Bedford Building Boom

Bob Marvin:

You fancy boys in Forest Hills may have called it the “Independent.” But us street kids in Brooklyn called it the I-N-D.

NOP

NOP,

Just the sort of building I lived in from birth, until I moved to Brooklyn in 1970. My family’s building was built in 1938 and most were that age, although a few were built right after WW II. Our bathroom had black, rather than pastel fixtures, but you described the style well. The Bedford Ave. building resembles these superficially, but I doubt it’s as solidly built

Of course I also remember the old IND cars you describe, but it was INDependent–not I.N.D–an abreviation, rather that a set of initials like the B.M.T. (Brooklyn Manhattan Transit) or I.R.T. (Interboro Rapid Transit). I’m not quite old enough to remember a 5 cent fare, but I do remember my mother using dimes before the first (15¢) tokens were introduced.

Brownstoner:

Bob Marvin’s right!

As soon as I saw the photo I thought of a ridge of similar apartment buildings in Forest Hills where friends lived during the 1950’s – 1960’s.

These were in combinations of Georgian Revival and Art Deco style with curvilinear balconies and set backs similar to some apartments along St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights, where I grew up during the period.

I think the Forest Hill numbers were built during the 1930’s and for (white) families leaving central Brooklyn were pretty much the last stop before the suburbs.

I recall them as pretty comfortable apartments with archways between rooms, pastel-colored bathrooms (sometimes two in an apartment — a real “luxury” in those days) and casement windows that were fun for us kids to open and close. (The “bay” windows in the pic recall the Moderne corner glazing of Forest Hills buildings, very stylish at the time.) The Queens apartments also had elevators which, during a period of simple pleasures, were a lot of fun to ride up and down.

I haven’t been to Forest Hills since then but I imagine that, like the ones along Eastern Parkway, the old buildings are still pretty good places to live and have been turned into co-ops. (So influential on me were the nice, middle-class apartments of my childhood that I’ve never pined for a brownstone or a loft but am quite happy in a pre-war apartment with all its creaking floors and rasping mechanicals.)

The new buildings in Brooklyn probably have bigger apartments (if built for Hasidic families) although not to the same construction standards as the ones in Forest Hills (where there were heavy plaster walls, wood-lined elevator cabs, and marble and terrazzo in the lobbies).

But yes, Marvin, I had exactly the same flash. And the pleasant association of visiting pals along the “F” train many years ago. (Remember the old I-N-D with operable windows and wicker seats? My family would subway it to Forest Hills but then be driven home by our hosts in their huge cars — big enough for two families with kids! Even then Queens was the most car-oriented of the boroughs.)

Nostalgic on Park Avenue.

i believe that this building may be marketed toward the williamsburg hassids as this borders williamsburg. they need balconies for that one holiday which i can’t remember the name of. also, as a general rule, they eschew aesthetics, so the practicality of the place trumps the looks.

there are a few of these in the hassidic area which is in sharp contrast to the otherwise pre-war town house lined streets that they inhabit in south williamsburg.

Sorry – meant to ask if I’d developed Brownstoner deja vu…