I have always been a fan of the original formula pedestrian lampposts on expressways built in NYC during the 1950s. To me they are simplified versions of Bishop Crooks that resemble the staffs carried by Roman Catholic prelates. Fittingly, the Summit Street pedestrian bridge over the Brooklyn Queens Expressway in Carroll Gardens (this section was built in the 1950s, a southern leg of the triple-decked BQE in Brooklyn Heights that no one can decide how to repair) is in view of an impressive Roman Catholic church. A few of these lamps, which originally carried incandescent-bulbed Westinghouse-SLECO “cuplights”, are still found on the BQE, Long Island and Clearview Expressways, though most have been replaced.
St. Stephens/Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church on Summit Street barely escaped the Hand of Moses when the BQE was put through. Its magnificent spire has held firm through thunderstorms, blizzards and tornadoes. The church was constructed from 1873-75 with famed ecclesiastical architect Patrick Keely wielding the slide rule. It was devastated by a fire in 1951 and rebuilt largely identically in 1952.
There are no high hills in the area, though “Summit Street” may refer to the more prominent brow a bit north of here, the one the Promenade is built on.
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8/17/23
4 comments
The priest yells extra loud during the sermon to drown out the noise from the BQE
Not as big a disruption as what this priest faced:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kXGrv8IRXU
Patrick Keely also constructed St. Anthony of Padua Church in Greenpoint in1874, which is an identical twin of St. Stephens in every detail.
There are no high hills in the area, but there may once have been. The 1880 G. W. Bromley atlas of the City of Brooklyn shows a property noted as “Hoyt’s Prospect Hill Farm”, bounded roughly by President, Columbia and Rapelye Streets, and the former Red Hook Lane. As the area developed, the hill may have been graded down; the removed earth may have been used to fill the mill ponds and other low spots in the area. (Further research may provide answers.)
There were two Prospect Hills in Brooklyn, the other one, also called Mount Prospect, being in the Prospect Park/Botanic Garden area.