Archive for 2010
blurred outlines
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As always, Lords and Ladies of Newtown, your humble narrator finds himself overwhelmed by obligation and social fealty. To be seen by so many diminishes me.
The recent uprooting of Newtown Pentacle HQ from its Matthews Model Flat environ and consequent move to new digs here in ruby lipped Astoria has been arduous, and has resulted in the quite uneven schedule of postings you’ve no doubt noticed. Unfortunately, such is life when well lived, but the apogee of exertion has been met and the routine returns to normal.
As normal as it gets, here in the Newtown Pentacle, that is.
from the New York Herald, Jan. 6, 1895
Fires in the home of Adam Colwell, 84 Guernsey Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — that, in 20 hours, preceding noon, Jan. 5th, when Colwell’s frame house burned down, there had been many fires.(6) Policemen had been sent to investigate. They had seen furniture burst into flames. Policemen and firemen had reported that the fires were of unknown origin. The Fire Marshal said: “It might be thought that the child Rhoda started two of the fires, but she can not be considered guilty of the others, as she was being questioned, when some of them began. I do not want to be quoted as a believer in the supernatural, but I have no explanation to offer, as to the cause of the fires, or of the throwing around of the furniture.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite the agonizing series of efforts and appointments which moving one’s domicile requires, and a concurrent and badly timed series of familial and fraternal obligations, once I heard about the pyrokinetic history of 84 Guernsey Street in Greenpoint- I made the time to go get some shots of the place. This era of rapid real estate development that we are experiencing has taught me to strike when the iron is hot- for the subject you desire to explore very well might be gone the next day.
also from the New York Herald, Jan. 6, 1895
Colwell’s story was that, upon the afternoon of Jan. 4th, in the presence of his wife and his step-daughter Rhoda, aged 16, a crash was heard. A large, empty, parlor stove had fallen to the floor. Four pictures fell from walls. Colwell had been out. Upon his return, while hearing an account of what had occurred, he smelled smoke. A bed was afire. He called a policeman, Roundsman Daly, who put out the fire, and then, because of unaccountable circumstances, remained in the house. It was said that the Roundsman saw wall paper, near the shoulder of Colwell’s son Willie start to burn. Detective Sergeant Dunn arrived. There was another fire, and a heavy lamp fell from a hook. The house burned down, and the Colwells, who were in poor circumstances, lost everything but their clothes. They were taken to the police station.
Captain Rhoades, of the Greenpoint Precinct, said: “The people we arrested had nothing to do with the strange fires. The more I look into it, the deeper the mystery. So far I can attribute it to no other cause than a supernatural agency. Why, the fires broke out under the very noses of the men I sent to investigate.”
Sergeant Dunn — “There were things that happened before my eyes that I did not believe were possible.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pyrokinesis is actually a term coined by the novelist Stephen king for his novel “Firestarter”, although tales of the psychic ability to ignite fires abound in popular mythology and historical records. One is reminded of Mr. A.W. Underwood- a fellow known as the “Human Blowtorch” who was a phenomenon in the 19th century.
from the New York Herald, Jan. 7, 1895
Policemen and firemen artfully tricked by a pretty, young girl.” Mr. J.L. Hope, of Flushing, L.I., had called upon Captain Rhoades, telling him that Rhoda had been a housemaid in his home, where, between Nov. 19 and Dec. 19, four mysterious fires had occurred. “Now the Captain was sure of Rhoda’s guilt, and he told her so.” “She was frightened, and was advised to tell the truth.”
And Rhoda told what she was “advised” to tell. She “sobbed” that she had started the fires, because she did not like the neighborhood in which she lived, and wanted to move away: that she had knocked pictures from the walls, while her mother was in another part of the house, and had dropped burning matches into beds, continuing her trickeries after policemen, detectives, and firemen had arrived.
