Do You Remember?






<PRE>
Brooklyn Standard Union ­ Anniversary ­ 

How many of the old Williamsburgers remember that famous white pebbled beach
on the waterfront at Lawrence & Folk's Shipyard, which provided
opportunities for the boys and girls of the neighborhood to become aquatic
stars?

And how many will recall ---
	
The shrill piercing whistle of Polly's Distillery, an old landmark
comprising the square between North Fourth and North Fifth Streets and Kent
and Wythe Avenues ?

The old wooden schoolhouses, Public School 1, in North Sixth Street, and
Public School 2, in North Seventh Street, both of which schools turned out
men and women prominent in all walks of life?

The pump at North Eighth Street and Wythe Avenue, which served to quench
many a person's thirst on one of those hot, sweltering nights in the good
old summertime?

The many skating ponds which the neighborhood boasted for the pleasure of
the young folks ­ the gas house pond in the rear of the gas works at North
Seventh Street ­ the long stretch back of Public School 2, where the boys
and girls would disport themselves as soon as the bell would proclaim their
liberty for the day?

Last, but not least, how many of the "old timers" remember making
preparations for Halloween by first visiting SMITH's old farm at the foot of
Third Street (now Berry) and partaking of his cabbage heads?

Old Dummy Line
Many old timers in the South Brooklyn section no doubt remember the
Brooklyn-Fort Hamilton Dummy Line, which ran from the Twenty-fifth Street
and Third Avenue to the Fort Hamilton reservation.  The fare was five cents
from Twenty-fifth Street to Sixty-fifth and an additional nickel from that
point to the fort.
Christ LAUENSTEIN, of 1644 Eighth Avenue, was one of the combination
conductors, fireman, gatemen and general handy fellows who manned the
passenger car, which was tied behind the locomotive dressed up as a trolley car.
"I was born in a frame house in Sixth Avenue, between Middle Street
(Prospect Avenue) and Sixteenth Street, in 1870," he relates, "and there was
a saloon run by a fellow named EMERICH downstairs.
"That was back in 1870, and shortly after the family moved to Nineteenth
Street and Sixth Avenue.

Recalls Theatre Disaster.
" I still remember, as a boy, going out with my father to watch the funeral
of the unidentified dead of the Brooklyn Theatre Fire.  A very impressive
looking and sounding man made one of those addresses at the ceremonies.  I
learned later in life that it was Henry Ward BEECHER.
"After two years in private school, for which my family paid fifty cents a
week, I entered Public Schoolhouse No. 10 at Seventeenth Street and Seventh
Avenue, when I was eight years old.
"I also remember having to get out during the blizzard of 1988 to shovel
mountains of snow from in front of our house," he continued, "and got both
ears frostbitten.
"Shortly after that I decided to go fishing one day and was standing at
Twenty-fifth street and Third Avenue, outside of KROMBACH's Hotel.  WILLARDs
Coal Yard was next door, then came Barney NOLAN's place and next to that was
BLOHM's hardware store.

The Old Rattan.
"Danny ROCK, a big policeman from the Eighteenth precinct, which was at
Thirty-seventh Street and Third Avenue, saw me at the corner, gave me a
sound "rattaning' and asked me why I was loafing around.
"Before I had much chance to say or do anything he had me all fixed up with
a job on the Dummy Line.
"I had to remain on the platform during the whole trip, string up the bell
cord, keep the gates closed, fire and shake down the engine and couple the
cars at the end of each trip.
"Every time we approached a crossing I had to shake a big cowbell to warn
wagon drivers ­ as if they couldn't hear the snorting engine in the dummy,
twice as far away as they could the bell.
"We went along Third avenue from Twenty-fifth to Ninety-ninth Streets with a
second fare stop at Sixty-fifth.  At Ninety-ninth Street we turned up to
Fifth Avenue, where the line stopped at the reservation gate.

