I took a 5-mile walk from Coney Island through Bath Beach to the 18th Avenue station on the D elevated the other day, and I didn’t get a whole lot of usable photos, mainly because this is so well-worn a territory for me that like Alexander the Great there was not much left to conquer. Really, I was out because the day was A-1 gorgeous for April and a week of rain was promised. I walked up 86th Street and only squeezed off a few shots from the camera. I pretty much said what I wanted to say about this stretch of 86th way back in December 2011 when I recounted a summertime outing here that, inexplicably, became the most commented-on page in FNY history with over 450 posts and counting.
Today, I was drawn again to the Chase bank at 19th Avenue. Older banks around town are impressive and FNY correspondent Gary Fonville has posted extensively on these structures.
At first I was stumped about what bank this present-day Chase was, but look closely and you will sometimes see identifying marks. Former Dime Bank buildings are sometimes identified by representations of the Liberty dime issued from 1916-1945, sometimes called the Mercury dime since Liberty is wearing a winged cap like the Roman messenger god did. The back of the Liberty Dime is an unquestionably Roman symbol: bundles of sticks surrounding an axe called the “fasces,” symbolizing governmental authority.
The clock still works, a minor miracle, while I discovered the construction date way down by the sidewalk.
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4/6/22