two places at the same time.
He was canonized in 2002.
I don’t know where Carl Sanfilippo, accountant, is now, but I was attracted to his storefront near 67th Street by its straight-from-the 1940s stenciled lettering and doorway tilework.
On 65th Street between 12th and 13th is the Italian Renaissance Regina Pacis (Queen of Peace) Church, likely the tallest structure in the Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst area except for an apartment complex on 65th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues.
Between 12th and 13th in the middle of the block between 63rd and 62nd Streets we find a private alley called Tabor Court. I have no idea where the name comes from…possibly the developer…but when passing here I think of the 1960s Japanese sci-fi cartoon series, Eighth Man. Why? Eighth Man’s name was Tobor, or robot backwards!
You’ll never see Eighth Man reruns on the Cartoon Network, by the way…the superhuman android got his strength from taking pills in the form of cigarettes!
When I was out on a cycling tour, I always knew I was nearing home when the spire of Regina Pacis appeared in the distance if I was coming back via Bensonhurst.
Legend has it that when several jeweled crowns at Regina Pacis were discovered missing, mob boss Joseph Profaci, who resided in the area and worshipped at the church, let it be known that the chalice was to be returned and, even though it was, it was a transgression that could not go unpunished and the thief was later strangled.
The Mystery Worshipper worships at Regina Pacis
Detouring down 61st Street towards 14th Avenue. Between 62nd and 61st we find the open cut that supports both the BMT Sea Beach subway line, more popularly the N train, and also the old Long Island Rail Road Bay Ridge Branch, now used by the NY and Atlantic RR for freight. It used to be a much more important freight line, apparently, as we see the Daylight Daily Laundry Building and its old hoist. Likely, the day’s laundry was lowered by pulley to the street and thence loaded onto freight cars, and vice-versa.
Also on 61st we have the tradition of slaughterhouses along railroad right-of-ways; the are also plenty along the LIRR at Atlantic Avenue.
Sign for former Tabard Piano factory. Till recently the old Tabard neon sign was still here on 61st just off 14th Avenue.
I detoured to 14th Avenue in search of a lamppost relic I was tipped off about by light post maven Bob Mulero, who, if anything, is even more obsessive about them than I am; he has been photographing them since the late 1970s! I found not just one relic, but two…
New Utrecht Avenue, and the West End el (the D train) slashes through the street grid at 14th Avenue and 61st Street, and the line transfer with the Sea Beach (N) at a 62nd Street stop. The avenue was laid out as a plank road in the mid-1800s, the Brooklyn, Bath Beach and West End Railroadopened along it in 1864 and was elevated in 1916.
I’m here for the fire alarm light, though. Notice the shape and composition of the shaft; it’s a compact, gorgeous design that hasn’t been used in sixty years. These orange fire alarm marker lights are being phased out in the early 2000s, which is a shame because they have all kinds of genera and different forms. The one you see here, with its swirl and perhaps acanthus leaves, was specifically designed to show up on cast-iron lamppost shafts that first appeared in the 1910s. In those days, the bulb was made of glass and globe-shaped.
When octagonal-shafted light poles–like this one here–began to take over in 1950 the fire alarm light came to be mounted either at the apex of the shaft post or attached to the top of the street luminaire, which made the lamps appear to be two-headed. Later on, fire alarm lights were mounted on the shafts themselves again, but this time with simple J-shaped mini-masts. That style was domnant until quite recently.
What’s quite rare is to find the cast-iron style fire alarm light mast on an octagonal-shafted pole. In Brooklyn, it can only be found here, on the Dyker Heights-Borough Park border; and a couple of occasions each in neighborhoods as far apart as Canarsie and the Coney Island boardwalk. How did it happen? Crews were probably disassembling the old cast irons and found it more expedient to slap the older fire alarm mast on the newer octa-pole.