Tides Flooded Third Avenue.
"All along the line were points of interest.  There was a stone wall on one
side of Third Avenue from Twenty-eighth Street to Thirty-third.  Frequently
the tide rose so high it flooded part of the tracks ­ no, there was no
Second Avenue in those days until you came to Thirty-ninth Street.  Where
Bush Terminal now stands is all ground filled in from the hills that were
removed from Thirty-seventh Street, between Fifth and Ninth Avenues.
"The depot was at Twenty-sixth to Twenty-seventh Streets.  Peter BEAHM was
in charge of the steam line, a man named SMITH was superintendent of the
horse car lines, and a Mr. CAMERON was general superintendent with offices
at 10 Fulton Street.
"At Twenty-sixth street and Third Avenue was BISHOP's saloon, then came Bill
MOLE's stationery store, John SHARP's milk dairy, John COSGROVE's Hotel.
"Then came a big farm which ran across the street from the stone wall; next
came MORRISSEY's Hotel, at Thirty-third Street; Schuetzen Park at Fiftieth
Street, and Bay View Park at Sixtieth Street.
"All the Red Hook parties and picnics were held in these parks and the Dummy
Line was the popular method of transportation to get there.
"I might recall to some of the old-timers, the COOK's Hotel at Sixty-fifth
Street, LEE's at Bay Ridge Avenue and a brewery at Ninety-sixth Street.

A Famous Old Sign.
" A lot of them will no doubt also recall WEIR's Hotel at Twenty-Fifth and
Fifth, and how many remember SHEERIN's a block away, where the sign used to
hang out which read, "Barley Water and Bad Segars' ?
"The main gate to Greenwood Cemetery was then at Twenty-fifth and Third
Avenue, and there used to be eight carry-alls which would take sightseers
all through the place for a quarter a person.
"Those were just a few of the places I can call to mind," Mr. LAUENSTEIN
said in conclusion, "but to me, riding past them day after day on the
platform of the Dummy Line, they still stand out sharp in my memory.  I used
to have to know each and every place in the neighborhood so travelers would
know where they were going ­ the conductors of the trolleys, subways, and
"L' today get just as many questions fired at them ­ maybe more."
Mr. LAUENSTEIN's mother was Adelaide SAGER, one of the founders of St.
John's Lutheran Church in Prospect Avenue, near Sixth, and his father helped
build the edifice.

Old Brooklynites Well Remember the Steamer Pond
The Previous Generations Pushed the Fair Ones Around Skating Rinks.
Ice skating, that rather precarious art of skidding around on two strips of
quarter-inch steel with nothing to take the rude reality of a Missouri mule
out of the slightest mis-step, and which to-day is one of the most popular
outdoor sports in Brooklyn, just became the rage here in the "sixties."
Ponds were the names given to the ancestors of the rinks to-day.
Of these the Capitoline, Washington and Willow were among the better known.
The "Steamer Pond," out near the present site of Empire Boulevard and
Flatbush Avenue, was the most famous.  It was a six-acre shallow body of
water on the Lefferts estate and was leased by the Nassau Skating Club, in 1861.
This club sold season tickets and by this means was able to maintain a
clubhouse and other features.
Its chief claim to popularity was that because it was so shallow it froze
more rapidly than Prospect Park lakes and provided about (?) more days of
skating a season than the others.
That was in the days when ladies sat in sled chairs while an attem(?) swain
skated along behind, pushed his fair friend, while she sat wrapped in
blankets, neckpieces and muffs.
One of the last of these open(?) ponds, also on what was once the Lefferts
Estate, made way almost two years ago for the erection of a large apartment
house at Lin(?) Road and Flatbush Avenue, just a short walk from the
original site of the famous old "Steamer Pond."
And the girls who skated there two years ago didn¹t sit in (?) chairs.
They raced their "boy friends" around a quarter-mile 
track (?) tubular speed skates.

No More Ewen Street
Daniel EWEN, a surveyor living in New York City, and who surveyed both the
old and new villages of Williamsburgh was honored for his services by having
Ewen Street named for him.
Ewen Street became Manhattan Avenue in the later years and the name of Ewen
has become obs(?) history.
Yet by an odd quirk of (?) Ewen¹s street became named after his home city,
or a present, borough ­ for no apparent reason.

