CANARSIE is named for the indigenous Canarsee Indians the Dutch found in residence when they arrived in the 1640s. The name “Canarsee”’s etymology is in dispute, but it some scholars of Native American tongues say it means “fenced land” or “fenced place.” Years of warring with the invading Dutch took their toll on the Indians in western Long Island; most of the Canarsees repaired east and today most of the descendants of the Canarsees can be found at the Poospatuck Reservation, near Patchogue in eastern Long Island. The reservation numbered but 271 in the 2000 Census.
Canarsie was the remotest of Brooklyn neighborhoods for many years; it was cut off by Paerdegat Basin and Jamaica Bay from wagon and foot traffic, and few roads reached it from the north. It was not truly developed into a full-fledged community between Paerdegat Basin and Fresh Creek until postwar construction in the 1950s: until then, it was a sleepy small town centering around roads that became Rockaway Parkway, East 92nd Street and the Road to (Abraham) Lott’s House, a road leading to the old Lott farm that stood approximately where Avenue K and East 83rd Street are now. Canarsie is still rife with old farm roads.
One of those old farm roads is Bedell Lane. In 1978, NYC’s Lamppost King Robert Mulero fired off this shot of an abandoned building on East 92nd Street where it meets Bedell Lane. More important is what’s in front of the building: an abandoned gas pump, and two old lampposts; this was once a gas station! There’s also a sports car parked in front of the building; Comments are open if you can identify it.
From 1940s NYC I obtained this tax photo of what the gas station and house looked like in 1940. As you can see there were once five gas pumps. The house is well kept and a pair of lamps that still remained in 1978 illuminated the station. What a find. By 1978 I was bicycling all over Brooklyn and Queens, and if I ever passed this location that year or any year before 1993 when I moved to Flushing, I took no note.
What’s a gas station doing in front of a house? Remember, in 1940 Canarsie, along with other southern Brooklyn spots like Bergen Beach and Gravesend, still had rural elements hanging on. There were still some mom and pop gas stations; this one was a Sinclair franchisee, before Sinclair adopted the brontosaurus as its mascot (gasoline is supposedly derived from congealed oleaginous remains of creatures such as dinosaurs that strode the earth over 60 million years ago).
By 1978, the gas station had been long abandoned and the decrepit house had reached the end and had a for sale sign.
Today’s Street View photos show a ranch house occupying the space. The house to the gas station’s left remains in place. I estimate the ranch house was built in the 1980s. It’s likely the occupants have no idea they are living over a former gas station; the underground tanks have likely been removed.
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2/3/25
10 comments
The car in the lead photo is a 1965 Corvette The louvers behind the door were the unique styling feature that distinguished it from earlier & later Corvettes of that generation (referred to as C2). It’s hard to believe that the property owner abandoned it, leaving its fate in the hands of whoever bought the property. C2s (1963-67) have always been very desirable collectibles.
1965 Corvette?
I’m guessing a Opel GT made in Germany by GM.Looks a little like a baby Corvette.
People like to stuff oversize engines in them.Especially popular with the Bay Ridge crowd.
Wrong! The giveaway is that the Opel GT has actual rear windows (left & right) while the C2 Corvette coupes had what stylists called a wrap-around backlight. Additionally, the Corvette in the photo had been modified for competition (drag racing); the giveaway is that the rear wheel opening has been “radiused” for oversized rear tires called “slicks” because there’s no tread. This C3 lived its life in quarter-mile increments. Good luck to anyone who tries to swap out an Opel GT’s inline 4-cylinder engine & replace it with a V-8; the engine bay isn’t wide enough (see below):
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=4zEOypv7&id=20A4513547ECB5A8FED22182845ADBCED34B9E1B&thid=OIP.4zEOypv7LILrR0J4M34DhQHaEK&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.classic.com%2Fvehicles%2Fbff8efa034e23368567cb671cc4c4720eecdca02.jpg%3Fauto%3Dformat%26fit%3Dcrop%26ar%3D16%3A9&exph=1114&expw=1980&q=1970+opel+gt&simid=608035171003493156&form=IRPRST&ck=42CCD6188BE2115CCEC34C8F8B67C03B&selectedindex=7&itb=0&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0&vt=0&sim=11&cdnurl=https%3A%2F%2Fth.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2FR.e3310eca9bfb2c82eb474278337e0385%3Frik%3DG55L087bWoSCIQ%26pid%3DImgRaw%26r%3D0&pivotparams=insightsToken%3Dccid_08WaSjXQ*cp_19622415D7636C06B27113EE9B030880*mid_BF0A08C936603F9FF3BE6AE819AEF05438773E09*simid_607992689503112788*thid_OIP.08WaSjXQwv5Efror!_I6A6AHaEK&iss=VSI&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0
This building and the one to the left was had been torn down by the time the 1980’s tax photo was taken. The current building was built in 1993 and is owned by the Catholic Guardian Society. H/T to http://www.stevemorse.org and NYCityMap.
Today it’s HeartShare Human Services, which changed its name from Catholic Guardian Society some years ago. It offers rehabilitation services for the developmentally disabled, and is named the Buckley Residence.
https://www.heartshare.org/about-us/our-history/
https://www.heartshare.org/service-locations/buckley-residence/
The Poospatuck Reservation mostly consists of discount smoke shops. Formerly selling cigarettes, now largely selling other, non-tobacco smoking substances.
The Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic is the official territory of the Unkechaug Indian Nation. Confusingly, they are sometimes referred to as the Patchogues. There were 13 “tribes” on Long Island when the Dutch and English arrived. They were not very large. Scholars describe them as bands of friends and/or extended families. No one knows for sure, but it was credibly estimated many years ago that there were probably no more than 6,500 total Indians within the 13 tribes at their peak. The Canarsees were the westernmost group on the south side of Long Island. if they moved east, they would have passed through the lands of the Rockaways, Merricokes, Marsapeagues, and Secatogues before reaching Poospatuck. Tribal identity was fluid. Intermarriages between tribes was very common (not surprising with such a low population). Further, it was customary that the newlyweds would choose to locate based on which spouse had the better living arrangements. Then, the “stranger” would be considered a member of the tribe he/she married into. Their cultures didn’t have notions of nationality or ethnicity as we do.
I had no idea that Sinclair Oil once had gas stations in New York. I’ve always thought of them as a primarily Midwestern operation — Cleveland OH (where my grandparents lived) had Sinclair stations everywhere during the 1950s and 60s. With that said, here’s another New York connection . . .
https://www.sinclairoil.com/news/dinosaurs
50 years ago I used to score weed on Bedell Ln