A December 30th 2015 New York Times article asserted that Penn Station was already “ruined” long before it was destroyed. Author David W. Dunlap wrote that those who came into the station in the late 50’s would have been in a place that bore little resemblance to its once great former self.  Dunlap focused on a  1950’s renovation that he felt diminished the look of the station. The New Yorker magazine columnist Lewis Mumford at the time termed it an “indescribable botch.”

“The Clamshell” in MTA Transit Museum 1958 Photo

The centerpiece of the 50’s remodel was a huge new lighting apparatus that came to be known as “the clamshell.” It was 164 feet wide, made of aluminum and steel, and was intended to brighten newly installed ticket booths and make getting a train ticket comparable to that of a plane.

Critics accused Penn of intentionally putting in a design so bad that demolition would seem to make more sense. What would they have said if Penn had done nothing in the 50’s? Dunlap may be right that the renovation was poor, but most of us would probably still choose the Penn of the 50’s over the one that replaced it in the next decade. Whenever the decline set in for rail travel, the date of no turning back in the eyes of New Yorkers will always be 1963 when the wrecking ball crumbled the station to the ground.

If you want to get New Yorkers riled up, you can just ask them about Penn Station. They still can’t believe the same company that had the creative genius to put a timeless transportation hall in the heart of their city would see fit to dismantle it just fifty years later. The current station has been unpopular with New Yorkers from the moment it opened. It is looked at with disdain not only because of its basement-like feel, with narrow halls and low ceilings, but because it is the impostor put in place of their once cherished Penn Station. New Yorkers are literally reminded every day of what was taken from them.

New Yorkers are almost universally dissatisfied with the current station. They want something better put in its place. Something closer to what that original station was. To them, injustice has been done and it needs to be rectified.

And so the groundswell to improve it has grown year after year as commuters trudge through it. A plan inspired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was developed in the early 2000’s to move some of it one block west to the Farley Post Office. The Farley between 8th and 9th was designed by the same architects as Penn. But the plan has been dreadfully slow in progressing.

The City Council voted 47-1 in 2013 to terminate Madison Square Garden’s lease so a better station could be constructed. (The one nay vote came from a former executive of the Garden.) Not much else came from the council in terms of definitive plans though. The vote without substantive plans is reflective of the great distance between the emotional desire to get something better in the station, and the struggle to deal with the practicality of actually getting it done.

Just this week, Governor Cuomo announced that he will try to speed up the stalled Moynihan plan and add new features like a glass wall on the 8th Avenue entrance.  Madison Square Garden apparently gets to stay, much to the dismay of the New York Times editorial board which likened it to a manhole cover, blocking light and air to the station below. If the garden were forced to move, where could it go? Cuomo’s plan also included renaming Penn, the Empire Station. Critics thought it sounded more like something out of Star Wars.

If we have learned anything about the station both past and present, it’s not an easy place to renovate, and even when you do, people often don’t like the changes. We can never get the old station back, and whatever is done to it, however bad or good, people will keep coming to it. What choice do they have, that’s where they have to go to get to their trains.

Cover Photo

For 2016 we have created the Old Images of New York Calendar, a collection of New York classic images. It will make a stunning addition to your office or home decor, or the calendar could be a Christmas or holiday gift for that hard-to-buy-for friend.

The photos are great quality and high definition; they offer a unique perspective on the city’s most famous landmarks. We packed in as much New York City as we could into the calendar. You have come to expect excellent photo posts from our Facebook page, and we have strived to give you the same high standard for this print calendar.

Chrysler Building

The Chrysler Building is probably second to none when it comes to favorite New York City landmarks. It was completed in the frenzy of a race with rival Bank of Manhattan Trust Building to be the tallest building in the city. Near the very end of construction, the Chrysler’s builders hoisted  a high needle-thin spire to push the building over 1,000 feet and make it the taller of the two.

Flatiron Building

The March photo may be many people’s favorite shot–a snow-lined look at the Flatiron Building. The Flatiron can be photographed from any angle, but its most popular view is from the north, with Broadway trailing off to the left, Fifth Avenue to the right. The man who designed the Flatiron, George A. Fuller, died in 1900 and so never saw the building completed in 1902. In 1905, a new twenty-first floor was added; you have to take a separate elevator from the 20th floor to get to it.