South Brooklyn Relics Recalled by J. H. FERRALL
The First Hotel in the Old City Was Located on Fifth Avenue.
James H. FERRALL, of 499 1-2 Fifth Avenue, conducts a moving business at the
same place where his great grandfather eighty-one years ago began the
enterprise.
His reminiscences of Brooklyn cover many subjects and incidents in the "old
Brooklyn and South Brooklyn."
At his home recently, at 217 Eighteenth Street, he deplored the rapid
disappearance of the old landmarks.
To South Brooklyn fell the honor of having the first hotel in the City of
Brooklyn.  This was located at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-seventh street and it
is still in existence, as are a number of landmarks at Fifth Avenue between
Twentieth and Twenty-first streets besides the Del(?)plaine House at Sixth
Avenue and Twenty-third Street and the other one at Forty-second Street and
Second Avenue.
With the dawn of the present era, the continued, modern improvements came.
For a very long time water had to be obtained from a well at Sixteenth
Street and Third Avenue, and it supplied the territory from Twentieth Street
and Sixth Avenue to Sixteenth Street and Third Avenue.
"During the Civil War period Brooklyn was in the throes of a yellow fever
epidemic, and many residents of Fort Hamilton moved away," he said, "and for
thirty-five years thereafter Fort Hamilton was dormant.  Many of the old
houses remain to-day."
Towboys used to change horses at Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street, and the
turntable was at Fifth Avenue and Fifteenth Street.
The St. John¹s Cathedral was in existence then, and it was the only Catholic
church serving the South Brooklyn territory.  Mr. FERRALL mentioned that
Pope¹s Park was at the top of a hill on Twenty-ninth Street and Fifth
Avenue, while Brighton Park, a privately owned park of M. BYRON was between
Ninth and Tenth Avenues, from Eighteen Street to Prospect Avenue.
Horse-driven cars were the only means of transportation, and the mail men
used coaches to collect and deliver the mail.
He chuckled when he spoke of the famous coasting hill on Seventh Avenue and
Twentieth Street, "Them were the days, young fellow," he said proudly.
When the FERRALLs began their business in 1847 South Brooklyn was so
sparsely populated that the horses found their way home from any place.

Three-Cent Fare Paid in Those Days
In these hectic days of "seven-cent fare" war, the story in the Brooklyn
"Standard" in 1862 evokes a smile.
"Brooklyn will soon have a complete network of horse railroads," it said,
"in almost as many directions as a spider web.
"The track for what is called the Coney Island Road (although it will not
for the present go any great way toward Coney Island) is pretty well
completed.  The cars have arrived and this route will very soon be opened
for the public."
Now comes the rub -
"The road running along Furman Street," the article continues, "between
Fulton and South Ferries (Atlantic Avenue) at a fare of THREE CENTS, we
believe pays well."

Hardy Scandinavians Settled in the E.D.
Whatever may have been said in the past about the Dutch settling Manhattan
and Brooklyn - The Eastern District was settled by hardy Scandinavians.
Jan DE ZWEED (the Swede), Hans HANSEN, Claes CARSTENSEN, Cornelius STILLE
and a few more were the first white men to attempt a settlement in that territory.
Their descendants are now clustered in that section of South Brooklyn, or
Bay Ridge in the "forties" near the Bush Terminal.

The Town of Bushwick.
The town of Bushwick, whose origin has been dealt with in the story of
Williamsburg, became a town by state law in 1788, on March 7.  Along with
its more up-and-coming offspring, Williamsburg, it later became part of the
City of Brooklyn, which was eight years old in 1863.
One of its features was the town dock at the woodpoint on Newtown Creek.  It
was here that the forerunner of all the piers, docks and wharves of the
present day Newtown Creek came into being.
The farmers brought their wagon loads of garden products here to load them
on sail or row boats for shipment to the "big city" across the river.
Abraham Jansen TIMMERMAN, a carpenter, built one of the first mills on the
creek at about where the Metropolitan Avenue bridge crosses the creek to-day.

In the town of Bushwick shortly before 1860 were some of the finest homes of
Brooklyn's early famous families.  The VAN RANST house was at what is now
Withers Street, near a branch of Bushwick Creek; the CONSELYEA house was at
the present Skillman Avenue, near Humboldt Street, the DEBEVOISE house was
at Woodpoint Road, opposite the POLHEMUS Mansion House, now Egert Avenue,
near Meeker Avenue.
All of these places were fine, well kept farms with grassy lawns around the
residence.  There were shad trees and flowers and we read that ball players
and target shooters disported themselves on the Mansion House grounds.

The Old Cross Roads.
The old cross roads of the Eastern District was where Cripplebush and Mespat
Road crossed Bushwick Road.
Cripplebush and Mespat Road is now Flushing Avenue and Bushwick Road, or
part of it wandered around deviously in the vicinity of Central and Evergreen Avenues.
The cross roads may therefore be approximated at Central and Flushing Avenues.

Williamsburg Old-Timer

Transcriber :Mimi Stevens
<a href="/Newspaper/BSU/Anniversary/index.html"><font color="red">Return to ANNIVERSARY Main</font></a>
<a href="/Newspaper/index.html"><font color="blue">RETURN to NEWSPAPER MAIN</font></a>
<a href="/Newspaper/BSU/index.html"><font color="green">RETURN to BSU MAIN</font></a>
<a href="/index.html"><font color="black">RETURN to BROOKLYN MAIN</font></a>