The Colwells were poor people, and occupied only the top floor of the house that burned down. Colwell, a carpenter, had been out of work two years, and the family was living on the small wages of his son. Insurance was not mentioned.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Greenpoint is a very, very strange place- apparently.
also from the New York Herald, Jan. 7, 1895
The police captain’s conclusion was that the fires that had seemed “supernatural” to him, were naturally accounted for, because, if when Rhoda was in Flushing, she set things afire, fires in her own home could be so explained. Rather than to start a long investigation into the origin of the fires in Flushing, the police captain gave the girl what was considered sound and wholesome advice.
And — though it seems quaint, today — the girl listened to advice. “Pretty young girls” have tricked more than policemen and firemen. Possibly a dozen male susceptibles could have looked right at this pretty, young girl, and not have seen her strike a match, and flip it into furniture; but no flip of a match could set wall paper afire.
The case is like the case of Emma Piggott. Only to one person’s motives could fires be attributed: but by no known means could she have started some of these fires.
What, exactly, is inside a modern traffic light?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whilst wandering about the Newtown Pentacle one fine summer day, your humble narrator encountered a maintenance crew from Weisbach performing some sort of upkeep on a traffic signal light. This is one of the newer ones, the kind which have two switch boxes attached, of the sort that has populating Northern Blvd. for the last few years.
from hoovers.com
Specialty contractor Welsbach Electric provides outdoor electrical construction, installation, and maintenance services for utilities and public and private clients in New York City and Long Island. The company builds and installs roadway traffic signals, power stations, stadium lighting systems, underground transmission circuits, and other specialized systems. It maintains a fleet of more than 300 aerial and handling vehicles. Welsbach Electric was founded more than a century ago; it was acquired by construction group EMCOR in 1971.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Normally hidden within the steel enclosure, the intricate works and electronica were exposed for the technician’s egress, and I took the opportunity to crack out a few shots of its innards. Byzantine, complex, and strangely advanced machinery seems to govern the actions of the traffic signal- a 4 way device which handles the busy corner of 44th street and Northern Blvd. near Major Auto World.
from nyc.gov
(a) Traffic control signals. Whenever traffic is controlled by traffic control signalsexhibiting different colored lights successively, the following colors shall indicate andapply to operators of vehicles and to pedestrians, except as superseded by pedestriancontrol signals, as follows:
(1) Green alone.
- (i) Vehicular traffic facing such signals may proceed straight through orturn right or left unless a sign at such place prohibits any such movement.But vehicular traffic, including vehicles turning right or left, shall yield theright of way to other vehicles and to pedestrians lawfully within theintersection or an adjacent crosswalk at the time such signal is exhibited.
- (ii) Pedestrians facing such signal may proceed across the roadwaywithin any crosswalk.
(2) Steady yellow alone, dark period, or red-green combined when shownfollowing the green signal:
- (i) Vehicular traffic facing such signal is thereby warned that the redsignal will be exhibited immediately thereafter and such vehicular trafficshall not enter the intersection when the red signal is exhibited.
- (ii) Pedestrians facing such signal are thereby warned that there isinsufficient time to cross the roadway, and shall not enter or cross theroadway. Pedestrians already in the roadway shall proceed to the nearestsafety island or sidewalk.
(3) Steady red alone:
- (i) Vehicular traffic facing such signal shall stop before entering thecrosswalk on the near side of the intersection or, if none, then beforeentering the intersection and shall remain standing until an indication toproceed is shown.
- (ii) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subdivision (a), or any provisions of state law, an operator approaching an intersection where asign authorizes right or left turns on red signal may make such turn aftercoming to a complete stop, but shall yield the right of way to all vehiclesand pedestrians lawfully within the intersection.
- (iii) Pedestrians facing such signal shall not enter or cross the roadway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Holy Moley! What’s going on inside this thing? This looks like the extensive rack of electronic doodads used here at Newtown Pentacle HQ for photo retouching!
also from nyc.gov
Citywide Congested Corridors Study
Northern Boulevard from Queens Plaza to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (2.2 miles)This corridor runs east-west route in northern Queens and provides a major connection to the Queensboro Bridge. The corridor has direct access to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the east, a location that has undergone a massive reconstruction, and to the Manhattan CBD by way of the Queensboro Bridge in the west. The reconstruction of the BQE has resulted in a change in traffic patterns at the intersection, especially for motorists wishing to access the expressway toward Brooklyn.