Included in the calendar are excellent shots of the Empire State and Woolworth Buildings, the Manhattan Bridge, the Washington Square Arch, Macy’s, and Times Square. You will also find a magnificent photo of the classic tile glass ceiling work of the now abandoned downtown City Hall subway station. The station still exists, but has not been used since 1945.

Thanks to the many of you who helped me grow the Facebook page, we have put together the calendar, and I think we have something special–our celebration of area history. This calendar is sure to please, with photos we know our audience responds to and likes to see, our most popular shots.

I would like to dedicate the calendar to my father, who passed away in October after a battle with cancer. He was a great, but complicated man who tried to do his best. I hope he would be proud of my effort here.

If you want something that embodies our page, our city, and ourselves, this calendar  is a perfect choice. After all, who doesn’t love old New York photos?

Calendar Available  here

You may think you know which building is most popular to New Yorkers, but do you know which one it is for sure? Nowhere could I find anyone being polled what their favorite New York building was. So I decided to ask the fans of both the Old Images of New York  Facebook Page and Old Images of New York Facebook Group to give me their first and second favorite New York City buildings. I counted two votes for their first choice, one vote for their second. I got more than 300 responses, I tabulated the answers, and comprised the results.

# 1

Number 1 – The Chrysler Building, 34 percent. Whether it was for its art deco styling, its silver color, its ridged and pointed crown, angled gargoyles or whatever else, Chrysler Building is by far most popular. One woman mentioned that she would sneak up alone to the old Cloud Club, the restaurant that stood atop the building until 1977, and have the pleasure of being up there with just the East River and the Empire State Building to see. The Chrysler Building came up again and again in the voting. 74 percent of the people who voted for Chrysler made it was their first choice for favorite in the poll.

#2

Number 2 – The Flatiron Building, 17 percent. Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, (which means classic Roman) and completed in 1902. The Flatiron is most often photographed at the distinctively sharp corner of 5th Avenue and Broadway, its narrow end where it makes a beautiful curve around the corner. Everything just seems to work for this building in terms of design. It has a classic look you never get tired of. It houses among its tenants the publishing houses of Macmillan and St. Matins’ Press. The Flatiron spawned the expression 23 skidoo, which is what policemen would shout at men who tried to get glimpses of women’s dresses being blown up by the winds swirling around the structure. The 21st floor was added in 1905, you have to take a separate elevator from the 20th floor to get to it. 58 percent of those who voted for Flatiron in my poll had it as their first choice.

#3

Number 3 – The Empire State Building, 10 percent. Completed in 1931 during the depths of the depression. Like the World Trade Center decades later, The Empire State struggled for years to become popular before becoming very successful in the end. It was not profitable until the 1950’s. It has one of the cities most popular city tourist attractions, its observation deck and tower. The popular tradition of lighting the building at night started in 1976 for the bicentennial. 62 percent of those who voted for the ESB in my poll had it as their first choice.

#4

Number 4 – The Woolworth Building, 8 percent. Completed in 1913, it was the tallest building in the world until surpassed by the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street in 1930. It has a beautiful, simple, elegant, gothic appearance. The basement has an abandoned pool and hot tub, with doors that once opened to a passageway to the now abandoned but also beautiful glass ceiling city hall subway station. Its top 30 floors are currently being converted into luxury condominiums. The roof was where the climax for the Disney movie Enchanted was set.

#5

Number 5 – Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, 4 Percent. Its construction took over twenty years, from 1858 to 1879, with a long break for the Civil War taken in between. The cathedral seats 2,400 people, has 2,800 stained glass panels has between 18 and 15 masses said every day. It has 150 weddings every year, and five million people visit it annually. The cathedral is in the process of an extensive restoration project. Although it was also restored in 1949 and 1973, this project is much more extensive. It is hoped the restoration will be completed by the end of 2015.

#6

Honorable Mentions: The Twin Towers and Penn Station finished just out of the top five. Those two and The Singer Building, which was torn down in 1968 and got several votes, were the biggest vote getters for buildings no longer standing. The Metlife Tower, and PanAm building got several votes as well, despite the fact that many revile PanAM for blocking the view of the New York Central building, which itself did not get any votes in my poll. A lot of other buildings were mentioned, including Grand Central Station, Saint John The Divine Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall the New York Public Library, the United Nations, The Dakota, and even the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge. The building I was most surprised to see not mentioned even once, unless it was because people did not to consider it a building, was The Statue of Liberty. With its pedastal, it stands t 305 feet tall, or roughly 28 stories high.

