Old New York

Tom and Joe Frank......I know E233rd and the Mayer's area well. I lived with my family in Pelham Bay (went to Spellman 1967-71). When we needed to get to Cross County or use the NYS Thruway, we would either take 233rd across the Bronx or the Pelham Pkwy/Bronx River Pkwy combination. From 68 through 70 I played electric organ in a rock band that practiced every Saturday morning in a basement on Matilda Avenue....a few blocks from there off Nereid. We used to eat lunch in any of the old lunch counters on White Plains Rd under the EL.

Great days and simpler times!

Peter

Hello Peter and Tom

Its good to see some ex-Bronxite locals on this forum that remember many things I also do from many decades ago.  Sadly,  MAYER'S Parkway Restaurant is a long gone memory - I think it closed in the 1982-1985 period. 

Here BELOW is a current day photo I cleaned up from Google Maps Street-View Photo (Google Maps newest version Street View is HORRIBLE after the so called and slow-clunky-working  "improvements" they stuck us with on their site) 

I cleaned it up and removed all the  stupid tool-graphics, arrows and other google-text-junk embedded on the image - the view looking N.E. from the corner on E.233rd St, looking eastward uphill to the IRT White Plains Road line EL and its E.233rd Street EL Station in the background.   The entire Mayer's building has been either rebuilt or (more likely) totally demolished and replaced by a new Parking Garage !!  Across the (E.233rd) street is Montifiore Hospital.  You can always "go back" but most times you can't "go home"  after 5 decades !

Compare this with the 1950's  Photo BELOW in a near same angle at that same corner, of Mayer's Parkway Restaurant in a long ago happier and simpler era of our youth !

The Bronx was great back then, or so it seemed when we were all younger !

regards - Joe F

Bronx Schmonx   Brooklyn was the place

Schmonx?

Staten Island St. George Yard...

Look at all those hoppers!   You don't see that on Staten Island anymore.  Nothing but garbage containers.

That PCC is car 1000. It was the only one built by Clark. It is rare and unique. It belonged to Everett White who started the Trolley Museum of New York. If you look to the right you can see the Queensboro Bridge Master Unit. Not in the photo was 8361, the Brooklyn Peter Witt and an Atlantic City car. I was a kid then and I traveled from the Bronx to Staten Island on Saturday mornings to work on the Witt? The IRT Jerome line to South Ferry The ferry to St. George to the SIRT yard. 1000 and the Witt still live.

 They are at the TMONY in Kingston NY. The QB car was scrapped and I think the AC car is still around somewhere. 

Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn!!!

Ok some Brooklyn. 

Interesting view. This is taken from the Williamsburg Bank Building on Hansen Place We see the intersection of Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and Fourth Avenue. The Long Island RR terminal is in the lower left hand corner and the Fifth Ave  El is now gone from the scene . That is a Peter Witt turning off Atlantoc ave onto Flatbush Ave in front of the IRT subway Kiosk.

  We have another Peter Witt This time at Street level . This is on a fan trip in the Williamsbirg Bushwick area in the 1940s. The car is still in the BRT colors. Brooklyn's Peter Witt fleet was quite large including some 525 cars almost all of which were double enders. In later years when more loops were constructed, double enders would operate as single enders. The Peter Witts were in the 800 series and were the most common car in the Brooklyn fleet in later years. 

 This is a 5100 series Brill built as center door cars originally. They were subsequently rebuilt with end doors added in the late 1930s and operated through the war and after , the lst ones quitting in 1948. They were known to have braking issues and one was involved in a serious wreck on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1945.

  And Yes, The Brooklyn system had convertibles as well. In the summer the side panels came off and the fresh air predominated. This one is running with folks enjoying the summer day.

 This is an interesting view at Sand Street. It is looking east on the North side of the Broooklyn Bridge. The El trains that used the upper loop terminated at Sands Street while through trains reached the Bridge line from   a trackway which connected with thhe Fuklton STreet El a few blocks east of this point. Street cars travelled both on street level and the main eL level of the terminal.This is  a real early photograph.

Here is the one of a kind PCC 1000 on the Private Right of Way near Coney Island. 

 Here is a shot of a PCC and a Peter Witt on the Mcdonald Avenue line near Coney Island and Neptune Avenue on the Culver Line El. The Culver line was still a BMT line when this image was made.

And going away is a PCC on Mcdonald Ave line under the Culver Line. Note the unpaved trolley right of way under the El.

Lets see some of your Brooklyn photos.

Timeless photos, amazing stuff.

I saw this photo on line and I thought I would share it here. In may ways , this photo is Brooklyn . We have a Trolley in route and Ebbets Field, the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers  in the background The timing is about 1947. The Dodgers won the National League pennant that year. The streetcar is a Peter Witt double ender and its on the Number 48 Lorimer street route. It has just turned North  from Empire Boulevard onto Franklin Ave. It will get to Lorimer street and head up to Greenpoint  and then onto Nassau Ave to Gardiners Ave at the Newtoen Creek. This car is in the cream and maroon colors of the Brooklyn and Queens Transit, the streetcar arm of the BMT. There were 525 Peter Witts on the B&QT system . Some of them were repainted into the Board of Transportation colors of Aluminum and green but many like the one in the photo would run their last miles in the Cream and Maroon Livery. By 1950, most of Brooklyn's street car routes were about gone save for the three lines, Church Ave, McDonald Ave and Coney Island Avenue lines which were equipped with PCC's . There were a group of about 20 Peter Witt cars retained after 1950 for use on the Mcdonald Avenue route during the rush hours. Two of these were preserved , one in Kingston and a second at Branford. Enjoy the Peter Witt and see if you can hear "the faithful" in Ebbets field

Ok over to Queens now. This is a photo of the then new Elevated Line along Queens Boulevard at about Rawson or 33rd street probably about 1920. . Today we now it as the IRT Number 7 route. In 1916, the Dual contracts provide for new expansion of the city's transit facilities by the BMT and the IRT, then private companies. The El connected Queensboro Plaza with Flushing running along Queens Boulevard and and then onto Roosevelt Avenue. Note the long platforms and if you look carefully you can see a barrier about mid platform seperating the IRT from the BMT. The train in the station is probably a second Avenue El Train on its way to Manhattan via the Queensborough Bridge. On the right in the photo there appears to be a trolley service area probably for the cars that ran from Manhattan over the bridge and along Queens Boulevard out to Jamaica. In the distance we can make out Woodside on the hill which was more of a rural community at that time, "out in the sticks: if you will. Real estate expansion is getting uderway which is usually what happenned when the city built new transit facilities like this El. Look, there appears to be a lot of equipment stored on the express track so perhaps the line has not yet reached Willeys Point and Corona Yard is still abuilding,

  My old high school is located on that spot now. I wonder if that's the old Sunnyside arena in the north east corner.

   Thanks for posting.

CHOO-CHOO Mike you must be a graduate of Aviation High! Graduated from the same school when it was situated in Manhattan.

Amazing pictures - 

 You are correct George !    Class of 79

  I would get on at that station and head west over the Sunnyside yards into the city and walk to Madison Hardware. I just wish I had money to spend back then.

Thanks for your reply CHOO-CHOO MIKE! cLASS OF 51! Still rember the 3rd ave.L.  Rode the BMT from the Broadway-Astoria station.Best wishes!

My, look at how barren and undeveloped the area was back then.  I can't imagine Queens like that.

Stuart

Stuart, great photo.  No wonder the Archdiocese of NY had laid out the cemeteries 40 or so years earlier.  Way out in the boondocks.

City Hall

Queensboro bridge