Once Upon A Time In Carroll Gardens: The South Congregational Church

(Picture credit: Brooklyn Public Library Archive)

South Congregational Church at 360 Court Street

The same church today minus the steeple

Dear Reader,
I hope that you don't mind me re-publishing this post. I wrote it back in 2007, but I am sure many of you have not seen it, unless you have looked through PMFA's archive. I wanted some of my newer readers to see these great old photos of one of our most recognizable churches. And it does have a Christmas theme....



Imagine you were standing at the corner of President and Court Street here in Carroll Gardens, right against the ball field fence of Carroll Park. Now imagine it's the early 1900's.
This is what you would have seen:
The South Congregational Church at 360 Court Street with a church steeple. The steeple has been gone gone for a very long time now and the church is no longer a place of worship, but a condo. Otherwise, not much seems to have changed at that location. Pretty neat, no?


But now look what else I found. A lovely picture from 1953 of a living crèche at the exact same church. recognize anybody from the neighborhood? The caption reads:

"Eight costumed children (four standing, 1 sitting, 3 kneeling) in Nativity scene. Caption: "Living Crèche--Every quarter of an hour this week pupils of South Congregational Church Sunday School will pose this nativity scene in the doorway of the church at Court and President Sts."

(Picture credit: Brooklyn Public Library Archive)

Living Nativity scene 1953 at the South Congregational Church

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A Bouquet Of Tulips? Oh, Yes, Please!

On Court And President

Yes, please!
I will take a bouquet
of those spring tulips.
The orange ones look lovely.
So do the red and the pink.
They will tie me over
until they bloom in the garden.

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Trophy Catch In Carroll Gardens

Front yard decoration on Clinton.


All ready for the Holidays.
Easter bunnies
and...
Easter fish.

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Neighborhood Window Shopping At Layla's

Beautifully patterned towels How luxurious, What luscious colors. I want them. They have them at:

Layla's
86 Hoyt Street
Right Off Atlantic Avenue

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A Carroll Gardens Building Management Trying Another Approach

Pleading, Pleading, Pleading

A very polite approach, don't you think?

It's kind of refreshing.

Hey!

Maybe it will catch on.

..............

Nah, don't hold your breath!

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Another Missing Gate In Carroll Gardens

You remember last week, I wrote about a stolen gate on President Street? Someone took it right off the hinge and walked down Smith Street with it before being confronted by neighbors who had followed him? Luckily, he gave back the gate.

A while back, one block away but also on President, number 327 also lost its gate. In addition, it lost both stair posts and the balusters along one side. Obviously, the thieves were interrupted before they could strip the other side. How sad!
The house has been empty for years and looks sad enough as it is. If the house should ever get renovated to its former glory, the expense of replacing the ironwork will have to be added. And that costs quite a pretty penny.

Related reading:
The Gate Thief Of Carroll Gardens And How He Was Confronted By Vigilant Neighbors!


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Quench is Gone, Here Comes The Jake Walk on Smith

282 Smith Street

A new coat of paint
(from blue to cream)

A new door
(from frosted glass to thick wood)

and a new name:
The Jake Walk

A work in progress
though the new bar looks ready to open very soon

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Picture Of The Day: " St…… " Sign

On Hoyt Street

Now do you suppose you could talk a policeman
out of giving you a ticket if you ran this STOP sign?

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All Quiet On the 333 Front

A day after a stop-work order was re-issued for 333 Carroll Street, all was quiet yesterday at the condo conversion. The building with the "iron top" has been stuck in limbo forever. The neighborhood is still hoping that the Department of Buildings will force the developer to take the extra two floors down. (We can dream can't we?)
There had been a flurry of construction activity there last week. For a few nights, the place was even illuminated with obnoxiously bright lights
For now, with the stop-work order taped to the fence, 333 Carroll is awaiting the next chapter in its saga.



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Real Estate Sticker Shock On Court And Smith

You see them in front of many real estate offices
on Smith and Court Streets, especially on week-ends.
Looking through the window at the offerings,
they look slightly dazed.
I think, it's sticker shock!

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Some Permits For 333 Carroll Street Revoked Again?

A very vigilant neighbor of 333 Carroll Street just sent me a link regarding the condo conversion on the Department of Building's web site. Dated today, March 4th, it states:


Borough Commissioner has issued a 10-Day Letter of intent to revoke application number 301918744 on 3/4/08. Issue DOB stop work order and note the percentage of work so far on violation and complaint.

FULL STOP WORK ORDER SERVED

I wonder if the developer has been notified. There is work going on at the site as I am writing this.

For the link to the DoB's site, click here

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You Better Follow Them Rules

Don't mess around with this homeowner on Bergen. He is putting you on notice:

Come close to his house and you better follow the rules wired to his fence.
And he has a lot of them.
But pardon me for asking, what does he mean by "No Building Allowed"
and "Gate:under penalty of law?"

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Free Soup Fixings On The Summit Street Foot Bridge

Walk across the footbridge over the B.Q.E. at Summit Street and you will find the fixings for a hearty bean soup lying on the ground. Free for the taking, too. There is an onion, a potato, a carrot and a bag of beans. What more do you need?

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They Will Build It, But Will They Clean It?

