Co-op City
Some More Old Pictures
On CasalsK's forum
we got to talking about photos
and Tambasco said his passion is to photograph old cars.
I've got a drawer full of old pictures of Co-op City I keep saying I'm going to scan
and post, after I get the site hosted on my Linux box with my
own www.chesler.info domain, etc. And I'd
barely updated my
site on Geocities in a year. I'd like to make them
sharper and balance the color. And of course tonight my scanner decided to inject
stripes in all the scans. I think I let some settings carry over from one picture
to the next when I shouldn't have. And I should have thumbnails, and some order and theme.
But then it would be another year. So here are some pictures.
World Trade Center
This isn't Co-op City at all, just a view of the Battery from the
Staten Island Ferry, from around 1993, when my wife and I made a
trip to New York.
Building 7, under construction, November 1968
My father took this on a visit to what was to be our future home,
still under construction in November 1968. (Click picture for larger image)
1971 Dodge Dart, Building 7
I moved home after college, and it took a while to find a job. When I did, it
was in Lake Success: a short drive, almost impossible by public transportation
from Co-op City, so I bought a cheap car. I figured in the spring I'd see if
I was using my motorcycle to get to work, in which case I'd get a nice motorcycle;
otherwise I'd get a nice
car, which is what I did. I've still got that car, 17 years later.
This is my father giving the 1971 Dodge Dart I bought for $250 the once over,
in front of Building 7. His body language seems to be expressing his opinion, but
that may be an accident. The Community Gardens were in good shape that early
fall day (the picture is marked September 30 -- I started my professional career
the next day) in 1984, and a couple of weeping willows were still holding up. Mom
is looking through the passenger window. Two senior citizens are near the
lobby entrance. I don't know who they are, but they look typical.
It wasn't a bad car. It was a lot of fun, and like most Slant 6-equipped cars
was very reliable. It needed weight in the rear for the snow. Before I bought
the Firebird I put clearance lights on the roof.
Freedomland/Bay Plaza
I took a lot of pictures of things those times, especially roads,
and especially from roofs. This seems to be from Building 15,
looking over Aldrich Street south over what had been Freedomland
and would soon become
Bay Plaza. That year that stretch of the New England Thruway
(I-95) was being rebuilt, which was the purpose of that shot.
It looks like the center lanes are closed to traffic. There
were very few changes after the rebuild. The Throggs Neck Bridge
is visible in the background; the street in the foreground is
Bartow Avenue which has just now been co-named MLK Blvd.
Firebird, New England Thruway
The sign says "Exit 9: Hutchinson Parkway" so this must be alongside
the New England Thruway. There's the back view of the Firebird.
Firebird (Top View)
Top view of the Firebird, looking down from a roof on
Baychester Avenue, probably Building 16 or maybe Building 1.
I was shooting with a 35mm to 105mm zoom lens, at 105mm.
East view at night
Just one of my favorite views, out my bedroom window at night, looking over the
Greenway to Bellamy Loop, the Hutchinson River, Pelham Bay Park, Eastchester
Bay, Hart Island (with the radio tower), Long Island Sound, and Long Island.
Building 23 on the left, Building 21 on the right. The streak is a plane;
I think this was a half-second exposure. This was on the roll with the last
pictures before my parents moved out, making it March 30, 1991.
Pigeons on the terrace
From that same role of film, I took a final walk-through of the apartment capturing
every view. Someone said on the forum that she wasn't sure how high the birds got.
In other years pigeons had made a nest on our terrace; here they were on our last
day. Building 16 in the background, behind it Einstein Hospital, to the left
Building 15 and the terraces from Building 17.
Crow on the roof
More proof of high-flying birds, this crow was on a roof (probably Building 16) when
I was taking the New England Thruway shots in 1986.
Eastchester hilltop
The water of Long Island Sound is visible from street level from this hilltop
on E. 233rd St., at Bussing Avenue. Buildings 12, 13 and 14 are visible,
and Boston Secor.
Seton Falls Park
Also in that same Eastchester
neighborhood here is Seton Falls Park. The water goes into that hole,
and where it comes out, nobody knows. That might be the former Givans Creek.
There were rumors that it flowed under Section 2 freely (perhaps the
culvert, labeled on some USGS maps as Mills Crek, ended at the old shoreline)
carrying the Greenway's landfill with it as it emptied into the Hutchinson River.
Moving out day
There's Mom, having left Building 7 for the last time, about to leave Co-op City,
April 1, 1991, as soon as Dad comes back with the car from Garage 2. The
suitcases hold the things they needed that day, and that they would need
as soon as they got to their new home.
Contributed pictures
Yet another picture of the helicopter lifting the cement things
onto a garage. This time Garage 2, June 1971.
Rochdale
