In 1981, community leader Luis Garden Acosta called northern Brooklyn the "killing fields" for the number of teenagers killed in gang conflicts. Williamsburg's energy is unmatched, especially since the neighborhood has become a mecca for the creative-types. You could fill a whole tiny paper bag with them for like 10 cents! This mansionwas built for Thomas Bossert in 1898; Bossert went on to build Brooklyn Heights Bossert Hotel. Graduated 6th grade in 1950 and sent to PS 145 on Noll St. Then Boys High. Any one know of the place she is thinking of. On the evening of July 13, 1977, a massive blackout plunged New York into darkness. Although I lived in Park Slope I had family who used to travel all the way from Dover New Jersey to visit him I was under his care as a young boy I will never forget the sound of his kind Voice or the fragrance of the blue smoke billowing from his pipe. A toxic combination of housing fraud, nightly arson, and declining city services left Bushwick desolate. He passed in 2010 in Florida. Bushwick Brooklyn (70s) - YouTube lol at the 2:08 mark. As race riots ripped apart other cities, including Detroit and Newark, unscrupulous real-estate agents and speculators tried to frighten white Bushwick residentsa practice known as blockbusting. Homeowners would find ominous messages in their mailboxesDont wait until its too late!as well as encouraging ones: Houses wanted, cash waiting. In a massive scandal reminiscent of todays subprime-mortgage meltdown, speculators bought homes from Bushwick residents for an average of $8,000 apiece, and then, using fraudulent appraisals and a Great Society federal mortgage program that insured home loans to low-income buyers, sold them to poor blacks and Puerto Ricans at prices that they couldnt afford on average, about $20,000 per home. People were running around crazy like a pack of wild dogs, a looter told the authors of Blackout Looting!, a study of that unhappy night. (When I went past again in 2010, it was again occupied!). Bushwick. I can send a car there or the gang unit to see if we can get them out.. They drink beer and wine. My Dad was a constant photographer even using a movie camera to take films at times. 4 (Bushwick) District Offices and other programs for the community. 55) : 6 Additionally, 70% of high school students in Bushwick graduate on time, lower than the citywide average of 75% of students. He is the author of The New New Left, a collection of his City Journal essays. Many of Bushwicks old mansions are now in surprisingly good condition. 7 Photos. If you're into street art and are looking for the best street art and graffiti in New York City, Bushwick is the best area to go to. Our super was an ex-con who would regale us with stories of the local drug trade that used to be here. I decided to get out of there because there was no one to protect you., On Broadway alone that night, looters pillaged 134 stores and set 44 of them on fire, burning some, like Woolworths, to the ground. I assume he is associated with Scaturro Supermarkets. Peter Pabn for The New York Times. Those were great times as kid. Dereszewski agreed: "While the commercial area on Broadway was devastated on the night of the blackout, it had been in serious decline for many years prior," with many storefronts left vacant long before the lights went out. What a great time. The most visible and best-known group of artists in Bushwick is The Bushwick Collective. The William Ulmer Mansion has been rehabilitated and is now occupied after years of moribundity. I remember you well you lived on dekalb ave? After discovering that the city also paid generous relocation costs if fires displaced them, the welfare tenants began setting their own government-subsidized apartments ablaze. Did anyone here go to PS 299? The Principal was Walter Shultz and the AP was a Mrs Mac Namara. to Gina.. After the looting, no one wanted to come here any more.. 1/20/2022. [VIDEO] What's Left of New York City's Lost Croton Reservoir? Opened in September by members of the local rock band Weeknight (Holly MacGibbon and Andy Simmons), the bar channels 1970s-era rock with kitschy touches like pinball machines, a bust of Elvis lording over the bar and a vintage Colt 45 advertisement with Billy Dee Williams. [Full-of-it allert ;-)] Look at this NBC News reportage from about teenage gang The Devils Rebels that used to operate in the infamous83rd precinct, Brooklyn. Still live on Bleecker Street for 62 years. Nor were firebugs the only problem. Bushwick is one of the northernmost neighborhoods located in Brooklyn. Others hustled off to find trucks, vans, and cars, and then returned to load them with stolen goods. THERE WAS ONLY TWO HOUSES ON THE BLOCK ALL THE REST BELONGED TO A TRUCK BODY CO. HEARNS. Viewing NYC, all rights reserved. The first black boy who moved in our neighborhood was refused entrance. One more thing. Ulmer also built a long-vanished amusement park in Bath Beach, which today is remembered by the Ulmer Park bus repair facility and storage yard at 25th and Harway Avenues and by the Ulmer Park Library. Bushwick also faces ethnic tensions. The power went out late enough for the city to be pitch black, yet early enough for everyone to still be awake. In 1996, the city granted just 46 residential building permits for 92 units of housing in Bushwick; by 2003, annual permits had risen to 174 buildings and nearly 700 units. It was recently granted landmark status by NYCs Landmarks Preservation Commission. READ FULL DESCRIPTION. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/fashion/birdys-bushwick-70s-bar.html. Investigators arrested one local welfare family that had collected $40,000 from the city for 13 fires that it set. i remember the GIG CAFE on bushwick ave. remember the rko bushwick theatre and the lowes gates along broadway. My great grandparents lived at 871 Bushwick Ave. On the commercial strip beneath the elevated J train tracks, 45 stores were set ablaze; a few days later, what became known as the "All Hands Fire" started in an abandoned factory, taking out 23 more buildings in the heart of the neighborhood. Zestimate Home Value: $400,200. Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023. I remeber the two movie houses and then there was the Empire and the real low down Monroe,where a dime could get you 21 cartoons a three stooges a serial thriller and a couple of movies. Izzies or Izzys, is the name I remember. The remaining shop owners were mostly absentees who lived in other parts of the city, and couldnt get to their businesses to protect them. When you look at the homes on some of these streets, you can see how this was once a family neighborhood, says Le. It is noteworthy that the cops are being pretty rough as well . So we went to McCurran(sp) public pool. The maps were color-coded: A was green, B was blue, C was yellow, and D was redgiving the policy the term it would ultimately become known by, "redlining. Indeed they were and we were shocked to find a 45-minute wait to get a table.. The bar name was changed to the Gig Cafe sometime during the early 60s when the clientele changed to mostly Black customers who came from across Broadway from Ocean Hill and Bedford Stuyvesant. Rather than rent the units, the owners are selling them as office condominiums for between $380,000 and $500,000. Nearby Knickerbocker Avenue, observers noted at the time, survived with less damage thanks to having more resident shopkeepers who were close enough when the lights went out to sit in their storesarmed with baseball bats and shotgunsuntil the power returned the next day. Meryl Meisler turned heads last year with her photographs of Bushwick in the late '70s and early '80s, when the neighborhood was racked by arson, economic crisis, and crime, epitomized in the chaos of the 1977 blackout. Iguess if he did stop every time a kid raised a hand, hed never get done! I found some old archives when I was working that actually contained the names of the aged patients dating back to the 1870s. It was a broiling summer night in the midst of the worst fiscal crisis in the citys history, when city youth programs had been shuttered and New York was jammed with young people with few prospects and at loose ends. LIVED AT 411 TROUTMAN ST BETWEEN WYCOFF AND ST NICHOLAS AV. Like many names in Brooklyn, Bushwick is derived from Dutch and means town in the woods. Once a separate town in Kings County, it became a part of Brooklyn in 1869. . Actually, as a youngster, it creeped me out. We lived on Kossuth Place and my Dad would take me for walks after dinner, mostly on Bushwick Avenue. By 10 oclock this night, some are ready for the action, some are not. I, too, went to 14 Holy Martyrs School and started school in 1936 until 1944 and then to St. Josephs Commercial High School until 1949. remember the parades along bushwick ave on BROOKLYN DAY. She was spinster in those days they called them, and put all her energies into us kids, i was born in williamsburg general hospital in 1956. went to p.s. As with most dentists, he said to raise my hand if it hurt, but he didnstop anyway! Often described by residents as a forgotten neighborhood, Bushwick was once a solid blue-collar community. in the Bushwick part of Brooklyn. Must see in person as it is bigger than it appears. Built 1931. The latest news, articles, and resources, sent to your inbox weekly. The video made by NBC, contains a lot of footage shot with a concealed camera with a special night vision lens [aw!]. The bar was across the street from my Dads office at 1338 Bushwick avenue.It sat on the north/esat corner of Schaffer street. r/nyc, the subreddit about New York City 10 Vintage Photos Of New York When Disco Ruled And Bushwick Was A War Zone. I lived on Bushwick Ave.near Arion Pl., In order for me to go to 145, I had to go pass the brewery that was there at the time , I understand it is not there anymore. Best regards, Kathy. The nuns used to wear those hats like the Flying Nun. Let's face it, most of these kids weren't clicking their heels together with joy at the prospect of starting another day of school. A bit further up Bushwick Avenue,on Meserole Street, a buildings sign testifies Bushwick Avenues old name: The Boulevard. 