Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Where Have All The Pretty Brownstones Gone On Smith?

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In former times: The Corner of Smith Street and 1st Place looking towards 2nd Place



The same corner today


Looking towards the other direction. View down Smith Street towards Atlantic. First Street is on the right. A bit further down on the left is First Place






My local pizza parlor, Giardini's on Smith, has these neat old photographs of his storefront hanging on the wall. I know the city took pictures of every house for tax purposes back in the 1930's. So he probably ordered them from the city archive. They are really quite incredible.
I took my camera into the store on Sunday and photographed them. Here they are for everyone to enjoy.
Times really changed on Smith. All the lovely buildings you see were demolished when the subway was put in. And of course the trolley tracks disappeared shortly afterwards.
The first picture is of the corner of Smith and First Place looking up towards 3rd Place. It is currently the site of the Hannah Senesh School and the 360 Smith Street site along the F train entrance. (Yes, the Stein/ Scarano Site)
The second one is looking down Smith Street towards Carroll Street. The first building at the corner on the right is the site of Giardini's today. The houses on the left are the ones visible in the first picture, just from the opposite direction. The brownstones that used to stand where P.S. 58's school yard is today are also plainly visible.
Does any of this make any sense, or did I just confuse everybody?
Well, you'll figure it out for yourselves, I am sure.

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