BODY-BUILDING IN THE GOWANUS (1911)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Brooklyn’s Third Avenue was always just a bit gritty – even before the city decided it needed a motorway there to help ease congestion. That was when it started construction on the Gowanus Expressway in 1939. Traffic, though, had always been a large part of the avenue’s make-up. Even before the motorized vehicles, there were the horse-driven vehicles – cars, vans, streetcars, &c. But it was not just the vehicles that motored along the road that gave Third Avenue its rep – it was also those that parked alongside it – on lots, motor pools, parts yards, and other commercial properties. DONIGAN & NEILSON: BODY-BUILDERS One company that fit perfectly into its surroundings was Donigan & Neilson at 743-747 Third Avenue. This partnership’s firm catered to those commercial companies that operated using a variety of vehicles – to deliver, to haul, to move, &c. Donigan & Neilson built the bodies for those commercial vehicles – designing, building and assembling the bodies for hacks, trucks, vans, delivery wagons, and the like. This, of course, was before the assembly-line manufactured truck, when it made sense to have a commercial truck body made to order. According to their advertising, Donigan & Neilson began operations in 1875, when only horses propelled vehicles, and they were […]
OCEAN HILL VS. OCEAN HILL
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Before there was Ocean Hill, there was…Ocean Hill…. Researching the history of this Brooklyn moniker, though, points you in the direction of two very different places with two very different histories. There is the original Ocean Hill in Green-Wood Cemetery, a geographic location used famously by George Washington during the American Revolution. And then, there is the Ocean Hill in the eastern section of Bedford-Stuyvesant, created by developers in 1860s Bushwick. The only characteristic the two places have had in common – other than the name – was a view of the ocean from their perches. But, now, even that is gone for one of them. OCEAN HILL – GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY Ocean Hill in Brooklyn’s City of the Dead, Green-Wood Cemetery, is likely as old as the cemetery itself, which dates from 1838. While it was not likely known as such during the American Revolution, the high vantage point was used by George Washington before the Battle of Brooklyn to observe the British forces, which were gathering to the south (and which would subsequently drive him out of New York). Ocean Hill according to Green-Wood Illustrated (issue 1), “is one of the most elevated spots in the Cemetery,” and “it occupies the north-eastern corner of the grounds.” “The sea itself,” the […]