Pettibone School Book Fair 2010 Photo

It has been announced that John Pettibone School in town is closing. The New Milford Board of Education has decided that due to decreasing enrollment and the school’s aging infrastructure, it is time to shut the doors in June. In the fall of 2015, the kids that would have attended JPS will go to one of the town’s other five remaining schools. Much attention has understandably been focused on the closing and the changes it brings. With third and sixth graders moving locations, it will be a difficult time for those families who have to adjust and sort things out.

1961 Photo of Six Year Old John Pettibone School

Both of my kids went to Pettibone for six years, starting with the Excel program and all the way through third grade.  For those years the school was the focal point of our lives. They enjoyed each year and I did, too. We went to concerts, family fun days, chorus field trip days, book fairs, festivals, and all the rest, while getting to know and like the teachers and administrators. For a few of those years I dressed up as a really bad fortune teller for the Halloween party nights. My wife and I always tried to help with the  school events when we could find time to do so.

Bad Fortune Teller at Pettbone for 2011 Halloween Fest

Even though I have lived in New Milford for over 13 years, I still consider myself new to the town. I think of my family’s time at Pettibone as a very small part of the school’s overall history. My children are just two of the thousands of kids who have attended the school. Some past students have probably had the pleasure of witnessing their own children or grandchildren return to the same school to which they went. I can only begin to imagine how much learning, growth, and creativity has taken place inside its walls. And so I wanted to take a moment to remember the school on just the merit of what it has meant to the community: to think of those who started in their paths towards success at the school. I wanted to reflect on the tireless efforts of the teachers and staff who helped these children along on their way.

1944 photo of Mr. Pettibone

John Pettibone School first opened in the fall of 1955, at a time when New Milford and the rest of Connecticut was attempting to rebuild after the worst flood in state history. The school itself was constructed to address what was an exponentially growing town population. New Milford had grown to 5,800 in 1950 and would house 14,000 by 1970. In the 1955-56 school year, Pettibone handled third through eighth grades and educated more than half of the town’s school population. The school was expanded within its first eight years, adding twenty more classrooms and two wings.

John Pettibone School is the only town school named after a school administrator. Mr. Pettibone is but one of many who have given their lives to teaching the kids of New Milford. We should make sure we continue to honor him and the many educators who have spent their lives helping our children at John Pettibone School and all of New Milford’s schools. John Pettibone retired as superintendent of schools after 41 years of service in 1944.

New Milford Spectrum Photo

It will be hard not to notice that John Pettibone School is closed; it sits on a huge section of land, just south from the center of town, on our busiest road. I don’t know how we will all feel when we pass by for the first time in the fall and realize there are no students attending it any longer. No doubt that the town will continue to thrive and grow without the school. Anyone who has spent time here knows we have too strong and vibrant of a community to let anything other than that happen. But let’s not forget a part of our town history—the red brick school that stood proudly for sixty years in the middle of it.

Trains began running on The LIRR Whitestone Branch in northern Queens in the late 1800’s. The line was in service until 1932 when the railroad shut it down. I traced out where it would lay on a current area map.  I like the line traced out on a map because you can see where the branch stands with regard to today’s landscape . It’s hard to imagine train tracks in most of these locations, and yet they were there less than 85 years ago.
The line started out as it forked off the Port Washington branch just west of the Flushing River. This is just past where Citi Field now stands. The first station was Flushing Bridge Street, which stood on the north side of Northern Boulevard. The road was originally called Bridge Street, thus giving it the name of the station.

The line turned north as it made its way towards the College Point Station.

After College Point it turned east towards the Malba and Whitestone stations.

Whitestone Branch Laid Over Current Map – Whitestone Landing to Whitestone

The line ended at the Whitestone Landing station at the East River. The branch was initially built in the hopes that it would one day go north to The Bronx and to Westchester. The plans never fully materialized. It is amazing to think that Whitestone had its own LIRR branch for more than 50 years and it wasn’t that long ago.