Full House at last night's Friends Of Bond Street meeting

Craig Hammerman, Community Board 6

Council member Tony Avella of Queens

Phil DePaolo of the New York City Community Council

The two Toll Brothers' representatives

Last night's Gowanus Neighborhood meeting at Mary Star Of The Sea Senior Housing was quite impressive. Organized by the Friends Of Bond Street to help the community organize for the March 13 Public Scoping Meeting at City Planning, it was not only well attended, well organized and incredibly insightful, but also showed Carroll Gardeners are a force to be reckoned with. I was impressed by my fellow neighbors: smart and well informed, they were ready to take on the Toll Brothers' and their Condo Complex along the shores of the heavily polluted canal.

Craig Hammerman, acting outside his job as our Community Board manager,
gave a very clear presentation on the City Environmental Quality Review Process which this development will have to go through. Every thing should be considered: the impact the project will have on the transportation system, on local schools, on the electricity requirement from an already taxed system, local streets and mostly on the canal itself, to name just a few.

The building site is currently zoned for manufacturing. Though the city has been hot to rezone the entire area along the Gowanus to residential and to open it to developers, the Toll Brothers want City Planning to spot-rezone to get their project off the ground faster.

When asked by a C.O.R.D. member if this rezoning could happen before the long awaited down-zoning of Carroll Gardens and why that should be, Craig Hammerman gave the floor to Tony Avella, N.Y. City Council Member from Queens and chairman of the Land Use Committee.
Councilman Avella is quite an impressive speaker who does not mince words. His answer was stunningly honest: Mayor Bloomberg is pro-development and in a fight between developer and local residents, the developer will win. Under Bloomberg, a neighborhood down-zoning will be put on the back-burner, a zoning change in favor of construction will be pushed through City Planning. The reality is that there is just too much money in development. Avella urged the community to work together and to present a united front.
That our own Councilman Bill DeBlasio was not present at all last night did not go unnoticed. Bravo to Mr. Avella for having made the trip to our neighborhood when our own representative couldn't or wouldn't.

Another bravo to Phil DePaolo of the New York Community Council, who also attended last night's meeting. He suggested that the community act fast: " The clock is ticking already. This process goes very fast once it gets started. " The frustration in Carroll Gardens is not unique. He sees it all over the city in every community he visits.

Two Toll Brothers' representatives were also present at the meeting. They stated that they are not currently the owners of the property in question, but that they are in contract. However, they will not close on the lot until it has been rezoned. The two representatives grew a bit testy when asked if they would reconsider and abandon the project if the neighborhood was against it. One of the men asked if the neighborhood would rather continue living with a dirty canal than with the development, to which quite a few people said: yes.
One resident answered: "because you are not going to make it cleaner for me to swim in."

One thing became very clear to me last night. If all these developers think that they are speaking to the community by entering into a dialog with Buddy Scotto, self proclaimed mayor of Carroll Gardens and tireless proponent of development along the canal, they are mistaken. This is not Buddy's Carroll Gardens any more!


Blogger Found In Brooklyn also was at the meeting. Here is her take on last night's meeting.

Surprise visit by the Toll Brothers at Gowanus Community Meeting.

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Before There Was Starbucks On Smith Street, There Was Hughes'

157 Smith Street

Site Of What Was 312 Columbia Street

Corner of Columbia and Woodhull

An internet find made me do a nice little loop around the neighborhood.
The silly little "business" cards above, featuring Lily and Rosie stamped on the reverse side with some very familiar addresses were worth some investigation.

Dear Reader, you may be interested to know that Hughes' Teas and Coffees once had two stores here in our neighborhood. One was at 157 Smith Street, the other at 312 Columbia Street. The Smith Street location in more recent times was the Sunrise Cleaners. Currently it is home to Rime. The Columbia site did not fare as well. The entire block was most likely taken down when the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel was built in 1950.

According to the business card, Hughes' Teas and Coffees were the best. No doubt!

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Extreme Tree Pit Decorating

Some might put a small fence around the trunk of a street tree.
Some others might plant ivy or flowers around it.
But then, there are those who take it a bit further.
This Carroll Gardener gets the prize for most extreme tree pit decorating.
Angels , squirrels and lambs, oh my!

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Adieu To Trusting Cleaners on Court

It's a sad day when another Mom and Pop store in the neighborhood is forced to close. The Oh family, owners of the Trusting Cleaners store, is saying good-bye to the neighbor forever because they no longer can afford the rent.
The message below was posted on the Carroll Gardens list server over the week-end. I thought you, dear reader, might like to know.

Dear Neighbors;
As many of you know, Trusting Cleaners, a mom and pop shop on Court Street
is being forced to close... a victim of rising rents. The neighbors and I
are planning a farewell party for the Oh's, the owners of the business. We
wanted to collect money to give them a gift, but they said they would prefer not
to have gifts; just dry cleaning in their final weeks. If you need clothes
cleaned or need minor alterations; please support this business in the final
weeks. Please remember, clothes must be picked up by March 15.

On Sunday, March 30, from 3-5 pm; we will have a neighborhood gathering to
salute these nice people at Sam's Restaurant on Court Street. If you'd like
to attend, email lblyer@aol. com_

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