MISCHIEVOUS BOYS, IRVING SQUARE (1931)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** There isn’t much little boy mischief that a Bushwick alderman, a beat cop, and a parks department official can’t handle. And all three were necessary to combat the troublesome striplings that were desecrating Irving Square Park during a renovation in 1931. “There’s not a shrub or a plant missing.” So explained Thomas J. Larney, park keeper for Irving Square Park in Bushwick, in his lilted Irish brogue. “The gardener counts up every week and there’s nothing missing. And there are plenty of seats for people to sit down on.” Larney was responding to public criticisms of a project in the park that was supposed to have ended long ago. Construction equipment, concrete park bench forms, bunches of plants and shrubbery, and piles of dirt, though, still obstructed residents’ enjoyment of the public space. He apparently saw the little mischief-makers, though, as no concern to the project, not even mentioning their after-dark activities. The bigger picture, of course, was just a bit more complicated. A series of unavoidable delays was keeping the contractor from finishing his work. These delays were causing conditions in the park which gave the local residents grief. And the continuation of these conditions presented targets of opportunity for the local miniature scalawags, who would “knock over some of […]