Dyker Heights-ers use this now-disused fire alarm as a garbage can, but they’re disrespecting a nearly 90-year-old piece of NYC history. Public fire alarms have been used in NYC streets since 1887, while this is the oldest design extant — going back to 1912!
The Savarese pastry shop in the background of the fire alarm photo has a very good lemon ice.
Next stop, Blythebourne
At 60th Street is the unofficial Dyker Heights-Borough Park border, but we’re specifically in a Borough Park enclave called Blythebourne (derived from dialectical Scottish for “happy home”) which sits along 13th and New Utrecht Avenues for the few blocks above and below 55th Street. It was developed along the old Brooklyn, Bath Beach and West End Railroad line in the 1880s by Electus Litchfield, son of Edwin (who built the Gowanus Canal and Litchfield Villa in Prospect Park in the 1850s when he owned much of what became Park Slope). If you squint, you may be able to make out the remnants of old Blythebourne, which was assimilated into Borough Park decades ago. State Senator William Reynolds, owner of the old Brooklyn, Bath Beach and West End Railroad, coined the term “Borough Park” when Blythebourne was expanded beyond its original parameters.
More than anything else, Borough Park benefited from the conversion of the Brooklyn, Bath Beach and West End Railroad to a Brooklyn Rapid Transit el in 1916, with service connecting to Manhattan trains that cost just a nickel. The old farm lots were bought up, a street grid was laid out, and the streets began to bulge with fancy dwellings in the Queen Anne style and later, multifamily apartment buildings that all had uniformed doormen.
The subway’s Flushing Line (the #7 train) is famously celebrated as the “International Express” for the cacophony of cultures to be found underneath, but just about any subway line can be an “international express.” On 13th Avenue in old Blythebourne, around 56th Street we have Hungarian, Polish and Yiddish. Translations please!
When I was a kid and my parents and I would ride the B16 bus, and as it made its way into the Borough Park area, I’d amuse them no end by trying to pronounce the lettering (some of them look like O’s and X’s). I just thought they were English letters written fancifully. It wasn’t till later that I learned there are plenty of languages that don’t use our alphabet.
The building with the Hebrew-style writing is the old Blythebourne post office.
This may have been one of the dwellings built just after Blythebourne was founded in the 1880s. The bowed porch is a nice touch. Hopefully, it won’t be razed as so many older Borough Park buildings have been in the last 2 decades.
Rex Cole was on the cutting edge of refrigerator technology in the 1920s for GE and, on this 1920s era apartment building a Cole sign appears under some cell phone towers, so he’s still on the cutting edge.
I could have shot this picture in 1945, 1955, 1965 or any other 5 thereafter but it’s 2006 on New Utrecht Avenue where it meets 13th Avenue.
You can’t really mention Borough Park without talking about the Hasidim. It seems as if they have been here forever, since their methods of worship and even general attire do not seem to change from decade to decade. Actually the first Hasidic congregation in Borough Park was established in 1947 by Rabbi Yosef Friedlander; early members consisted of Holocaust survivors. Many sects, or “courts” as they are called, came to Borough Park in the in the following years. The above photo likely shows a family belonging to the Satmar.
An El Detour
I decided to break off for a brief walk down New Utrecht Avenue, which was named for one of Brooklyn’s original six towns, New Utrecht…named, in turn, for a city in Holland. You can often find some surprising things under els, like ancient signage or outmoded street lighting.
L.B. Electric still shows its 1940s-era lettered sign for el riders, with a block-lettered 1970s-era sign at street level. Forgotten fans know which one your webmaster likes better.
When the post office moved to its new location at 12th and 51st, just west of the el in the late 1970s, they kept the old Blythbourne designation.
New Utrecht and 52nd Street. This might be a couch potato, but I was reminded of Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Pooh.
…there isn’t anything that can’t come out of a Forgotten NY page.
