I should really do more on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn. It runs continuously from Flatbush Avenue at Prospect Park all the way south to Sheepshead Bay, standing in for East 20th Street.
When I lived in Brooklyn I never rode a bike on the avenue because, dominated almost completely by apartment buildings, it seemed boring to my 20+ year old eyes. However now that I notice detail much better than back then, I can appreciate its subtleties like this tiled arch entryway, with a missing section that’s never likely to be replaced.
I did cover the section between Flatbush and Parkside Avenues a few years ago.
5/21/13
11 comments
Wo
I grew up in that building. Really, on the 4th floor. Then my grandparents moved in. I never documented it in my blog, but I did go to kindergarden around the corner.
http://whatyourdonotknowbecauseyouarenotme.blogspot.com/2012/12/2-photos-i-took-last-week.html
My mother’s parents moved in after we moved out when I was about 5.
on no. I was wrong. my mother just told me we lived at 2270. Diagonally across the street.
Catch the apartment building with a big fenced in fountain out front too.
Those tiles have been missing for the better part of 40 years that I can recall.
I grew up in SheepsHead Bay area and we rode the street car on Ocean Av(I think the cars were called “”Queen Annes”””)from Neptune Av (Emmons Av)to KingsHighWay(had family on Ave P)…that was the pre DODGERS leaving era!!!
I was a small lad and remember the Ocean Ave trolley turning onto Ocean from Farragut Road and riding it with my parents all the way to its end at Sheepshead Bay opposite Lundy’s…..when the replaced the trolleys with buses, it was never the same….Great ride!
On a Forgotten note, Ocean Avenue picks up a brief second breath in Manhattan Beach.
Those tiles are hard to replace. I tried to get some rather average but old ones about 25 years ago in Brooklyn, but they could not be found. I was told that when the grand Art Deco hotels in and around Miami were torn down many years ago to be replace with “modern” buildings, someone in Florida was able to get most of the old tiles and cornered the market. I don’t know if that is true, but it sounds reasonable. If anyone knows the real story, please let us know.
Looking at those tiles for a moment…..combined with the decorative lanterns and the motifs above said lanterns, i get an arabic vibe. Anyone have a back stgory on this place? There’s got to be one helluva good story behind that design….
We lived at 1290 Ocean Avenue which as at the corner of Avenue H. When I was born, there was a single family home at 1250 where we had lived as tenants (owned by the Krautman family). That home was torn down and an apartment building with the same address replaced it in the 1950s. I think it’s been replaced again.
When I was a kid attending PS 152, I remember having to cross Ocean Avenue…daunting prospect for a kindergartener!