Union Turnpike at 255th Streeet

During the late 1960’s my family lived in Glen Oaks until I was three. One of the things I remember most of my short time there was this little burger joint that stood on the north side of Union Turnpike near the movie theater. It was dark inside, bluish purplish walls, counter on one side, tables on the other. Not the kind of place a kid would remember, except for the fact that it featured a model train set running on tracks delivering food to its patrons. In my memory the tracks ran all over the place. They went in and out of the walls, up and down, high and low, in and out. Memory exaggerates perhaps, but I’m sure but there was definitely a restaurant on Union Turnpike and it did use model trains to deliver orders to customers.

Once my family moved out of Glen Oaks I never set foot in the Hamburger Coach again. There were eateries based on the same concept but they too closed, and I never was able to walk into another burger joint that delivered food to my counter via train. You never know when your last chance to get to do something may have already come and gone, and for me, food by train ended before I reached Kindergarten.

Hamburger Choo Choo Huntington

There were several train oriented restaurants operating in our area in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. There was a Hamburger Train on Queens Boulevard in Rego Park, a Hamburger Express in Garden City. Hewlett had a Hamburger Local, Bayside and the Bronx had a Hamburger Express. The most popular of these, and the one that seemed destined to outlive the others was the Hamburger Choo Choo on Main Street in Huntington. It was popular and had a reputation for having food that was quite good. It might still be open today if not for a grease fire which burned it down on March 20, 1982. It’s turn of the century wood frame building did little to help save it, and within just a few short minutes the treasured Hamburger Choo Choo had served its last burger.

Choo Choo Des Plaines

New York has been without a model train counter since, but the Chicago area has a restaurant that has been open for decades. The Choo Choo, according to The Des Plaines Patch, was borne out of an idea that originated with World War Veteran Roy Ballowe. His brother James and wife Marilyn went with it and opened the Choo Choo. Their place has stood the test of time, and the concept is getting new life; The All Aboard Diner in nearby Downers Grove is now running a similar operation, with a train running all around its large double sided inner counter.

Caboose at The Choo Choo

For me, Downers Grove is about the same distance from NYC as Des Plaines, so my nostalgic stop for local food via express train will still have to wait. Ray Kroc of McDonalds fame opened one of his first McDonald’s in Des Plaines. It is said that Kroc paid a visit to the Choo Choo and assured the owners his fast food restaurant would be no match for theirs.

1966 Hamburger Coach Waitress Ad

I have not been able to find a photo of the Hamburger Coach in Glen Oaks. The only tangible documentation I found of the place was a help wanted ad for a waitress in March 1966. There are only a few photos of the other similar places that once existed in our region. Hopefully someday someone will open a train delivery restaurant again in our area so we can relive the memories, or at least track down a photo of the Hamburger Coach. Below is a collage of some photos of the New York hamburger train places I was able to find.

Hamburger Train, Queens Blvd, Rego Park

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Hamburger Express, 7th Street, Garden City

1966 Ad

H/

Hamburger Choo Choo, Main Street, Huntington

Courtesy of Richard Holtz

New Book by my brother

My brother (and bestselling author) Scott Berkun and I grew up together in the New York City borough of Queens, an area that is part city, part suburb. You might think that would make it the best of both worlds. But for Scott and I, we felt more like we were characters in  “The Ice Storm” or “American Beauty,”  lost and alone. We were trapped within the facade of a happy American family and we were desperate to figure out why it all wasn’t as wonderful as it should be.

Johnny Newman, Knicks star of the late 1980’s, one of our favorite players

Scott and I are six years apart, but almost from the beginning we knew we had an affinity for each other that transcended any age difference. As we have both agreed since, something was keeping us apart when we were young. We were friends, but we now believe that the lack of a settled household environment kept us from getting as close as we could have been, which Scott points out in his book. We could have looked out more for each other if there was someone looking out more for both of us. I should have told him at the time how great he was. Scott, you’re smart, you’re cheerful, you’re funny, but I never told him. I didn’t have the self-confidence.

If the question was what did the Berkun brothers do as young boys to gain confidence, the answer was to play basketball, and a lot of it. We could get recognition from teammates, coaches, and anyone else who might watch us play. We went to the garden to watch the Knicks. We played ball anywhere, anytime: in the backyard, in the playgrounds, but most frequently at the local Jewish Community Center, the Samuel Field Y. Our mother, to her credit, encouraged us to get involved there. I, in turn, encouraged Scott to try out for his first basketball team there, an event he discusses as having special importance in his new book.

