EMPLOYING a backlog of photos from the spring of 2019, when I got on the #2 train and took it all the way down to the last stop of Brooklyn College, then meandered in Midwood to the border of Flatlands and then west into Parkville where I clambered aboard the F train home. By some miracle, both lines were running normally on the weekend.
Only in Brooklyn can South Midwood be located north of Midwood. The name Midwood derives from the Dutch word, Midwout (middle woods), the name the settlers of New Netherland called the area of dense woodland midway between the towns of Boswyck (Bushwick) and Breuckelen (Brooklyn). Jan Snedeker, Jan Stryker, andTomys Swartwout solicited from Director-General Stuyvesant the right of settling together on a level area of wilderness (vlacke bosch), adjacent to the outlying farms at Breukelen and Nieuw Amersfoort. Through Swartwout’s suggestion, the settlement was named the village of Midwout or Midwolde. (info via wikipedia)
Today, Midwood’s borders are somewhat undefined but in general, the neighborhood lies south of Flatbush between Avenue I and Kings Highway and between McDonald Avenue and Nostrand Avenue; everything east of that can be called East Flatbush.
Midwood Park, meanwhile, was developed in 1908 by the John Corbin Company between Foster Avenue, avenue H, Coney Island and Ocean Avenues and has subdivisions called South and West Midwood.
I had left off in the previous post at Flatlands Reformed Church and its ancient cemetery. A short distance away at Flatlands and Flatbush Avenues, you can find another reminder of Dutch rule, a masterpiece with a classic Flemish-style stepped facade. I don’t know the history of the building but it was definitely part of a real estate development because similarly styled buildings are on the other side of the street. Older photos show a Manufacturers Trust bank on the ground floor, and it’s still occupied by a Chase branch. A fire ravaged it a few years ago but it was restored.
Solidly middle-class East Flatbush and Flatlands comprise block upon block of neat, well-kept detached homes, with an occasional shopping strip and apartment building for contrast. Its southern flank, Mill Basin, was the home for Brooklyn’s first “modern” mall, the kind you drive to, the kind the teenagers hang out in: Kings Plaza, built in 1970. East Flatbush and Flatlands have been settled since the mid-1600s, however, when the area was called Nieuw Amersfoort, and a few of its ancient homes built by Dutch settlers are still hidden among the ones built after World War II, when the neighborhood started attracting families. These homes are at least 150 years older than their neighbors, though many have been altered over the years to look more modern.
Flatlands, one of Kings County’s “original five towns,” has a straightforward name and is indeed one of the flattest areas in Brooklyn; I had no trouble cycling through it on many borough excursions from the 1970s into the 1990s. As stated previously, Flatlands’ original name was New Amersfort, named for a town in the Netherlands.
It’s likely that the same developers built this block across the street from the bank on Flatbush Avenue, as the stepped treatment can be seen at both ends. Also notice the Art Moderne lettering for Prudential Savings Bank, which merged with Emigrant Savings Bank in 1979.
Flatlands Avenue, Avenue M and Ryder Street is Father Kehoe Triangle, named for a longtime pastor at nearby St. Thomas Aquinas Church.
In the first eight years of his service as pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas, Father Kehoe established the new school, convent, rectory, and church building. The gothic inspired church building, completed in 1930 was the crowning point in Father Kehoe’s career. Throughout these years the parish grew from 700 parishioners to a burgeoning 7,000 members with an ever-growing waiting list. In addition to the new buildings, Father Kehoe was instrumental in helping the poor members of his community during the Great Depression. He founded a parish unemployment bureau with a guaranteed $20,000 per year funding. This bureau was responsible for securing $5 million worth of employment for local residents.