2021 Bushwick Daily LLC. Neil deMause has covered New York City development issues for the Village Voice, City Limits, and Metro New York. My mother swears he saved my brother from death arms, What hospital were you born in. then walked. "These were kids who just wanted to be kids, but they were facing overwhelming odds," says Meryl Meisler, who taught in . Bushwick is a 2017 American action thriller film directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion and written by Nick Damici and Graham Reznick. As the site says: Between 1939 and 1941, the Works Progress Administration, in conjunction with the New York City Department of Taxation, organized teams of photographers to shoot pictures of every building in the five boroughs of New York City. The city knocked down vacant buildings, cleared lots, and auctioned them off cheaply to local residents. The 20-something crowd at Birdy's was buzzing about one retro touch in particular: drink prices. PS 56, Halsey Jr,High school, Bushwick High School. During its earliest days, Williamsburg was known as Bushwick or Bushwick Shore. The Utz party mix in faux wood bowls is free. They were handsome boys who were sweet to me, but very tough street kids. Visit Website. I moved here Jan. 1955. The triangle across from the Ulmer/Cook mansion, Freedom Triangle, contains the first of two war memorials along Myrtle Avenue alongside the el structure. There was a townhouse-sized lot (probably 16 ft wide, 20ft at most) a few blocks away in Bed Stuy that was for sale a few weeks ago for 1.1mil all that while the . I lived four hou ses down from ps85. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The Angel of Victory With Peace was installed here in 1921 and honors Bushwicks 93 casualties in World War I. Please mention him with the house since I will always associate that house with him. The price of rentals is skyrocketing. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act made it easier for southern Europeans to immigrate to America. Yet the mid-nineties saw a breathtaking restoration of order in the neighborhood, beginning when Mayor Rudolph Giulianis first police commissioner, William Bratton, revamped the NYPD and its crime-fighting methods. We think people want to bet on the future of this neighborhood by owning their own offices, says Joe Irving, a real-estate agent representing the building. As a new year dawns, residents await leadership that can address the citys harrowing crime problem. If you do find one, could you post here about it? PK, I remember that old house from my childhood days. Of all Bushwick streets,Linden Street is particularly gracious. Then I passed one day and it was being torn down. Few men in all history have ever been made to suffer so bitterly and so inexpressibly as I because of the assertion of my achievement.. Does anyone remember the name of the Italian bakery on Wilson ave near maybe evergreen? Was very sorry to find out that my home along with Ps85 had been demolished. : 6 . The neighborhoods wooden row houses, tightly packed together and often sharing attics, proved particularly vulnerable; a fire would erupt in one building and swiftly spread, sometimes consuming half a block. Nothing better exemplified the growing defeatism of the NYPD, which was reacting to crime rather than aggressively fighting it, than a detectives response when asked why the local precinct hadnt responded: We do what we can with the gang. Mom and I used to go to so many of the stores there. The ensuing All Hands Fire devoured 30 buildings and left 250 families homeless. I still have some really great memories from P.S. I was proud to read about your achievements in city government, congrats, I lived in Willoughby and Evsrgreen a nd worked in Willoughby nursery home and remember that building and go to KFC. Born in Wurttemberg in 1833, William Ulmer immigrated to New York in the 1850s to work with his two uncles, Henry Clausen Sr. and John F. Betz, in the brewing industry, eventually becoming the brewmaster for Clausens very successful New York firm. Toting a camera during her teaching years, Meisler captured some of the impressions that the collapsing neighborhood made on local children an abandoned playground overgrown with weeds, a view from a classroom of ruined buildings and empty lots. All Skate, Couples I remember the first time I saw that piano man after dark! Fr. I am hoping to visit his wife and go through some of the old photos, of which there are thousands. New York of the 1970s and early '80s was a gritty place of stunning contrasts. Davis was a PILAR of the area community at that time. In 2019, the household income group with the largest share (24.5%) of households was $100,001 - $250,000. Bushwicks brand