On a strange, sunflurrying day I stumbled on an odd collage on 7th Avenue just south of the avenue, on a brick wall painted with green vines. It consists of a group of photographs mostly taken in front of the wall, showing various activities in the neighborhood, none of them, unfortunately, terribly exciting; however, taken as a group, the collage impels you to look at it in hopes that you will find a hidden meaning behind all the mundanity (sounds like the reason some visit this site doesn’t it?)
Here’s an overall look at the collage followed by some closeups. If anyone wants to hazard guesses as to what it’s trying to depict, send them along; or perhaps you’re a Sloper and you knowexactly what this is saying…
Any guesses?…
Absent a name, I call the collage “7” after its avenue.
A block away from “7” on Sterling Place is the orielled Lillian Ward Mansion at the SE corner of Sterling Place. It was constructed along with the adjacent houses on 7th Avenue between Sterling Place and St. John’s Place by Lawrence Valk in 1887. This is the site of one of Brooklyn and NYC’s worst airplane crashes: On December 16, 1960 two passenger airliners collided over Staten Island: United Airlines Flight 826 collided with TWA Flight 266, and the remnants of the UA flight crashed here. All on both planes were killed except an 11-year-old boy named Stephen Baltz, who perished the following day. At the time it was the worst air disaster in US history as far as lives lost were concerned.
UA 826 survivor Stephen Baltz was cared for until his demise at Methodist Hospital, a few blocks away. This IND subway sign, likely here since the 7th Avenue stop opened in the 1930s, marks its presence.
3/14/08