DID YOUR BROOKLYN STREET FLOOD? (1912)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** By 1912, Brooklyn was drowning in rain water. The borough, by then, had installed so many more miles of cobblestone, macadam, and otherwise improved roads – than at any time in its past – that many of its streets would flood at the very hint of precipitation. In 1903, for example, the flooding was so bad that the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that “All the residences along Hancock, McDonough, Macon, Decatur, Bainbridge and Chauncey Streets were so flooded that residents on the ground floor apartments discovered upon waking that they were forced to go to the second floors to escape the waters.” The paths in Saratoga Park, according to one newspaper account, “had become running streams and benches were floating about.” The nearby Putnam and Halsey streetcars stopped running, as “it was impossible to take on any passengers, as the water was as high as the seats.” Thus, there finally came such an outcry from residents, who lived on the streets most prone to flooding, that the City decided to introduce more sewer lines to catch that water. At that time, to get an idea of what they were dealing with, the city sent out a small army of surveyors to gauge the lower lying areas of the city, so that […]