Northern Boulevard is a wide corridor with significant auto-related and large, stand-alone commercial retail stores. There are light pedestrian volumes and some residential land uses. The corridor is also a through truck route. There are three subway stops along this portion of Northern Boulevard where the R, V and G trains can be accessed and an N/W station one block away on 39th Ave. The Q101 and Q66 bus routes operate along a portion of the study corridor.
Project Firebox 14
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This specimen is found at the corner of North 10th and Union Avenue, on the edge of a construction site. Interestingly enough, the recent vogue enjoyed by the construction contracting community for the usage of shiny metal fencing offers many ill lit spots around the old town a perspicuous reflectivity.
walkinginbrooklyn.blogspot.com has a fairly in depth survey of the immediate environs, which can be accessed here.
tears of long weeping
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator, afflicted by vast physical cowardice and a strangely shy nature, rather enjoys visiting the location of an auspicious event long after its danger has faded away.
The event- an apocalyptic fire at the Sone and Fleming refinery in 1919 (seriously, click this link and check out the NYTimes report on this) that consumed a large chunk of the Greenpoint waterfront- drew me there some 90+ years after the fact. Of course, the Exxon facility which is handling the remediation of the great Greenpoint Oil spill is directly across the street from the structure pictured above, and stands on the site of the old Standard Oil yard which was immolated by that self same 1919 fire.
from a crainsnewyork report of June 25, 2010
Kalmon Dolgin also arranged the sale of an 114,000-square-foot development site at 365 Kingsland Ave., also in the area, for $10 million. Mr. Dolgin, along with his colleagues Mr. Nicholas and Jean Cook, represented both seller Broadway Stages and buyer Kingsland 359 LLC in the sale.
The property features a 20,000-square-foot building on a plot of 114,000 square feet zoned for industrial use. It was previously used for the parking and storing of trucks. The new owners who purchased the property plan to continue to use the site as an industrial storage facility.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The colour is impossible to ignore in this part of hoary Greenpoint, with its long industrial history and shadowed past. Iridescent, it is neither black nor gray, and this colour- like something out of space- seems to coat every sickly tree limb and worm eaten pilaster. The splendid isolation which is always supplied by the creeklands on the weekend is absent here, and one has the sense of being watched by hidden eyes. Perhaps it is just the security men, but intuitions suggest that some malefic presence or supernal intelligence is nearby, however that’s just ridiculous and paranoid.
from nysdecgreenpoint.com
The former ExxonMobil terminal is located at 400 Kingsland Avenue. The property is bordered by Newtown Creek to the east, various Norman and Kingsland Avenue businesses to the south, Kingsland Avenue to the west and the 460 Greenpoint Avenue property to the north. Two additional properties are also associated with the former ExxonMobil terminal property, the Monitor yard (located west of the terminal property between Kingsland Avenue and Monitor Street) and the North Henry Yard (located west of the Monitor yard between Monitor and North Henry Streets).
By 1892, five of the petroleum refineries in the Greenpoint area (Central Refining, Washington Oil Company, Kings Company Oil Refining, Empire Refining Company, and The Deove Manufacturing Brooklyn Oil Works) were purchased and became known as the Standard Oil Trust. In 1911, the Standard Oil Trust was dissolved and these properties became the Standard Oil Company of New York (SOCONY) and by 1929, had expanded to over 79 acres along Newtown Creek, including the property currently owned by BP. In 1931, SOCONY merged with the Vacuum Oil Company, which later became Mobil, and now is known as ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil ceased its refining operations in 1966 and in 1968, sold a portion of their property to Amoco Oil Company (Amoco) and other entities. Following the discovery of petroleum products seeping into Newtown Creek in 1978, ExxonMobil began to investigate and remediate the plume, and by 1993, had discontinued all fuel operations on the terminal property. In 2007, ExxonMobil removed the empty above ground storage tanks associated with its former refinery operations and is currently in the process of excavating and removing all underground piping from the former terminal property.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I let my imagination wander, on these long pilgrimages across this Newtown Pentacle, it often drifts to those days when the degenerate Dutch controlled the land we call Greenpoint.
