Daily Archives: March 9, 2013

Large Pocket Doors (BHS)

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On last class we visited the Brooklyn Historical Society. As far as first impressions go I was floored when we walked up to a gorgeous Red-stone building whose architecture spoke of a rich history that exemplifies what Brooklyn really is. As the enormous pocketed doors opened I got my first glance at a building so full of character that I swore it couldn’t get any better. I have never been so wrong before. We walked into the library archives and my jaw hit the floor. Imagine a library in the house of a lord where rich dark woods and soft lighting play of the binding of the thousands of books sitting nestled on the dark wooden shelves. As we got to work my definition of what Brooklyn is changed. For me Brooklyn today is just another place with buildings and homes just a regular part of New York.

I looked at a few different documents about Brooklyn’s history and I was floored. It’s been like this for so many years. I saw a picture of the BMT Train line looking onto the train line to the west from 16th avenue. Today this isthe line that the N Train runs on and has remained relatively unchanged. I can say that I went down this line several times and didn’t realize that it has been the same for so long. I also looked at a map of the train lines that were present in 1939 and there were a few lines that are still around and in use today. On this map I saw a picture of the Metropolitan Tower from 1939 and that has also remained relatively unchanged.

In thinking about the big guy from “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” he tried to know Brooklyn by visiting as much of it as he could and experiencing it firsthand.  He had a map which showed basic directions and transportation routes similar to the ones we had. He chose to visit Bensonhurst which was easy enough to find on the map. I agree with the protagonist that Brooklyn is a place so enormous and vast in its diversity that it is not possible to know all of it.

I think I know Brooklyn a little bit better than I knew it before our visit to the Brooklyn Historical Society. I have come to appreciate some of the nuances that encompass the borough of Brooklyn.

The BHS Experience.

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Our recent visit to the Brooklyn Historical society was very beneficial to my understanding of my hometown and also of our reading of “Only The Dead Know Brooklyn.” I had no knowledge of the Brooklyn Historical society prior to this class and once I heard about this trip I was looking forward to it. I can now say that I enjoyed the trip, not just because we got to leave the classroom but I found everything about the BHS so interesting and inspiring. I loved the architecture, and the mood of the building. It isn’t like a mundane public library. The resources are rare and precious and the BHS is very cautious about how their resources are shared with the public.

Being there was also constructive because we were able to have a hands-on experience with the materials. The group I worked with had a display of two maps of Brooklyn. One map was a railroad map and the other was a transit map. We also had folders that contained photographs of scenes in Brooklyn in much earlier times. I particularly studied a photo that showed the beach at Coney Island from the summer of 1958. I, along with one of the BHS hosts had noticed that many of these beach-goers were fully dressed in the summer time. I thought that this could be attributed to the different culture at the time and maybe people were more reserved in the way they dressed, even at the sunny beach.

Our study of the maps went along very well with our reading of “Only The Dead Know Brooklyn.” In the story “the big guy” claimed to use a map to find his way around Brooklyn. He found he’s way to Bensonhurst, Flatbush, and Red Hook. I found this interesting because these neighborhoods are not exactly very close to each other, and I mentally made a comparison to the time this story took place (it was published in 1935) and today and how maps are hardly used. Every now and then I’ll see a subway passenger squinting at a map, but technology has advanced and nowadays many people use GPS or search for directions online. One can make the argument that technology has made us lazy in this regard because reading a map successfully requires extra effort.

One thing I must point out, however, is that I could not locate Red Hook on the transit map I studied. I just could not find it, but I was indeed able to find “Bensenhoist.” Brooklyn is a very big and deep borough, and I agree that one may never able to to know Brooklyn through and through.

Brooklyn historical society assignment

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I have noticed and learned quite a few things from my visit to the Brooklyn historical society. On my table were 3 pictures and a transit map of Brooklyn and Queens. All the pictures were taken around the 1950’s. The first picture that I have looked at was a picture of a street in New York, which I think it was 87 streets. If I would to compare the street image from back then to now I will say there has been a major change. The area is now more occupied than it was in the 1900’s. Another things, I have realized looking at one of the pictures, which was a picture of a beach located in Brooklyn, Coney Island to be exact is that back then most people weren’t comfortable showing their body. The picture was taken in the month of June, which we can assume it was summer time, yet most people in the picture were fully dressed at the beach, something you don’t see nowadays.

In addition, from the transit map I was able to learned a lot of things.  Before our visit to the BHS I read the story” only the dead know Brooklyn ‘’ which was about a man on a pursuit of knowing all the streets in Brooklyn by using a map. In the story the man was looking for a place name “Bensenhoist”.  I’ve been living in Brooklyn for a very long time now and I never heard of such place. Looking at the Transit map at BHS, I was able to find “Bensenhoist’s location. I also found out that it is only half an hour away from where I live. In the same map were pictures of famous buildings that existed in the 1900’s and are still around. One of them was Brooklyn College. Apparently there is not much physical change to the school from the 1900’s until now. I think Brooklyn historical society is a very interesting and educational place. I wish I had been able to look at more things, but we didn’t have much times. Hopefully, I get to visit the BHS some other time.

BHS + “Only The Dead Know Brooklyn”

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Our visit to the Brooklyn Historical Society was very interesting and taught me things about Brooklyn that i never knew, including what the BHS was, even though I’ve been in Brooklyn most of my life. We got to look at many things such as the map of the borough of Brooklyn from January 1st, 1925. The map was somewhat the same as it is today, except in some places where they used to run railroads or trains but  it is a normal street that we walk on. Also, as a classmate mentioned, a place that was considered to be Brooklyn back then in 1925 is no longer a part of Brooklyn, but now is a part of the borough of Queens, which i never knew was possible and i found that interesting.

In “Only The Dead Know Brooklyn” the “big guy” was asking for directions to get to Bensonhurst, even when he had a map. Looking at the map “Brooklyn and How to get to the Worlds Fair” which was around the same time, it shows all the routes, and was pretty easy to follow, and which are similar to our maps now. He tries to get to know Brooklyn by visiting random places and not even knowing what to expect. The main guy says to him that he will never get to know all of Brooklyn because he lived there his whole life and still hasn’t got to know it through and through.