Father Kehoe used his spare time to organize the local boy scouts, fife and drum corps, and girl scouts. He also assisted in obtaining funds and securing construction for five churches other than his own: Resurrection Church, Good Shepherd Church, Our Lady Help Christians, St. Mary Queen of Heaven, and St. Vincent Ferrer. During his career he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from St. Francis College and administered religious services to U.S. Navy troops based at Floyd Bennett Field during World War II in 1941. After serving as a priest for 47 years, Father James F. Kehoe died in 1943 at age 74. The funeral service was held at his parish, St. Thomas Aquinas. One hundred seventy-five priests were among those who paid their respect. NYC Parks
The Vietnam War memorial was inserted here in 1968.
A grouping of streets in Flatlands are named for old farming families in the area: Ryder, Kimball, Coleman, Hendrickson.
A mystery road trails south from Flatlands Avenue at Coleman Street… but for Forgotten NY, it’s not a great mystery.
At Kings Highway and Avenue M is a relatively infrequently found beast in NYC, a traffic roundabout (though true roundabouts in England aren’t controlled by stoplights). Don’t be fooled by the signage: this is definitely a traffic circle, not a “square.” Square has come to define any NYC intersection, no matter the geometric shape; ovals, circles and triangles can all be called “squares.”
Fraser Circle has nothing to do with the fussy radio psychologist played on TV by Kelsey Grammar. Instead, it was was named in 1934 for NYPD officer John Justin Fraser, a military veteran who was killed trying to break up a robbery. The full story can be read at this NYC Parks page. The circle was built in 1922 as part of Kings Highway’s expansion into a multi-laned boulevard between Ocean Avenue and East 98th/Tapscott Streets.
In Brooklyn, this traffic circle is second in size only to Grand Army Plaza at Flatbush Avenue and Prospect Park.
Though Flatlands is known for its single family homes, there are some semi-interesting exceptions like this storage facility and intermediate school.
I was unable to find a cornerstone at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Avenue M and New York Avenue, but I did find a tax photo of it in 1940, so the building was there by then. The congregation was organized in 1908. I admired its “country church” construction and tall steeple.
Many churches of various denominations are called “Good Shepherd.” The phrase comes from the Gospel of John in which Christ makes an allusion to His own ministry by comparing Himself to a shepherd who would go so far as to risk his life for his flock.
There is a small commercial section in Midwood at Avenue M and Nostrand and you will find some interesting sidewalk signage, for Navar Pharmacy and Elaine’s Avenue M Deli. The pharmacy, in fact has a much wider sign on the Nostrand Avenue side. It looks like a supermarket of drugs.
For 18 years, playing for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets, native Indianan and first baseman Gil Hodges was the epitome of silent strength, compiling 370 home runs and over 1200 runs batted in, playing impeccable defense for a Brooklyn Dodgers team that repeatedly made the World Series but only captured the ring once, in 1955. Breaking in as a catcher in 1943, Hodges saw combat in World War II, losing two seasons to the war, but hit his stride once he switched to first base. Hodges made the All-Star team eight times, received Most Valuable Player votes nine times and was finally elected by the MLB Veterans’ Committee to the Hall of Fame in 2021, some 49 years after his death.
After his playing career ended in 1963, Hodges turned to coaching and managing, helming the Washington Senators from 1964 to 1967 and the New York Mets from 1968 until his death in April 1972 at 47, overseeing the Mets’ unlikely run to a World Series victory in 1969. Always a heavy smoker, Hodges succumbed on the golf course to a heart attack.
Hodges embraced his status as a Brooklyn transplant and maintained a residence with his family on Bedford Ave. from his Dodgers days until his death. A short stretch of Bedford Ave. between Aves. M and N in Midwood is co-named for him, as was the Marine Parkway Bridge connecting Flatbush Avenue with the Rockaway peninsula.
This is just one of a number of streets and roads in NYC named for baseball players, including a teammate of Hodges’, Jackie Robinson.
Reportedly, Our Lady Help of Christians was the church where Hodges, a devout Catholic, worshiped, and would attend early morning Sunday masses before heading to Ebbets Field. As the cornerstone indicates the church was dedicated in 1927.