I’ve said I like to walk under els because outmoded lamppost designs can be found underneath. New Utrecht at 54th Street (top) and 50th (next two) demonstrate this. At 54th you find a very rare double-masted pole on a shorter shaft to fit underneath the el, and at 50th, a rarer curved-mast pole. These have been retained under els in some cases because the curved masts can get places that their straighter-masted cousins can’t.
Ah, but notice too the “new gumball” luminaire on the short brown poles. These were introduced in the 1980s and already, the gumballs are being phased out in favor of more conventional hardware.
Heart of Borough Park
I was here on Saturday, ordinarily a very busy time along most other shopping districts, but not here, where the population is close to 85-90% Orthodox or Hasidic Jewish. As you will see the avenue is dotted with some very old painted adverising. At the end of 13th, or the beginning, depending on your starting point, looms the iconic Sears tower at Bedford Avenue and Beverley Road in Flatbush.
Crown Caterers, 13th Avenue between 50th and 49th Streets. Are there any other vintage neon signs in town that light up Hebrew or Yiddish lettering?
[sadly, since removed]
Didn’t Fuller Brush at one time have a considerable door-to-door business? At any rate they have a big relationship with the Famed Direct Mail Company I work for now (September 2006). They have been in business since 1906, originating in Nova Scotia and presently in Kansas.
Lids have been coming back the last few years (your webmaster wears a battered New York State Lotto cap when it rains — I like the black crown and teal brim) but in Borough Park, hats are de rigueur for both men and ladies. Not just the broad-brimmed business hats all guys used to wear, before John F. Kennedy forgot his and they got phased out, but big fur hats, the kind you saw on the guy in the photo above at the stationery store. In July. When it’s 100 degrees.
The slogan reminds me of the now-bankrupt Syms’: “An educated consumer is our best customer.’
Pery Wigs? Like, as in periwigs?
No jeans allowed in Borough Park, and you better make everything black and white.
13’s End
Toward about 40th Street the Orthodox and Hasidic atmosphere along 13th lessens a bit, but there are still a few vintage signs to peruse.
Want to take a stab at what phone exchange UL was?
Ah, I’m told it was ULster.
In the 1980s, the Kansas City Royals had a shortstop named U.L. Washington. The initials stood for…
U.L. That was his name.
Actually I’d prefer U.L. over Ulster, to be honest with you.
The Thirteenth Avenue Retail Market dates to about 1940, as its bare bones Art Moderne exterior and red block lettering will attest.
During the 1930s, there were so many pushcarts on the streets that police cars and fire trucks had difficulty getting where they needed to go. As a result, Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia created indoor retail markets as a permanent home for street vendors. Essex Street Market
Other LaGuardia-era public markets, past or present, can be found on Essex Street in the Lower East Side, 1st Avenue and East 10th Street, and Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.
It looks like Red’s, a Borough Park mainstay for decades, won’t be there much longer. Your webmaster had Thanksgiving dinner there once back in the 1990s.
Beats the year I had a Swanson’s frozen when the old man went to Junior’s and I was waiting for him at the Tiffany Diner for an hour when we got our wires crossed!
Why on earth would I shoot a picture of a weed-choked empty lot at 13th and 37th Street?
It’s got decades of transit history as the right-of-way of the old Culver Shuttle, which ended service in 1975 and was razed 10 years later.
13th Avenue ends at 36th Street, fittingly at a matzoh factory. A block north, 12th Avenue gets to go a couple of blocks further, to Dahill Road. Side streets in the area are charmingly named Tehama, Clara, Louisa, and Minna, probably for the original landowner or real estate developer’s daughters.
In San Francisco you will also find streets with the same names in order. Coincidence?
I think not!
On my way to the train I spotted some more “international express” signs on Church Avenue in Bengali, Spanish and Chinese.
The Bridge and Tunnel Club has been to 13th Avenue and New Utrecht Avenue before me.
Photos done July 15, 2006. Page completed September 4.
45 comments
I lived on 34 str and 13 th ave from 1956-1966.
