CORTELYOU WINDOW

by Kevin Walsh

The picture windows of the Cortelyou Road station window are placed directly over the tracks, which used to be part of  asteam railroad conecting Prospect Park and Coney Island.

Through it, we see “DRUGS” and “SODA” signs, which are a small part of a large painted sign on the side of the old GREENFIELD THE CHEMIST building. In Britain, ‘chemist’ means pharmacist, and the word is used for quaint effect here.

4 comments

Dan December 23, 2011 - 12:17 pm

Surprised that the MTA has thankfully left it in place.

Reply
Ron Schweiger December 29, 2011 - 9:32 pm

The beautiful window at the Cortelyou Road station is not “vintage.” When the MTA refurbished the station a few years ago, they put in the window. It is not as old as you think. The original tracks were put in place in 1878 by the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railroad. It was a steam line that ran at street or grade level from Prospect Park to Brighton Beach. When developers came around the turn of the century, they began to purchase the Flatbush farms and began to build the “Victorian Flatbush” communities that still exist today. As the area becam more populated, the city told the owners of the railroad that they had to get the tracks off the street. The plan was to erect an elevated railroad. The community was very much against it since they bought these beautiful homes for between $6,500 and $13,000. The only option was to place the tracks 18 feet down in an uncovered, open pit. And that is the way it has been since. Go take a look at the newly redone Avenue H station. It was landmarked in 2005 and just completed a fantastic renovation to its original. Ron Schweiger, Brooklyn Borough Historian

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Ellen December 24, 2011 - 5:05 pm

My childhood train stop…a few stores down (or so it seemed) there was a very nice grocer who would give me and my borhter M&Ms while Mom shopped.

Reply
Mike January 8, 2019 - 8:23 am

I remember Rex Sporting Goods on 86th Street wonder if anybody has any pictures of the storefront

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