Continuing westward on Avenue M, one of Midwood’s commercial strips is entered at Ocean Avenue. Recently, this eastern border is marked by this freshly minted glassy office building on the southwest corner.
Though this is a heavily trafficked area in Midwood, its street layout is unusual. Note that there are several diagonal routes that intersect with the overall checkerboard street grid. In actually, these diagonal routes were here first. Above, I am showing a map of the neighborhood in 2023, an areial photo from 1924, and a map from 1873.
The diagonal streets were part of a small town located at the eastern edge of Gravesend called South Greenfield (the former Greenfield is now Parkville). As the Flatbush and Brooklyn street grid was built in Brooklyn in the early 20th Century, there were still numerous residences on these diagonal streets of South Greenfield that developers had no choice but to leave them in place as well as the narrow lanes on which they were built, and they persist today. Most of the old South Greenfield roads are named for trees: Chestnut, Elm, Locust, Cedar; while the NW-SE diagonals were called Bay Avenue and Ocean Avenue. For a time in the early 20th Century there were two Ocean Avenues, until the one in South Greenfield substituted a letter and was renamed Olean Street.
I discuss South Greenfield and the heart of Midwood on this FNY page.
Despite scares about its closure, M&M Pharmacy at Avenue M and East 19th Street, and its mighty red and green neon signs, are still open for business and was merely enjoying a day off when I passed by. The sign is definitely showing signs of wear and should be repaired.
Along the north side of Avenue M between East 17th and 18th you will find a beige terra cotta facade featuring a trident and seahorses motif. In the past I would have immediately assigned this to a former Child’s restaurant, which used sea life imagery in its buildings around town, but now I’m not so sure as I cannot find a record of a Child’s being here.
I have always compared this view of #1280 East 18th Street to a ship sailing through the streets of Brooklyn. Its shape is dictated by the triangular plot formed by Bay Avenue cutting across East 18th.
A kosher Chock Full o’Nuts lunch counter can be found on Avenue M between East 17th and 18th, instantly recognizable by its logo and checkerboard motif. Though still popular as a coffee brand, CFON’s lunch counters have diminished in number from their heyday in the mid-20th Century. As its name indicates, founder William Black opened nut shops in NYC in the 1920s and expanded service to coffee and donuts during the Depression. As time went on, coffee became the flagship item beside the “nutted cheese” sandwich made with cream cheese and chopped nuts on raisin bread.
If you’re old enough, you recall William Black’s wife, Page Morton Black, singing the CFON jingle on TV commercials.
Since I took the photo, this CFON has relocated to the corner of Avenue M and East 17th.
In recent years, the best place to get a glimpse of the former “Vitagraph Smokestack” has been on Chestnut Avenue just west of the elevated train tracks carrying the B and Q trains, as a new apartment complex has vouchsafed the space. Unfortunately there’s no good way to see the “Vitagraph” brickwork lettering on the smokestack’s east side except in a passing subway train.
Before Hollywood became the center of the motion picture industry in the 1920s, New York City boasted several studios that produced silent motion pictures. American Vitagraph opened an open-air rooftop studio on Nassau Street in lower Manhattan in 1898, producing the feature Burglar on the Roof. In 1906 Vitagraph opened a glass-enclosed studio on Locust Avenue in Midwood.
Vitagraph Studios turned out hundreds of silent Westerns, Civil War battle pictures, historical and religious subjects filmed in the surrounding neighborhood, which was still open country in the 1910’s. Norma Talmadge, John Bunny, Oliver Hardy, Boris Karloff, Adolphe Menjou and Moses Horowitz (Moe Howard) trod its sets. The studio filmed A Tale of Two Cities (1911) Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1910) and Vanity Fair (1911). Eight Shakespeare plays were filmed in one year. In 1921, Black Beauty, starring Irish actor Colin Kenny, was filmed, and boasted as a technical advisor one Leon Trotsky, living briefly in Midwood, who would gain prominence in a different field. Warner Brothers purchased the studio in 1925 and turned out short subjects under the Vitaphone banner until 1939. The Shulamith School For Girls took over the Vitagraph studios site, until it was demolished and the apartment complex constructed in its place during the 2010s.