The old Italian guys used to play bocce under the culver local and that is where I got my first taste of Manhattan Special. Thanks for the memories.
sorry that was 37th street under the culver line l lived at 1271 37th street
http://exploresanfrancisco.tumblr.com/post/33062512994/minna
Your tour of 13 Avenue was a walk down memory lane for me. I still live here, have been since I was a girl. I remember many things you speak of. I found your article while searching for the Endicott Theater. It was a thought that came to me while reminiscing my old neighborhood. Thank you for your pics and writings.
I lived there in the 40’s and 50’s wish I would have taken photos. what a great place to grow up in.
my mother grew up on 13th ave. we used to go back there many years ago and visit family. what wonderful memories
I grew up on 70 bet 11 and 12 ave. As for the ridgwood bank at 7010 I never noticed that sculpture. Anyway that was well known as Genovese store in the 80’s and 90’s. Then became eckerd (spelling May be wrong) before becoming a bank.
I also grew on 70 th street bw 11th and 12 th Avenue during 60-80’s.
I went to PS 176, Dyker Heights Junior High School and Nee Utrecht High School.
I remember Genovese Drug store when it was Bohack’s. I was Baptisized at Regina Pacis on 65th street.
Two photos (Circa 1940) of the Endicott Theater are available at the Municipal Archives at 31 Chambers Street, NYC. It’s on microfilm, it can be copied for 50 cents or order a black and white glossy photo (from original negative) for $35 plus shipping. I’ve been there numerous times, the stuff is very helpful. You’ll need the block and lot number. Good luck.
..13th avenue was the center of our living in Boro Park…where we met our neighbors with their shopping carts. The shopkeepers knew everyone by first name. There was a shop there (maybe on 44-45 st) called Spots, where my mother could spend hours browsing through all kinds of things. She bought the best Christmas decorations here, very unusual things, some of which I now own. Don’t think the store is there anymore, sadly.
I live in tabor court for 58 years i was born here and I will die here. This was the best block growing up. We were all like family, all the kids use to hang out on one stoop 1246 if ours moms were looking for us they knew exactly where we were. Even though must of my friends moved to Staten Island and Jersey we still are a close knit of friends. We care foti e another in difficult timeless, we are always there for each other. I can tell you stories and show you pictures that will prove, we I’ll always be number one in this neighborhood.
Hi, I lived on 72nd Street bet. 13th and 14 th Ave. Went to P. S. 176 from 1948-1954. I remember Tabot Park. Is P.S. 176 still an elementary school? Thanks, Mary Jane
Hi Mary Jane
I also want to PS 176 from 1965-1971
I believe it’s still an elementary school
I also attended PS 201 Dyker Heights jr high
And New Utrecht HS…
I remember the bakery’s and the stores
And pizza joints along 13th Ave.
I remember Bohacks between 70th and 71streets…
Do you know the 14th Ave Cafe? How about M
ike’s candy store?
L
My grandmother’s brother Frank Romano lived on 13th Ave and 65th St, across the street from Ralph Aevoli and Sons Funeral Home. Their apartment was on the second floor, above the live chicken market. Still have memories of taking the train from Queens to visit and shop when I was 5-6 years old. (early 1960’s)!
Anyone know of a large corner restaurant there in the 1950’s ? It was known as, or called Mom’s Place. A woman named Rose worked or owned it, and she had sons with one being named Tony. Had a very large bar and supposedly wonderful Italian! I think there was also a post office and a lil pharmacy along the street. I think Tony Bennett used to hang out there a lot. TIA
I found your article and pictures very interesting I am moving to Dyker Heights next week near 66th and 18th ave (apartment) do you know anything of this area? My biggest concern is I was steered somewhat wrong by broker as he said the train was just ” afew blocks up” but every train/bus map I view things are 15-20 blocks away. Do you have any suggestions for a route to get to the train?
