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| Re: Fulton Street Subway (1619576) | |||
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Re: Fulton Street Subway |
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Posted by qveensboro_plaza on Sun Apr 30 18:38:04 2023, in response to Re: Fulton Street Subway, posted by LuchAAA on Sun Apr 30 06:29:11 2023. How old are the houses where 76th station would be?Your comment inspired me to check out the "1940s New York" website that has tax photos of almost every building in the city, taken in the 1940-41 time frame. NOTE: I have extremely ambivalent feelings about opening what will likely be a very LARGE and UGLY can of worms, but nonetheless, here goes: People on this site have long lamented the lack of IND construction photos for the fabled Pitkin Avenue subway extension east of Elderts Lane, which might prove or disprove the existence of a 76th Street station. The four exhibits that follow are not quite PROFF, yet they indicate that some kind of major street construction was going on in the neighborhood in that time period. I. To begin, we have a circa 1940 photo of a home on the northeast corner of Pitkin Avenue and Drew Street. Pitkin Avenue can be seen to the right, going east toward 76 Street. (Drew Avenue is the equivalent of 74th Street.)  There are a couple of notable things here. First, you will see that there are no buildings whatsoever on Pitkin Avenue eastward for several blocks, roughly from 75 Street to 77 Street. It's just vacant land. (This is particularly frustrating because it means that no real estate photos were taken at those crucial locations, so we have to work with circumstantial evidence.) Why was this land left vacant when there was recent construction on either side of it? Could it have been that some major infrastructure project was planned to be built there? Second, notice the yard area to the right of the house. The ground slopes down slightly from the street grade of Pitkin Avenue, but drops off even more sharply going farther east. This discrepancy in grade supports Randyo's observation, earlier in this thread, that Pitkin was extended east to connect with Old South Rd., which occurs a few blocks away at 78th Street. The original topography of this immediate area was not level. Cars are parked at the curb on Pitkin, which gives an idea of the width of the sidewalk from the property line to the curb. Here is a 2020 Google shot of the same house. It shows the same yard space, which is, unfortunately, hidden by fencing.  II. This is a storefront at the southeast corner of Pitkin and 77th Street. Note that the pavement on Pitkin has been removed from roughly the south half of the avenue, as if in preparation for an excavation. The excavated area comes very close to the building line, with just a narrow sidewalk space in front. Two large wooden piles have been driven into the ground in front of the building, apparently to shore it up during construction.  In this 2022 photo of the same site, you can see that the actual sidewalk today is quite wide, I would estimate it extends somewhere between 8 and 12 feet beyond the building line. Whatever type of excavation was being done in 1940, it required digging well beyond the width of the roadbed itself.  III. This is a photo of a house at the southeast corner of Pitkin Avenue and 78th Street, which looks as though it was built in the early 1900s. The house originally stood on Old South Rd., and this is the exact point where Pitkin merges into the Old South Rd. right of way, which then curves to the south, as Randyo noted.  Again, note that a large segment of Pitkin Avenue is in the process of being excavated, and note, too, how close to the property line the excavated area comes. In this 2016 photo of the same site, the cement curb at the property line has been refaced with brick, and it serves as a point of reference to see that the modern curb line now extends a good 8 to 10 feet farther out into what had been the 1940 excavation area.  IV. Finally, we see the houses across the street, on the southwest corner of Pitkin and 78th Street circa 1940, looking west. It is unfortunately a very poor quality photo, but you can see in the distance the tall structure of Public School 214, at the corner of Drew Street.  .Once again we see that asphalt has been taken up from the south side of Pitkin Ave., extending up almost to the corner of 78th Street. Note how close the excavation comes to the corner house, leaving little more than a catwalk on the side. The house itself seems to be in derelict condition, in contrast to the fresh paint, neat shades and lace curtains of the attached house to its left. It looks as though it is ready to be demolished. And here, in a 2011 photo, we see that the house was, in fact, demolished, and the site is now the side yard of the house next door. (The scale is distorted by the fish-eye lens that Google uses.)  Why was the relatively new corner house torn down when its exact contemporary next door remained? It was, of course, right up against the excavation area, but as we saw a block away, the city could have driven piles to shore it up during construction. Can you think of any reason why the city might have wanted to clear a space adjacent to the sidewalk at the southwest corner of Pitkin and 78th Street? So there you have it - some major construction work was definitely being done on Pitkin Avenue circa 1940-41. But what was it? It might have been for a new water main or sewer line for this soon to be developed neighborhood. I don't think, however, that either of those projects would entail removing the sidewalk almost up to the building lines. Maybe, then -- fasten your seat belts -- this is evidence of subway construction on Pitkin, and specifically a station shell at 76 Street, with an easterly exit at 78 Street. In any event, it's something to ponder on a rainy night. |
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