Scott and I at SFY Camp

Scott’s making the team was a moment of great pride, not only for him but for me. I had first made the Y basketball team in twelfth grade–way too late to really improve and develop my game. I knew that by getting on the team at an earlier age, Scott would have more time to work on his skills. It would give him the chance to become a really good player, a better player than me. Scott knew I was proud of him, but as a family we never seemed to support his basketball effort. Scott made it to starting point guard on the Bayside High School basketball team, a huge achievement by any standard, and I can only remember going to one game. I have no idea how many games the rest of our family attended, but whatever the amount it probably wasn’t enough to make him know we truly supported his effort.

Our father had an affair in the late 1970’s. For several years, our parents were separated. In his book, Scott describes his haunting encounter with our father at the front door and mine at a local pizza place during the era. Our father reunited with our mother and came back to live with us in the early 1980’s. The family had its good and bad times, and we assumed that our parents would from then on be committed to their marriage.

Scott always seemed to know deep down that he had to get far away from Long Island to find himself and what he was looking for in the world and in his life. No doubt he used his feelings of frustration with the family and our father to fuel his yearning to find himself. I realize that he had to get away, that it was best for him, but for me, I just missed him when he wasn’t around any longer. Occasionally we would spend time together, going to places like Swensen’s ice cream at the Miracle Mile togeher. But Scott was soon off to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, then out to Washington to work at Microsoft. Now he’s a successful writer and professional speaker. He has achieved an amazing set of accomplishments. I stayed closer to home, went to college at SUNY Stony Brook and met my wife, worked in Manhattan, moved to Connecticut and took over my family toner business.

Scott Berkun

Scott describes how our family separated  into two factions. There was my sister who enjoyed having an insulated protective environment created for her by my parents who lived next door. If anything went wrong, they were there to pick up the pieces. Then there was me and my brother who thought the whole thing (living next door to each other) made no sense. My mother would remind my wife and I daily of how much of a model parent my sister was. It was seemingly as if she stated it to us enough, she could somehow make it true. Our sister had never done the work necessary to facilitate her own independence, and our parents not only failed to press the issue, they gave her the means to continue to avoid growing up.

It was Scott who never relented in pointing out how destructive my parents’ relationship with my sister and her family was to all involved. It was Scott who had always been the voice of reason, despite being criticized for it. He tried to talk to our sister about the situation, and she responded by refusing to speak with him. She eventually also cut ties with my parents, the ones who had been protecting her were now out in the cold. That set the stage for my father’s second affair and would be the impetus for my brother’s book.

Scott called me in the summer of 2012 to tell me we had entered into a family crisis. My father was having an affair; my mother had just found out. It was something I wasn’t ready for, who would be? This crisis would eventually motivate Scott to write The Ghost of My Father. It was 35 years earlier that Scott and I had survived our father’s first affair. That time we had to deal with it alone; this time we were together. Scott handled telling me about it so well, and I was proud of him. But I couldn’t tell him at the time, since there was too much going on.

Now Scott has written a book that details his experience in a troubled family and explains what it has been like to have had a strained lifelong relationship with our father. Writing the book is an important step for him; it’s something he felt he had to do, and I am glad he did it. On any level it is a great achievement.  He has always been the voice of reason in our family and for that I am forever grateful, and once again, I am proud of him, I will try to tell him this time. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I have.

I’ve always been fascinated by roads. Whether it was mapping them, talking about them, analyzing them, or driving them, they always had a unique appeal to me. Much of my wasted youth was spent rummaging through my family map collection, laying them out one by one on the living room floor, and taking imaginary treks out to the far reaches of the maps’ corners.

Northern State Parkway

The 1970’s metropolitan New York map offered seemingly endless possibilities. I could head east to the twin forks of the island and imagine myself touching the last piece of land at the end of each one. I could skim the miles of shore parkways and drive endless miles criss crossing the southern barrier islands. I could drive through Manhattan and cross over to New Jersey, riding vast highways and bridges each time. The metropolitan map offered fantasies of miles of trips into and away from the big city.