Speaking of living spaces, here’s a sampler of freestanding and attached homes along East 14th and 15th Streets between Avenues J and M. Along Avenue K and the streets just west of the subway cut there are numerous multifamily apartment buildings constructed in the 1920s.
DiFara Pizza, at Avenue J and East 15th, has been owned and operated by Domenico DeMarco since 1964 and the original painted signs may still be on the exterior. DeMarco himself prepared most of the pies personally. DeMarco, a native of the Caserta province in Italy, near Naples, immigrated to the States in 1959 and after working on a Long Island farm, decided to go into business as a restaurant owner and “pizzaiolo” and opened DiFara with a partner named Farina; Di Fara is a portmanteau of the two names. DeMarco bought out his partner in 1978, and passed away in March 2022.
He makes 100 to 150 pies a day. DeMarco uses imported ingredients – flour, extra-virgin olive oil, San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella cheese from Casapulla, freshly grated grana padano (a slightly salty hard cow’s milk cheese), three types of mozzarella cheese, and hand-grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese are all from Italy, and the basil and oregano are from Israel. In a windowsill flower box, he grows thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, and hot peppers. He cuts fresh basil over each pie with a pair of kitchen scissors. The pizzas bake for a few minutes at about 800 °F (427 °C).In July 2009, Di Fara raised its price for a plain slice of pizza from $4 to $5, becoming the first $5-a-slice pizza place in New York City. wikipedia
It’s good pizza, but I have always found myself there on busy days and once waited for 2 hours the same day as the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.
Homes along East 15th between Avenues I and J. If you’re on the east side of the street, you have a train in your backyard every few minutes…
…I was lucky enough to “catch” one at Avenue I.
I have along admired this classic brick edifice, Young Israel of Flatbush (an Orthodox Jewish organization) at Avenue I and Coney Island Avenue, but knew little about it, since it is not landmarked or in the guidebooks. Fortunately the Brooklyn Jewish Historic Initiative has the details:
Yet another take on the Moorish influenced “Semite” style can be found at Young Israel of Flatbush (Louis Allen Abramson, 1923). Abramson’s design includes such typically Moorish features as ogival (pointed) arches, horseshoe arches, slender minarets, and polychromatic tiles in an intricate Moorish-inspired design. The Avenue I façade is faced in polychromatic patterned brick – purple, red and brown – laid in irregular geometrical patterns, and focuses on three enormous ogival arches with stained glass windows, the arches defined by a combination of patterned brickwork and tiles. The synagogue’s main entrance is set within a typically Moorish horseshoe arch supported on slender octagon.al stone columns with ornamental columns. The various tiles are set in abstract and floral patterns, but also with six sided forms suggesting a magen david (shield or “star” of David). A band of the tile and patterned brick above the arch includes a frieze with a Hebrew inscription set between two magen david forms. “B’neureinu v’vzekeineinu neileikh” “With the young and our old we shall go” – words spoken by Moses to Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus.
Inside, the sanctuary continues the building’s Moorish design, notably in the polychromatic tiling that frames sections of the walls and surrounds each window opening. Throughout the sanctuary, typically Moorish ornament intermingles with such Judaic symbols as a magen david. At the front, the ark is more of a classically inspired design, with twin columns supporting an arch, above the ark itself is a representation of the two Tablets of the Law. The sanctuary is lit by enormous windows of polychromatic leaded glass, for the most part adorned with geometric patterns, but also including symbols inscribed with the names of the Twelve Tribes. [see link for interior photos]
It was time to return to Forgotten NY HQ in Little Neck and lengthy train rides awaited, the first of which was the F, miraculously running on the weekend, at McDonald Avenue and Avenue I.
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4/23/23