Egidio Pastry Is 100 Years Old; Awning Not So Much

Egidio Pastry, the excellent Bronx pasticceria, turns 100 year. You can read all about the Belmont-area store in this earlier post of mine. I recommend that everyone make their was up to 187th Street this holiday season to sample some of the bakery's goods. I also recommend that Egidio show itself some respect by taking down that god-awful plastic awning, which obscures the genuinely beautiful neon sign above it. C'mon, guys. Blue letters on pink? You're not Dylan's Candy Shop.

A Century of Growth

This is one of the mighty trees of Carroll Park that were felled by Hurricane Sandy. Much has been carved up and hauled away, but the base of the trunk remains. As I passed it the other day, I decided to do that thing they always tell you to do to determine a tree's age: count the rings. I spent a good amount of time. It wasn't easy, as some of the rings are very close together. So I didn't get an accurate count. But I can safely say this tree was more than 100 years old. Very moving to think of all the local history is witnessed in those years.

A Good Sign: Travel

A reader sent in this lovely photo of an old sign that sits above a children's clothing store called Thank Heaven on Austin Street in Forest Hills. It used to be for a travel agency called Plan Travel. I like the font very much. Very tiki. Makes me think of tropical locales. 

What's Under the Siding

There's nothing positive to say about the state Hurricane Sandy left Red Hook in. But the storm did pull off one slightly interesting trick.

In the mid-20th century, in a misguided effort at beautification, many a Brooklyn and Queens building was sadly blanketed in aluminum siding. I've often wondered, as I walked by these eyesores, what sort of structure lay beneath the sheath of cheap metal blandness. I always pictured a handsome red-brick home or a brownstone.

Sandy ripped off a good chunk of siding from a three-story home on Verona Street. And the surface beneath it was not what I expected. There's basically a kind of plaster, stucco facade, colored a sort of umber. Nothing very attractive. It looks like the building was made of oatmeal. The window lintels are somewhat more interesting, but only slightly.

That said, it's still better looking than the siding. But you kind of understand why the owners, a half century ago, opted to a new, somewhat cleaner look.

Red Hook After Sandy

"Give it Ur Best, Sandy," taunt the spray-painted words on the side of some scaffolding on Van Brunt Street.

Sandy did. And, nearly two weeks later, Red Hook has not yet recovered, and probably will not fully return to normal for months more. A walk down Van Brunt and up Conover recently revealed that few businesses had repaired their facades and interior enough, and restored their lost inventory sufficiently, to reopen. Fairway, the neighborhood's anchor, isn't expected to reopen for some time, a loss that will effect trade at other nearby businesses. Sitting on the very edge of the harbor, the Civil War-era warehouse suffered some of the worst flooding.

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Smith Street in the 1960s

Here's a shot of Smith Street, in Carroll Gardens, in the 1960s. It's a stretch of the street just opposite Carroll Park. We've got a grocery, a liquor shop. But what I'm really interested in here is Willie's Pizzeria. Maybe just because of the name. (Certainly, pizzerias were not rare in this Italian-American neighborhood back then.)

Carroll Park Suffers a Loss

Carroll Gardens weathered Hurricane Sandy fairly well. Compared the ravages suffered by Red Hook, in fact, if got off pretty much scot free. But it did suffer one major loss which will be felt by the whole community.

Carroll Park is the beating, green heart of the Brooklyn neighborhood. The small park takes up only one square block, but it has deep roots. It's actually the third oldest park in the city. A sign of its age can be seen in the height and width of its mammoth trees. Four very large trees adorn the park's central circle, and two enormous ones interrupt the pavement on the nearby basketball courts and baseball diamonds. Most are London plain trees, and they are beautiful.

There was another tree in a fenced off green area. Kids frequently played around it when they climbed on the nearby "Clinton Rock," a boulder that was dug up on Clinton Street a decade ago and placed in the park. It came down during Sandy and smashed a good section of chain link fence. The park is closed for now, until the mess can be cleared. Another large, wonderfully gnarled tree on President Street, just outside the border of the park, also toppled and was carved up and taken away.

I don't know exactly how old the fallen trees are, but they were big and tall in the 1930s, as these photos attest. So I'm guessing at least a century old.

Carroll Park was created around 1843. Though the name Carroll Gardens is new, dating from the 1960s, the park has always been called Carroll Park, named Charles Carroll, a Maryland delegate to the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Why him? Because fighting a pivotal battle in the early Revolutionary War skirmish, the Battle of Brooklyn, was done by the valiant Maryland Boys, who kept the British at bay while Washington and his army decamped for Manhattan.

The land where the park sits began as a private property. The idea for a park was put forth in 1851, and paid for by assessment of local property owners. The land was acquired by the city in 1853. When it opened it was called the "nonpareil of parks." In 1859, is was described as "a block of ground planted with ornamental trees and intersected by gavelled walks." But it was "let to take care of itself." Iron fence eight-feet tall were erected, and asphalt walks. Baseball was played here as early as 1870.

Renovations in 1870 were done by Olmstead and Vaux, of Central Park and Prospect Park fame. At this point, gas lamps were installed, and the corners of the park were curved. In the 1890s came electric lights, "handsome serpentine paths," and a big circular basin in the middle, with a fountain stocked with fish, surrounded to two smaller fountains. (The fountains became a problem. Local kids would cast lines and try to catch the fish.)

It was around the time of this renovation that trees were planted. I'm guessing these trees. They grew during three separate centuries.

Lost City: Louisville Edition: A Good Sign: S.E. Davis Loans

Here's a potent, Southern-style mercantile combination. Loans! Guns! Musical Instruments!

It's hard to enumerate the things that are fantastic about this old Louisville sign. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to light up at night, since I also saw it during the evening.

S. E. Davis was found in 1936. Its Facebook page tells us this with a straight face: "We sell new and previously owned jewelry at a fraction of the cost of retail stores. We also have a music room with all the accessories you may need. We make loans on jewelry, musical instruments, electronics, firearms and most things of value."

Most things of value. Hilarious.

Perhaps you can take out a loan to buy a gun or a musical instrument.

Sunny's Bar to Reopen Soon

When Hurricane Sandy hit, Sunny's Bar in Red Hook was in its direct path. Few, if any New York bars, are closer to the waterfront or sit upon such a high water table.

Sure enough, the old tavern—run today by the great-grandson of the founder—was slammed. But it won't stay bowed for long. A message on the bar's website tells us:

Sunny's is sadly closed due to Hurricane Sandy (or superstorm Sandy, however the news wants to call it.) We took on about 2 feet of water above the basemant. It's been great to have the love and hard labor of those who have come to Red Hook to help out and it is greatly appreciated from all of us who live here. We are hoping to be back in business by next Friday or Saturday. Keep checking in to see any updates. And if you want to help Red Hook please check in with the Red Hook Initiative 402 Van Brunt St. They are organizing relief. We'll be back. All of us. And more importantly The Rockaways, Breezy Point and Staten Island can still use much help. We are hurt but OK in the grand scheme of things, so please try to devote your attention to those who need it most.

Lost City: Louisville Edition: A Good Sign: The Murphy Elevator Co.

The wonderful, and very large, neon sign is on E. Main Street in downtown Louisville. The company has been operating and family-owned since 1932. They make passenger as well as freight elevators, as the sign attests. They also do repairs and maintenance. Murphy also has locations in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia, but this is the original.