An unspoiled block of late 19th century rowhouses
The New York City of popular fame is a mix of skyscrapers, big apartments, and slums. But the reality is that New York City has a lot of residents - well over the combined population of Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix and Miami - and these residents live in all sorts of housing. Manhattan housing is indeed mostly apartment buildings but does include private brownstones. Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island however have miles and miles of all sorts of private houses.
Many people are aware of the big push to build suburban housing after World War II, but NYC had significant growth between the Civil War and WWII. Brooklyn especially had explosive growth after 1883, when the Brooklyn Bridge was completed. Sunset Park is a neighborhood adjacent to the neighborhood in which TFWW is located. In these pictures, most of the housing dates from the last 20 years of the 19th century. There are blocks and blocks of townhouses. You can see in the pictures that you have a group of a half a dozen that are identical, and then another group that are almost identical but obviously built as a different development.
The townhouses around 46th Street and 7th Avenue in Brooklyn (not to be confused with 46th St. and 7th Avenue near Times Square in Manhattan) are generally two story buildings with a residential basement floor. They were built as single family attached homes, although a century later you'll find many, perhaps most, made into two-family or three-family homes. The avenues tend to be commercial, but those avenues that are largely residential (like 6th Avenue) have larger townhouses. As you get closer to the East River, the houses become a little fancier, although once you cross 4th Avenue the stock turns mostly industrial (albeit with some unfancy townhouses mixed in). As you go north, towards Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge, through Greenwood cemetery you head toward Park Slope, which contains plenty of very ritzy brownstones. It's important to note that in the era before World War I but even before World War II, people either walked to work or took public transportation. So if you lived in Sunset Park there's an excellent possibility you walked to work 5 or 10 blocks or so - westward to where the docks, factories, and the jobs were.
Today Sunset Park has seen some new construction, but it is uneven. The commercial stores all along the avenues are still pretty much fully occupied, with restaurants, food markets, and very few chain stores. My guess would be the most residents have a car, though I'd be surprised if residents had more than one per household. (As an aside, New York's the schedule of "alternate side of the street" parking rules for street cleaning has made generations of New Yorkers extremely knowledgeable about the major and minor religious holidays of many different religions.) But between ready access to parks, public pools, good shopping, and a phenomenal public transit system a car isn't particularly necessary.
By the way, go a little west within Sunset Park and you'll encounter one of New York's major Chinese enclaves (along with "Chinatown" in Lower Manhattan; Flushing, the largest Chinese neighborhood outside of Asia; Elmhurst, etc.).
N.B. Most of these pictures were taken on 46th street between 7th and 4th Avenue. I wasn't looking for the prettiest block, or the most historically important building. What I was looking for, and found, was blocks of middle class, well maintained, well used, much appreciated, and elegant, late Victorian housing that defines a neighborhood. As the Sunset Park Historic District Council describes it, "Sunset Park contains one of the earliest and most extensive concentrations of two-family masonry rowhouses in the city. Mostly built between 1885 and 1912, these stunning blocks are accented by commercial thoroughfares and institutional and religious buildings mostly completed by the early 1930s."
New York is actually filled with these kinds of neighborhoods that defy many people's expectation of New York life. If you come here on a tourist or business visit, you may find it very worthwhile to stray from the main path.
In other news:
We have recently seen a bunch of websites offering brand new tools at supposed sale discount prices that are actually artificially inflated prices that are then supposedly discounted. Nothing wrong with the discount but before you think you’re saving money, check competitors and you will probably end up with some savings.
5th Avenue is filled with stores 5th Avenue with the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge looming in the distance - about two miles away The townhouses along 6th Avenue are noticeably larger and fancier than the houses on the cross streets
Join the conversation
12/11/2024 Walt Henry
Joel, A wonderful tour of a part of NYC that most of us have never seen. Thanks for this and for all of your other blogs, a real learning experience.
12/11/2024 Tommy
I enjoy seeing posts like this. I’ve lived in rural eastern Kentucky all my life. I often wonder what city life is like. Where do woodworkers get lumber and things of everyday life.
12/11/2024 Joshua Garcia
I lived in Brooklyn, sunset park. 45th street and 6th avenue right on the corner building. The view out my window shows the Verrazano bridge to my left and also I can see manhattan to my right. I suggest you take photos of the city view from sunset park it’s a great scenery
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