Completed and Projected Roads

The network of highways around the city is in great part the brainchild of Robert Moses. The New York city planner, coordinator, builder extraordinaire who spent decades laying out these roads is a well known and often polarizing figure. Cast as both hero and villain, he either made the city great or nearly destroyed it depending on your perspective. For me, in my youth, knowing that he had built all these roads, I had always asked myself, how could he not be great?

When I was 14, I found out Mr. Moses had passed away. I remember a photo of his hearse slowly taking him down his last highway. The newspapers pointed out how relatively few people were in attendance, but it didn’t really say why. It did seem odd for a man who was such a huge figure.

It was from the 1990’s Ric Burns documentary on the history of New York City  that I learned of the negative side of the Moses story.  The show’s message was that while he was of great benefit to the city during the 1930’s and 40’s, he wasn’t so wonderful in the 50’s and 60’s. Moses attempted to make the city into something it was never meant to be. He rammed wide roads through dense neighborhoods, demolished thousands of dwellings from fragile working class communities in a misguided attempt to clear the city of its slums. In the end he helped make much of the city’s areas poor, isolated and desolate.

The most memorable scene for me in the show is an interview with esteemed Moses biographer Robert Caro, shot right over the Cross Bronx Expressway. With the sound of cars and trucks whizzing by in the background, Caro describes what a massive undertaking building this road really was. Subway tracks, sewer mains, utility lines all had to be kept intact while the great road was built right underneath them. Caro explained that General Thomas Farrel, builder of the famous Burma Road, came out to look at the Cross Bronx during construction and said it was nothing compared to this.

I finally read Caro’s book, The Power Broker, in late 2011. For me, a New York history blogger, it was high time I read the definitive biography of the master builder. The book is eye-opening in terms of what it reveals about Moses; there are countless episodes of injustice and callous cold behavior. I tried to discuss them and Moses’ legacy in an earlier blog entry. But it is my own research that I wanted to talk about here. I wanted to talk about the episodes where my path crossed that of Moses’.

The Raunt
Its name is intriguing. It was a fishing resort town located in the middle of Jamaica Bay. It was thought to be either a Swedish word for fishing area or Dutch one meaning breeding place for ducks. There was no road access to The Raunt. Dwellings could only be reached by foot or boat. There was a train station a little distance from the town, but most people who rode the train said they never saw anyone get on or off at The Raunt. The houses had no plumbing, no modern services at all, and it had become something of a mystery what Raunt life exactly was like.

By the 1950’s, the glory days of The Raunt were long since past. Just three small rickety hotels still stood surrounded by a few more houses. It all came to an end in a brokered deal between the transit and parks departments. The city in effect had to sell out The Raunt to the Parks Commissioner Moses in 1953 to get an allowance to build a subway line down to Rockaway. Moses demolished the village completely to put a bird sanctuary in its place.

The bird sanctuary was a success, and many will say that establishing a fresh water collecting pond is a better use of the land than a rundown fishing village. But for me, coming to find that such a unique resort town that dated back to the 19th century was now destroyed, I sincerely lamented its loss.

Grand Central Parkway at Hollis Court Blvd Bridge 1935-1959

Hollis Court Arch Bridge
When the NYC Department of Records released 800,00 photos from its archives in 2011, there was much history revealed. Photo historians were able to to find great glimpses back into the city’s past.

Among the thousands, I found several shots of a beautifully high arched bridge over Hollis Court Boulevard in Central Queens. The bridge took the Grand Central Parkway through Cunningham Park over the boulevard. Constructed by Robert Moses in the mid 1930’s, it’s a beautiful example of how a highway can compliment its surrounding area.

Grand Central Parkway Clearview Expy Overpass today

Caro states that much of Moses’ earlier work was more tasteful than his later, and this bridge is certainly a good example. When Hollis Court Boulevard was replaced by the Clearview Expressway in the late 1950’s, the bridge was taken down and replaced by a much more functionally oriented but clearly less attractive intersection structure.  The contrast in style and approach to design is apparent. To know that such a stately bridge once stood there and that now such a basic one is in its place seems to be a loss.

