ANOTHER one will soon bite the dust. While other venerable police precincts around town have been shored up and restored recently, the 65th (and later the 73rd) Precinct building, East New York Avenue east of Roackaway and west of the Howard Houses, will soon be razed for what has been tabbed as affordable housing (though the word “affordable” is one of the most malleable words in English). It was constructed in 1909, but has sat empty since 1985, a span of some 40 years, since a new 73rd Precinct was built nearby.
The 73rd figured into the so-called Career Girl Murders of 1963 in which local resident George Whitmore was arrested and interrogated here and subsequently convicted of the Upper East Side murder of two young women. He was later exonerated. The case became the basis for the “Kojak”pilot “The Marcus Nelson Murders.” — Matthew X. Kiernan
According to Gothamist, Xenolith Partners and the nonprofit property owner Family Services of New York will build an 11-story complex in the precinct’s place, of which eight apartments of the planned 95 will be set aside for tenants in the Howard Houses who desire to move, but all will apparently be priced for single tenants earning from “$33,000 [to] $65,000 and families of three earning no more than $84,000 a year.” To me, $84,000 still sounds like a king’s ransom, but who’s quibbling.
One would prefer the old precinct to be refurbished as a school or community center, but the city’s emphasis in the mid-2020s is now on building needed housing.
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3/26/25
6 comments
I used to work for a non-profit organization that owned that building for years. They never did anything with it. The CEO of the company used the money allocated for “personal” reasons.
The 65th Precinct was the name of the (supposedly fictional) station where the detectives on the old TV series Naked City worked, although the show used exteriors of Midtown North and the 5th Precinct in Manhattan and shot interiors and generic exteriors in The Bronx.
Needed by whom? Developers and the pols who’s pockets they might fill? The elaborate scheme tells you a lot. Or how Hakeem Jeffries and Christine Quinn and other lucky people end up with new low cost apartments.
Well said, Brian! However, you forgot to mention Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who has been living in Ft. Hamilton for years for some inexplicable reason.
Great pic. Would love a few more and see it in context of the neighborhood.
You’re still one of my fav websites. Thank you.
See Google Street View