Annie, I suppose you’ve done your exploring already, but 18th Avenue and 66th Street (Bensonhurst, not Dyker Heights) is less than three blocks below the 18th Avenue stop on the N train.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/18th+Ave+%26+66th+St,+Brooklyn,+NY+11204/@40.6201924,-73.9924902,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c245226e8dac03:0x29115f976157b7d5
PS. to Kevin: Great work, as always.
I grew up on Clara Street. Story was a farmer named McDonald (Avenue) sold his land and part of the deal was that the developer was to name some of the residential streets Louisa, Minna and Clara after the Farmer’s daughters, and Chester (Avenue) for his son. Supposedly he sold the land and moved out West, repeating his later land sale there as well.
They also had a brother named Twelfth
Kevin, The section of 12th Avenue that you humorously mentioned (I presume), used to be called Clementina St. It was renamed 12th Ave in about 1900. The similarly named streets in San Francisco still includes a Clementina St, but as in Brooklyn, some of the original names were changed. At one point all the streets in the Brooklyn Cluster has San Francisco counterparts. I’ve researched these streets for a considerable period of time, and I have come to a preliminary conclusion that the San Francisco streets were named first. I can find references to the streets in San Francisco maps back to the 1860s, but I have not been able to locate any Brooklyn maps with these names that are older than about 1880. That could be because the area of these streets in present day Brooklyn did not belong to Brooklyn until after unification in 1898.
I don’t know if you are as interested as I am in getting to the bottom of the street name puzzle, but if you are and still live in Brooklyn, it would be great if you could go the the main library to look for yet un digitized microfilm maps.
If you are not as crazy as I am, that’s fine. Forget I said anything.
Apparently he moved to San Fran, since there’s a cluster of downtown streets named …. Louisa, Minna, Clara and Tehama
My father was a doctor in an apt building on the corner of 13th Avenue and 67th street – in the 30’s….we had fire escapes
is all I recall.
On the corner was a pharmacy. We were very friendly with them. I still remember Mary Fada – I think
Thanks for this walk down memory lane. I grew up on Chester ave and 36 th and 12 th. I was trying to explain to my daughter that the 13 th ave market was probably the equivalent of today’s farmers markets. I can still remember get fresh peas there
I lived at 44th between 14th and 15th Avenues for 14 years. My family would eat at Red’s and buy Italian pastry 1 block away. I remember the Culver Shuttle and the men playing bocce under it. I lived in San Francisco for 8 years and there is a Minna St. Ebingers bakery was further up 13th Ave. I have wonderful memories of my childhood growing up in Borough
Park. Everyone got along.
I grew up in the 1950’s on 13th Avenue & 42 St. I remember the bocce courts, D’Angelo Lattuca bakery across the street from Red’s who had the best pizza. We attended St. Catherine’s Church, went to the Lowes’ 46th Street and Boro Park movies on New Utrecht Avenue. It was a great and happy childhood surrounded by family and great neighbors.
Does anyone remember the name of the bakery in Dyker Hts on 13 th Ave that is now currently Mona Lisa?
Hi it was called decarlos
i remember Scottos bakery across from Reds i worked at the dinner across from Reds run by Harold and lived on 37th street. there was a grape season when the box cars would park their trains under the ell selling grapes for wine makers in borough park every thing was so easy then
I remember walking to 13th avenue and 40 something street from 4th avenue & 54th with my mother to get fresh chickens at a Kosher abattoir. We always had fresh knishes when we went.
I lived on 13th avenue and 44th street in the early 50s through early 1970s. My family lived on the second floor of a mens clothing store called Weiss. I went to PS 164, Montauk Jr. High and Bay Ridge High School. Loved growing up in Brooklyn. Moved in late 1971 to Northeast Pa.
Hung out on 13 th Avenue and 69th Street. Actually in front of 6911-13th Ave around 1951.