of the crack trade was among Gothams most vicious. I grew up on Arion Place ~ 1960-79 a few blocks away and always remember that house as being Dr. Daviss office as well, way before it was Dr. Cooks. ), but we need to keep the old neighborhoods as old neighborhoods and not fancy condo incubators. As a former NYC resident, Ive become quite disgusted by what I saw when browsing through Google Street View Maps. "But when you dont maintain, electrical fires can occur. Or, was he, as some detractors assert, afake and a phony? When the lights went out, hundreds of people began breaking into stores along Broadway, the southern boundary separating Bushwick from Bedford-Stuyvesant, pulling down security gates, smashing windows, hauling off furniture, TVs, whatever they could carry. And no part of the five boroughs was to become more associated with the blackout than the old north Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. Born in Bavaria, Anton Vigelius immigrated to Brooklyn in 1840 at the age of 18 and was involved in the produce business prior to opening the brewery. 3 beds, 1 bath house located at 70 Bushwick Ave, Central Islip, NY 11722 sold for $273,000 on Aug 2, 2019. It was still occupied then as a private home. Carmine , I Hope this message finds you well , you used to cut through my backyard fence to get to Cedar street without walking around the block , yes its youre Old Friend Eric Erdmann . It sounds like college radio from the 90s (some of the millennials there may know what that means). 18, when teachers were teachers. You said it exactly like I remember ,, I lived on bleecst up the block from st barbara where I went to school. The oldest apartment building in Bushwick, Brooklyn is from 1800 while the newest apartment building is from 2020. At times, the groups have viewed each other warily. I would like to say hello to all that lived on Arion Pl. St. Barbaras was built in 1910. Charming f. Renters. Out here you see your people livin on the street. So youre saying the house with the corner tower was not the Ulmer mansion? This chaos broke out just as New York was rocked by a deep fiscal crisis, largely the product of Lindsays wild overspending on social welfare. Hello Photos of Bushwick in the mid-70s show an incredible sight: block upon block of abandoned apartment buildings, many of them bearing facades marked by ashy smudges rising up window frames. Is this Carmine who was friends with Joe Zito and Mary Winckel? Street gangs used to have way cooler names like, say, the Devil's Rebels for instance. With dynamic modern architecture that emphasizes space, light exposure, and luxury interiors, these 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms exemplify only Williamsburg's best value - competitive with the rest of the market. Local bankers and realtors concocted a mortgage scam in which they filed fraudulent paperwork on behalf of low-income buyers (or people who didnt exist) to obtain federally backed Federal Housing Administration loans for mortgage insurance. Viewing NYC is owned and operated by, Vintage Film Show Bushwick Gangs and Brooklyn's 83rd Precinct in the 1970s, Take a Tour of 1976 New York City With This Vintage Super 8 Home Movie, Los Sures, a Documentary About Tough Life in Williamsburg in the Late 70s and 80s, NYPD Hands Out Safety Tip Sheets After Recent String of Central Park Muggings, Vintage Film Shows the Upper West Side's Street Life Back in March 1977, [WATCH] Testing Out $1400 AI Powered Electric Shoes Around NYC, [REPOST] Interactive Map Lets You See Vintage and Modern Photos of Greenwich Village Historic District Side-by-Side. MOST LIKELY BE FORE YOUR TIME. The Rent Zestimate for this home is $2,755/mo, which has increased by $2,755/mo in the last 30 days. There was also the big white church on Bushwick and Himrod and the Menorah Jewish Home across Himrod on Bushwick. Textile mills that had provided jobs along the Bushwick/East Williamsburg border were starting to close. Bushwick Avenue, though,offers few more of the ruins shown above. My sister was his patient. Men living near abandoned homes began sleeping on porches, guns by their sides, ready to drive off arsonists. We had a Miss Larken who took us to shows in the city on weekends, or movies. Percent . I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR OLD PICTURES OF THE BLOCK. New York also rebuilt its police and fire forces and constructed a new precinct house in Bushwickmoves that helped reduce crime in the area during the early eighties. After the breweries closed or moved, starting in the 50s and continuing into the 70s when all were gone, Bushwick suffered a slow decline, culminating in July 1977 when, during a blackout, Bushwick , in effect, was destroyed by arson and looting. He always smoked a rich smelling pipe. To save money, the city laid off thousands of fire and police personnel, leaving Bushwick residents isolated and increasingly panicked. before it began. Bushwick Avenue, 1974. Wish I could