In these early days the houses were heated by great wide open fire places in the living room. This was the place where the food was prepared and eaten and where the family in the evening gathered about the fire place, warmed themselves at the great log fire, and discussed family, social, and political affairs. The casual caller was entertained at this hospitable fire place. Wood was the only fuel and every farm had its wood lot. For the fire a huge back log was rolled into place, then smaller logs about six feet in length would be piled in front and on top of the back log. A roaring fire could easily be kept going to make the entire house comfortably warm except in bitter winter weather.
Each house had its outdoor oven in which the busy housewife could easily bake a dozen loaves of bread or as many pies at a time. The vigorous outdoor life was conducive to healthy appetites, but these Dutch families were all good providers. Large families were also the rule. This sparsely settled section gave small opportunity for social life. The farms were large and widely separated and the church and store a great distance away. The gallants who sued for the favor of the several daughters of Pieter PRAA and Maria Hay must have been rowed up and across the East River by their slaves in order to do their courting. All these daughters married merchants or professional men from across the river.
Prior to 1824 nearly all Dutch families were slave holders. Pieter PRAA was the owner of quite a number and in his will he provided that each slave should choose among which of the children he desired to serve. To his body servant. Jack, was given by terms of the will an island, a part of which is now Long Island City and which was known for more than a century later as “Jack’s Island.” Although not a large island it was sufficiently large for his maintenance. The Dutch enjoyed a reputation of treating their slaves with consideration. Although the act of 1824 freed all slaves in New York State, these black servants continued to regard themselves as members of the household to which they had formerly belonged. Many of these slaves had been brought up to a trade and there was work in abundance for all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Its not the official story that I ponder, of course, and instead focus on the fascinating intercourse of cultures that must have happened amongst the working folk. Remember, historical records from the 17th and 16th centuries pay particular attention to the masters- not their slaves. What syncretic beliefs emerged in this place amongst the poor and working classes, with its admixture of religion and folk tradition combed together from far flung sources all over the Dutch trading empire, which stretched from the Americas through Europe and Africa and even included far off Pohnpei?
from slavenorth.com
Between 1636 and 1646 the price of able-bodied men in New Netherland rose about 300 percent. By 1660, slaves from Angola were selling for 300 guilders and those from Curaçao for about 100 guilders more. By the time the British took over the colony in 1664, slaves sold in New Amsterdam for up to 600 guilders. This was still a discount of roughly 10 percent over what they would have brought in the plantation colonies, but the West India Company had been subsidizing slavery in New Netherland to promote its economic progress. The Hudson Valley, where the land was monopolized in huge patroon estates that discouraged free immigration, especially relied on slaves.
The purely economic status of slaves in New Netherland contrasted with the malignant and sometimes bizarre racism of the religious British citizens who followed the Dutch into the north Atlantic colonies. Free blacks in New Netherland were trusted to serve in the militias, and slaves, given arms, helped to defend the settlement during the desperate Indian war of 1641-44. They were even used to put down the Rensselaerswyck revolt of white tenants. Blacks and whites had coequal standing in the colonial courts, and free blacks were allowed to own property (Jews, however, were not). They intermarried freely with whites and in some cases owned white indentured servants.
Slaves who had worked diligently for the company for a certain length of time were granted a “half-freedom” that allowed them liberty in exchange for an annual tribute to the company and a promise to work at certain times on company projects such as fortifications or public works. Individual slaveowners, such as Director General Peter Stuyvesant, adopted this system as well, and it enabled them to be free of the cost and nuisance of owning slaves year-round that they could only use in certain seasons. For the slaves, half-freedom was better than none at all.
The Newtown Pentacle 