Friends were Rosemarie Rangi, Tootsie, Fara, Baby Ann, Rosalie Di Simone, Kitty, Audie, Nick & Jerry Greek, etSuper GREAT CLEAN times.
looking for anyone who might remember ‘modern bakery’? i’m pretty sure that what is was called…I was told it was on 13th ave. my grandfathers sister owned it…until recently, I didn’t even know my grandfather had a sister! (he was dead before I came along and apparently no one talked about this woman). grandpa’s name was Giuseppe DeVito so obviously her maiden name was DeVito…no idea if she ever married or what her first name may be. i’m guessing this was in the 1930s and 1940s. if anyone has any memories or leads, please contact me! thanks!
Thank you for the great memories. I lived on 13th Ave. and 59th St. until 1961. It used to be an all Italian neighborhood with nice friendly people. I attended St. Frances de Chantal Elementary School and the church across the street from it. I’ll never forget the pies we would buy at Ebinger’s on 13th Ave. Great memories.
Does anyone remember Crystal Hardware on 13th Ave. It was next to Companion’s bakery. My Grandfather owned it from sometime in the late 40’s early 50’s until the early 70’s.
The picture of the Chassidic couple pushing a stroller was more likely Bobov than Satmar.
Rabbi Friedlander from 47th St. wasn’t the first Chassidic Rebbe in Borough Park. There was a Rabbi Halberstam on FHP and 52 in the 20s.
You’re totally correct. The white socks on the man mean that they are almost certainly not Satmar, and the way that the man’s gartle (belt) hangs off to the left side suggests that they are in fact Bobov
Like others here, I have vividly, fond, memories of 13th ave from my childhood. (1960-1976) Especially between 86th St. thru
72nd Street. Walking 13th ave uncountless times throughout
those years. With shopping or strolling with mom, with my brothers as we got older and were sent “up the block” to go to the
Stores for mom, then hanging out with our friends. St. Bernadettes, the post office and library, Mona Lisa, Galicia and Satellite
Bakeries, Polsteins hardware store, Willie’s butcher shop, Fannie and Angelos candy store, Leo’s department store,Richard’s Pharmacy and most importantly was Caruana’s grocery store, to name just a few. Caruana delivered and also allowed mom to
run a ran and pay up when dad got his paycheck! Those guys were the best and I have no doubt we would have gone hungry some nights had not been for them. Best memories!
CORRECTIONS; GALIFI bakery
Help me out. During the 70’s there was a restaurant on13th between 71th & 72nd across the street from Crispy’s pizzeria. Now it’s an MRI imaging place but back then everyone is telling me it was Romano’s or Romano’s macaroni grill. Can anyone confirm?
You’re probably thinking of Romano’s Restaurant at 7117 13th Ave in Brooklyn. Originally established as a pizzeria by Francesco D’Errico (c1931) it was eventually owned by his former employee Ferdinando Romano (c1937) and remained in the Romano family into the mid-2000s. This pizzeria was historically significant because its origins can be traced back to one of the earliest pizzerias in the USA “Grande Pizzeria Napoletana” at 53 1/2 Spring St in Manhattan. Established as a grocery/delli/bakery and probably pizzeria in 1898 by Filippo Milone, D’Errico owned that pizzeria from 1909-1918 and later sold it to Gennaro Lombardi who owned it until his death in 1958.
I lived in Tabor Court for a few year back in the early 60s. It was a great neighborhood. You knew everyone on the street. The stoop was a familiar place to hang out.
While living in Tabor court I remember walking down the street to Bridget’s store on 13th Avenue.
Peter Regas on 1/8/21 is right. As a child in the 1950’s, my family lived on 70th Street between 13th and 14th avenues, and I regarded eating at Romano’s as a real treat. We were Jewish and, if memory serves, the neighborhood was primarily Italian, which could get a little dicey for my brother and i, but I otherwise have generally good (if somewhat sketchy) memories of the neighborhood. But I can still taste the spaghetti with butter sauce and plain veal cutlet (was not an adventurous eater as a kid).
Anyone remembers a Coffee Place on !3th avenue and 71st called CESARE?