go back in time!! She talks about playing with discarded dolls from a doll or toy factory when she lived in the Bushwick area. The young men are wearing homemade body armor, suggesting they were on their way to a fight with a rival gang. If I find a photo of the Piano Man as I called him, Ill post back here again. This vintage footage from the 1970s shows an incredible glimpse into old New York. Email me at hillarybressler@gmail.com if you know anything about them. Now there's some amazing footage that's resurfaced of the '70s Bushwick gang, originally broadcast as . On the side streets along Broadwaynot so long ago, pockmarked with desolate lots where stray dogs wandered amid burned-out carsmore new homes arise and old ones get impressive face-lifts. Those include Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, Cypress Hill, and East New York. 375k members in the nyc community. The public school nearby was ps 85. In one telling case, Pat Piccionea longtime Bushwick homeowner who had showed police some thugs whod roughed him upfound himself besieged in his home by friends of his first attackers. Tenant is responsible for Electricity and Gas . . MLS# 3126011. These days it could use a paint job. [WATCH] What are Air Rights in New York City. I just wish to say, my old doctor used to live in that house for many years. Some buildings were burned by their owners for insurance money, some so that the arsonists could scavenge the ruins for copper wire, some by drug users clumsy with open flames, some by bored locals looking for kicks. These were people who were determined to die in their community, and they just wanted to be able to do it with dignity. Elected that November, Koch did pay some attention to Bushwick. And an advocacy group, the Youth Power Project, has been rallying the areas Latino youth against some of the new building and renovating, claiming that it will push out poor residents. I also have a doctorate in education administration from the University of Illinois. I lived across the school at 607 Central Ave and then moving to Macdonough St and then to Long Island, Texas, Ohio and now Georgia. Ive done quite a bit of research and interviews with my neighbors, but every bit helps. . It borders the Queens borough. Attracting a wondrous array of local, national and international artists, it showcases first-rate street art -- from legendary Blek Le Rat stencils to huge . thanks!!! The community began trusting the police and helping them rid the area of the drug trade. His name should always be associated with that building. I will always remember dr. Clement Davis . By the mid-seventies, half of Bushwicks residents were on public assistance. After the breweries closed or moved,starting in the 50s and continuing into the 70s when all were gone, Bushwick suffered a slow decline, culminating in July 1977 when, during a blackout, Bushwick , in effect, was destroyed by arson and looting. As MIT historian Craig Steven Wilder recounts in his book, A Covenant With Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn, HOLC agents drew up maps that ranked entire neighborhoods by whether or not they were desirable: Zones graded A were ripe for further development, B were stable but had little room for new construction, C had poor housing stock or insufficient transit or utilities, while D communities suffered from poverty and "undesirable" residents. Bushwick, in northeast Brooklyn,is surrounded by Bedford-Stuyvesant on the west, Williamsburgh on the north, and Ridgewood to the northeast. Murphy's $53 billion budget: More property tax relief, spending on schools, mental health. Subsequent waves of immigration brought Italians and Latinos to the area. 70 BUSHWICK AVENUE, BROOKLYN, New York 11211 . On the long-abandoned seven-acre site of the former Rheingold Brewery, new two-family homes and condominiums have sprung up. . In 2019, there were an estimated 127,550 people in Bushwick, of which 4.2% of the population identified as Asian, 15.3% identified as Black, 56.3% identified as Hispanic, and 20.6% identified as white. Its probably the era to blame and the 70s gang fashion. i am trying to get more information on the little sisters of the poor my mom and aunt were sent there , my mom got pregnant with me there. by Matt Coneybeare at 11:50 AM on March 5, 2016. Dr. Davis owned the house before I was born 1966 until I believed he died in 1989. We lived on Kossuth Place back in the 1950s and 60s. I lived at 16 Arion Pl. I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN BUSWICK. Typical is this December escapade recounted by a twentysomething Manhattan woman on the blog New York Adventures: After an afternoon spent at the Bryant Park Christmas market and the Clinique counter at Lord & Taylor, I convinced Rachel that it was a good idea to do something a bit more adventuresome for dinner on Saturday night . Let us know! Trends Over Time. I normally dont open up, but you can email me at manny300m@hotmail.com to swap stories.