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tmara2, thanks for the photos. I believe that you are correct in thinking they are of Hedley Oval. The elevated station has what looks like the signal building and crew quarters that are a part of the 242nd Street station.
Could you provide a link to the first photo? The aerial view includes my old apartment building that was completed in 1923. It also shows the carousel building adjacent to the North stair entrance to the train. I’m interested in that, too.
Karlreinsons (Karl?), the pastry chef was Teddy, who, I think, had Parkinson’s Disease. I watched in amazement when he would approach a cake with the icing bag very noticeably shaking, and then make beautiful designs with no shaking. The baker and owner was Placid Calluso. His wife was Marie, I think. I always addressed her as Mrs. Calluso. They had one child, a girl named June, or Junie as we called her. She and my older sister (by 5 years) were great friends.
Wouldn’t that take the cake if Thomas’s photo has Evert Van Wicklen Snedeker in it! That elderly gentleman standing on the left could be in his late 50s, early 60s, I would guess.
I’ll do a little detecting…this is a photo taken in the afternoon of an early Spring day of your great-great uncle in his 40’s around 1925. How’d I do? A wild guess as to his height and weight…5” 8”, 150lbs.
A handsome man. What did he do for a living?sfp1979, you can type your message and then click on the last icon in the task bar above the area you wrote in (the icon that has the box with the mountain range and moon). That will open up a box in which you click on the camera icon. That will open up File Explorer for your computer (I’m assuming that it is stored on you computer). Click on the file that has the photo. That location will then be automatically pasted into the rectangular box next to the camera icon. Then click “OK”. I think that that will work for you. I’ll keep my fingers crossed 8^)
I have a memory of walking with my Father down to the Younkheere Lumber Yard at 3320 Bailey Ave, which is where ChatGPT says Younkheere’s was located in 1946, in order to get a few 1 x 8 x 8 ft boards that he needed in order to make built-in book shelves for the livingroom of our apartment at 4652 Manhattan College Pkwy. It was a long walk back with me carrying one end of the planks, with the middle of them undulating up and down in sync with our steps…hard work for a 10 year old. We rested often. That was my first experience interacting with a lumber yard. It was sufficiently interesting that I still can picture the inside, cavernous to a boy. I can almost remember the smell.
I appreciate the history in this topic. Thank you, Nick.
Yes, I can see the walkway on Saxon Ave that leads to the courtyard on Google Maps. A very interesting history. Thanks.
Hi DrDan.
Building One, which appears to have its main entrance at 74 VCPS, doesn’t have any commercial areas facing the streets that I can see. Per the NYCityMap site, the building was constructed in 1928. Was the pharmacy within the apartment building and available only to the co-op owners? Was that also the case for the grocery store?
The building at 50 VCAW was also erected in 1928, according to NYCityMap. If the dates of construction cited in NYCityMap are correct (and that’s a big “if”), then the building was first used in another fashion before accommodating the grocery store and the pharmacy.
I used to walk from my apartment at 4652 Manhattan College Pkwy (Spuyten Duyvil Pkwy until the name change in 1953), across the construction of the Major Deegan in Van Cortlandt Park, up VCAW and along Sedgwick Ave to DeWitt Clinton HS from 1950 to 1954). That was after I gave up riding the city bus down Broadway and changing busses at either W 238th or W 231st. I think that we were issued bus passes, but my memory is fuzzy now. A few times, in order to vary the route, I would use the stairs at the beginning of VCPS and walk along that street to Mosholu Pkwy, then down to the HS. Good times!Thank you, Thomas, for the follow up. I look forward to reading your article, And, yes, I’m Jonathan Baker, Jonathan to you all.
From a search of this site I found the September, 2019 Photo Contest. In post # 1127 Alan Lasky provided a photo showing 3014 Godwin Terrace and 226 Kimberly Place, with the painted advertisements on the back wall. They are also in the picture above.
The Google Earth Pro app shows those two buildings behind the Post Office located at 5517 Broadway.
The NYCityMap app indicates that the Post Office building was erected in 1952 (however accurate that may be).
I say that Maurpat got it right! (Sorry, Thomas 8^)
Is there any chance that the Mocudrama will be posted online for viewing after its showing at the festival for those of us who are unable to attend?
Thanks for the photos, Thomas.
In the first picture looking towards the train station, just to the right of the #1 trolley, is the rear of what looks like a 1948 Pontiac (Forest Green color?). What are the chances that that car was my parents’ car? We lived a block away on the street just out of the right frame (on Spuyten Duyvil Pkwy, changed to Manhattan College Pkwy in April, 1953).
I wonder if the picture was taken in November since all the trees have full, green leaves, ‘though men are wearing suit jackets and the lady by the #2 trolley is wearing a coat. The temperature in NYC on November 5, 1952 was around 55 F, so maybe the picture was taken on that date. The car at the left frame of the picture is, I believe, a 1951 Pontiac Chieftain with the driver’s window open, ‘though the resolution doesn’t lend itself to a more accurate analysis for either car.
The second picture with the #1, #2 and #3 trolleys had to have been taken in the Spring or Summer, not in November, as people are in shirt sleeves, the grass is green and the trees have green leaves.
This brings back nostalgic memories of the trolleys that ran on Broadway. Sometimes boys would jump and hang onto the rear of the trolley to get a free ride and some thrills. I did that once and decided that it was supremely stupid…I could get really hurt if I were to fall off. In the summer, many trolleys would have wicker sides up to shoulder height and then open from there to the roof that allowed cool air to waft over the riders as the trolley moved from stop to stop. Those were better than the enclosed ones with only the windows opened; no A/C in those days.
I remember the trolleys going up Kingsbridge Road. I think that they carried a supply of sand to drop onto the tracks for traction in the winter to get themselves up the hill.
Although the buses are a bane, and having trolleys to replace them would be nice, from a safety standpoint, buses embarking and debarking passengers at the curb is better than doing so in the middle of the street.
Thanks for this post, Peter.
Travelling 50 miles a day for 6 days straight must have been grueling for both the horse and the rider. Perhaps Revere changed horses along the route. Talk about saddle soreness…
Historic times! The fortitude that people had in the face of institutional power is forever humbling to me.
Thank you for your sleuthing, Stephanie. Wow, I though that I had somewhat remembered the occasion of the increase, but I was waaaay off. Shakes me to my core…lol.
Thanks for the additional info, Tom. Inflation hits hard; what cost slightly less that eight cents in 1950 now costs a dollar. I think that the desire for ~2% inflation rate is to encourage people to spend some money rather than save it, thus stimulating the economy. The value of the dollar has decreased almost 97% since 1913, the year that the Federal Reserve was formed. Since we are dealing in fiat money now, I don’t know if it really matters so long as one is lucky enough for personal wealth to grow proportionately.