Flushing King Neptune Fountain 1874-1947

The Lost Fountain
I was asked by author and Queens Historical Society Director Marisa Berman to write a piece on a fountain which once stood on the inner island of Northern Boulevard at Main Street in the center of Flushing and can be seen in photographs throughout the early 1900’s. The fountain was a focal point for folks to congregate. It was built in 1874 to coincide with the instillation of running water for the town. By the mid 1940’s, the fountain was no longer standing, but nobody knew exactly why.

When I located a July 1947 newspaper article which reported that in the middle of the night the Parks Department had removed the fountain from its foundation I had my answer. The paper deemed the incident a “Parks Department Murder.” We know from Caro’s detailed work that the Parks Department did nothing without explicit instructions from its comissioner, Robert Moses. So we can assume that these orders came from the top.  The RKO Keith’s Theater which stood across the street from the fountain for many years might itself have had a better chance of surviving had the fountain remained in place. Accompanied by a beautiful place to sit and wait, more moviegoers might have found their way back into the theater. To this day, little has been done to replace the area where the fountain once stood. A few benches rest on its space and the theater has remained vacant and decaying since 1987.

In comparison to the list of worst infractions by Moses, these three are very small. My point is not what they may have meant for Moses, but what they meant for me. The admiration I once had for the man I felt no longer. I did not go looking for instances of Moses and his oppressive past, I came across them by accident. Moses’ often misguided path of dominance and control over the city affected many things. We often try to equate the effect of Moses on a grand scale, but much of what he did over time also added up on the small.

Related Links

LIFE Mar 17, 1967 The Scene / Raunt – John Ferris

Keeping Jamaica Bay For the birds – New York Magazine Dec 8, 1969

Flushing Wags Have It Neptune Is On Way To Heaven, Piecemeal,

When the Town Of Oyster Bay behind closed doors decided to approve the landmark destroying plans for the Maine Maid one hour before its public vote I felt I had to say something. It is impossible to get many of the details because the best coverage of the story seems to be on Newsday’s site, which you can’t read if you don’t pay for their subscriber service. We have enough info to know this is not how things should be.

We like to say things have changed and how much landmark preservation has improved since the destruction of Penn Station in 1963. We like to say times are better now for landmarks, but are they really? Certainly not if you follow the developments at the Maine Maid Inn.

The Inn was given landmark status in 2008, at which time we thought the former underground railroad stop would be preserved. But anyone who fought for the status has to now be wondering why they wasted their time. In what is probably an illegal closed door meeting prior to the public vote, the Town Of Oyster Bay approved already progressing work to demolish the site 5-1, which had begun without any prior notice to the town.

Voting in private to approve the plans one hour before the town hall meeting to discuss the event shows us where the public stands in the nature of things when it comes to the Town of Oyster Bay government. We might be better off if Boss Tweed was running things. To call this anything other than a travesty and a gross injustice would be inaccurate. Thanks to the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities for following the story on their Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/splia.LI

Maine Maid, 1840’s

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Maine Maid mid 2000’s Anton News Photo

1974 Ad

In most cases we historic image collectors can never get enough of these old photos, but for anything there can always be too much. Post a cool photo of an old amusement park or ice cream parlor and it seems great. Post it again and those who didn’t see it the first time can get their say. But re-post it a few more times and it starts to get tedious. If the image is very small, or not really so old, or in some other way out of place it can be even more unnerving when it is seen again and again.

Frequently re-posted Wetson’s photo

While there are probably millions of photos sitting out there waiting to be seen, there are a few that wind up posted over and over. I often wonder who originally owned these photos, will these people ever get the credit (or blame) they deserve for bringing them to the worlds attention?

Facebook and other photo posting sites tend to draw all attention to the three or four most recent photos to the page, this makes it hard for new people coming in to see the older posts, and they may not realize how many times an image has already been seen. With that said here is my short list of over-saturated over-blogged over-done photos. Where I could I provided a suggestion of where an equal or better photo could be found in its place.

OBI, Black and White Wikipedia Photo

Black and White Oak Beach Inn 
The Oak Beach Inn might be the most famous dance club ever to stand on Long Island, but this black and white photo doesn’t really do it justice. This photo shows its appearance before the infamous Bob Matherson took it over. It is years before the Iced Tea was invented here, years before all the clamor of neighbors and town government to try to and eventually succeed in shutting it down. This shot is available on Wikipedia, and therefore very easy to find and download.

In 2010 a Long Island band Two Cent Sam put out a good song called the The OBI Song and dedicated it to the club. The person who made the video clearly spent a good deal of time putting it together. It has images to match up the lyrics, but every time the OBI itself is mentioned we see the same out of context pre 1970’s Wikipedia photo. A shot of a more time appropriate OBI image would have made made more sense and brought more meaning to the video.

Black & White Douglaston Korvettes 
If you grew up in northeast Queens this was probably an important store to you (and still is today as a Macy’s). Most Long Island Korvette’s were built in locations that were slightly off the main drags, but not this one, which was built right into the side of a huge sand pit it on a hill and when completed became the only department store east of Fresh Meadows and west of Roosevelt Field.

There’s really nothing wrong with the photo, the detail and definition are very good. The stone face facade of the Korvette’s, the lightng of the parking lot, the 1960’s model american cars and all. The shot is probably from November 1964 when the store first opened. The problem is there are no other contemporary photos to go along with it, all we have is this one single shot, and so it alone continues to be re-posted. We don’t know if this was part of a series, we have no idea what the source of this photo is at all. There aren’t many good vintage Korvettes photos and almost none of the Douglaston location. I did just posted one here to offer at least one alternative but it is a shame there aren’t more.

Restored Dugan’s Truck

Restored Dugan’s Truck
This Dugans truck photo, which appears on the www.dugansbakers.com is a current photo of an old vehicle.  We continue to see this same photo over and over. It would be nice if we could even get a new different photo of this same truck. much less a truly original vintage milk truck photo.

Current Whip Truck

The same applies to any recent photos of any old vehicles. Once is fine, but to keep re-posting these is more than needs to be seen. It would be greatly preferable to see vintage photos of these trucks in their heyday,or at least find us fresh ones of these vehicles. I found and posted a vintage Dugan’s truck photo from Long Island historical site spoonercental.com at the fan page here.

Fairyland From Queens Boulevard
Fairyland was an amusement park in the 1950’s and 60’s on Queens Boulevard in the space that is now the Queens Center Mall (not the Queens Place mall which is two blocks up although if you google queens center mall you get a picture of the Queens Place Mall.

Fairyland from Queens Boulevard

It’s not easy to find old small local amusement park shots from back in the day, so the few that are in circulation tend to get re-posted frequently.There is no other good photo of Fairyland from the outside, and probably as a result, this shot shows up again and again.

The facebook group devoted to Fairyland is similar to other area amusement park groups. A look at its photos reminds us that something that is missing from the amusement park of today. For most of Long Island, the days of sharing the short trip to the local amusement park with neighbors is gone. The rides seem to be a something of a given today, while back then they still felt like more of a privilege. It’s a shame more of us didn’t take photos of these precious moments when we had the chance, (although taking photos wasn’t nearly as easy as it is today). If you get out to adventureland or get your kids on any other rides at area carnivals, don’t forget to bring your camera and try to get some good shots of the kids on the rides, you’ll probably want to look at them again one day.

Chow Chow Cup

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Chow Chow Cup 1960’s
I never personally ate from the Chow Chow cup truck. so far as I know, they never made it to northern Bayside (Bay Terrace) in my day growing up there. But I can say I’ve seen the one in this photo at least a hundred times.

The problem with this and a lot of other photos on the page is, who would ever have thought we would one day want to see a photo of things like an area food vendor truck. Film was expensive, we didn’t have digital cameras, so who would want to ‘waste’ their money. The only other photos I could find of the truck was on this page, which happens to have right click and save disabled, (making it harder to re-post). Hey, it looks like the truck may have made it all the way up to Woodstock.

Don’t Expect Much To Change
The fact that there are more and more growing pages and web sites devoted to old photos and history probably only means that these and others like them will continue to be posted and posted once more. I may not want to see these photos again but I just posted them all one more time myself. And they wouldn’t get posted at all if they didn’t evoke some personal and shared memories. So if you have any good photos of these places or ones like them, please don’t hesitate posting them on the places no more page, or group. Maybe the images above wont go away, but perhaps we can continue to find others to go along with them, and ones like these will be posted a little less frequently.

And Dont Forget About Our 2014 Calendar!
Just a reminder that we are presenting vintage photos (which have not been posted as much :-) in our places no more 2014 calendar, proceeds going to help Long Islanders in need.