Sunset Park

Peter: 27th Jul 2007 - 15:38 GMT

heh, i used to live between 4th and 5th avenues just down from the park. nice. i also love that shot with the 5 water-towers superimposed under the fence.

Brad: 27th Jul 2007 - 15:55 GMT

Oh man, I love Brooklyn. Each time I visit New York City, I like Brooklyn more and more. Not sure why, it might be a combination of the reputation, the culture and just so many nice looking buildings, and you can get great views of Manhattan. Maybe I'll move there someday, when I'm done with school. Now if only NYC wasn't so expensive...

CE: 27th Jul 2007 - 16:37 GMT

What a wonderful set of pictures! I MUST get to New York sometime very soon! Maybe I should buy a tent, scrap my trip to Vermont and just get on my bike and go right now!

CartLegger: 27th Jul 2007 - 22:56 GMT

nice shots indeed! There are so many places to explore in that chunk of brooklyn.

how many wheels were you on that day? two or four or none?

colavitos ghost: 28th Jul 2007 - 13:47 GMT

awesome set, man. and it makes me realize something kinda funny; i've been to/through sunset park (the neighborhood) a bunch of times but have never even seen the park. didn't even realize it existed!

Glen: 2nd Nov 2007 - 09:21 GMT

Great pictures ! I lived on 77th street, 5th ave, but we visited friends that lived right next to the park, lot of great memories coming back....
Moved from Brooklyn in 73, no live in Norway......I'd love to go back one day.....

anon (198.215.16.159): 12th Jan 2008 - 21:01 GMT

great pics man my mom and bro. live in sunset park.i cant wait to get up there to be with them.brooklyn looks great.im from upstate "the ROC" im in texas. now ti really suxs!NY FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

julissa: 10th Feb 2008 - 21:41 GMT

Im From sunset park..the last shot is 38th street..i lived in 37th street.I love sunsetpark...hopefully movin back within 1 year...currently in syracuse ny...i luv pl who appreciate the tru beauty of the concrete jungle.

kent: 24th Feb 2008 - 02:14 GMT

Use to live a block away 45st and 6th ave, rode my bike thru the park day and night, couldn't wait for the pool to open in May, I
miss that. One day I'd like to return to visit and to see what it looks like today.

Mike: 11th Jul 2008 - 21:19 GMT

I remember Sunset Park from the 50's and 60's I lived right down from the park. That's when It was a nice neighborhood you could walk the streets anytime and not worry about getting mugged. Everybody knew everyone even from another block. But there are nomore real neighborhoods anymore , now it's a zoo! want to make me cry, show me a picture of this once beautiful park and It's once beautiful neighborhood thats why all the real Brooklynites moved away familes that lived there for many years. "KEEP LETTING THEM IN" and they will ruin it all.

Marybel Perez Ridley: 17th Sep 2008 - 19:06 GMT

I lived in Sunset Park from 1962-1989 I moved to the midwest and I visit alot still have family there. I grew up going to sunset park and had a lot of great memories. The best part was going to the pool it was so big and cold. The neighborhood has changed wben I was living thier it was Irish, German and Scandinavian. My family was part of the Puerto Ricans that imigrated their along with other families my parents worked hard and had a house and we all did well. In spite of all the changes that took place Sunset park was a great place to live.I visit alot and I still love it. The food, the shopping on 5th Ave.

David Goyette: 25th Jan 2009 - 09:18 GMT

Until 1951 I lived at 455 42nd Street just a half block down from the park. Moved to 49th Street at the corner of 4th Ave. and lived there until I went into the Marine Corps in 1958. I now live in the picturesque and serene city of Gig Harbor, WA. While I enjoy my present lifestyle, I often fondly recall the old neighborhood during the 40s and 50s. Both 42nd and 49th streets were made up largely of Irish, Polish and Italians. Most of my friends were Catholic and went to St. Michael's at 4th & 42nd. Being Episcopalian (St. Andrews at 4th And 50th) my Saturday afternoons were pretty boring since all my friends went to confession at St. Michael's and couldn't risk committing a sin until after mass on Sunday. We played stickball in the street, dodging cars while trying to catch a pink Spaulding (Spaldeen) rubber ball, hit with a bat made from an old broomstick. Home plate was the manhole cover nearest the 4th Ave intersection. First and third bases were usually the fenders of cars parked on each side of the street and 2nd base was the manhole cover located halfway up the block. In the fall, we played touch football, also while dodging cars. In the winter, we went sledding on our Flexible Flyers. The streets between 3rd and 5th Avenues were steep enough for a good ride but Sunset Park was the sledding Mecca for our neighborhood. On the 41st street side of the park, just up from the 5th avenue intersection was "Dead Man's Hill" which provided a real thrill, especially when icy. You could also go down one of the asphalt lanes that snaked their way though the park. Near the bottom of the lane closest to Dead Man's Hill were several steps about 5 feet square and 6 inches high. Going over them on a fast sled while lying on your stomach produced a series of gut punching thuds, especially brutal if you were riding double with someone lying on your back. On hot, humid summer nights, kids could play in the streets until 11:00p.m. or midnight while parents sat on the front steps (stoops) of the apartments and socialized. No one worried about child abductions, drugs, drive by shootings or other present day concerns. On the opposite corner from where we lived on 49th street was a delicatessen. Early on summer mornings, it was not uncommon to see women in robes and slippers heading for the deli to buy the fresh bread and warm Kaiser rolls delivered straight from the local bakeries. 5th Avenue, from 39th to 86th street, was almost solid commercial district with stores of virtually every type. From 50th to 53rd streets were three 5 & !0 cent stores-Woolworth's, Kreske's and Green's. Woolworth's had a luncheon counter serving freshly made sandwiches, short orders and my favorite, a big frosty mug of Hires Root Beer - the creamy type served from a tap - for 5 cents. They say you can never go back, but just writing these few lines, conjuring up memories of what used to be, sure comes close.

Fiore Custode: 26th Mar 2009 - 06:12 GMT

In 1940 - 1955, My Dad delivered Italian foods to the restaurants in Bay Ridge. I was 11 years old in 1945 when I went with him to make deliveries. lived in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn at Ryerson St. and Myrtle Ave, and our Veloce Importing Co. wasat 558 Myrtle, near Pratt Institute

I would like to know the names of the best Italian Restaurants in Bay Ridge of that time so I may remember them. But that's 68 years ago. I doubt that they're still there or even remembered, and of coursefolks who were adults then may be gone.

Sunset Park and Bay Ridge looked a bit different from the Fort Green area, but the homes there were beautiful, as I remember.

I attended P.S. 157, and then Boys High 1948 -1952.
I would appreciate a response from anyone who cares to address the restaurant question above.

F.C.

bococalady: 11th Apr 2009 - 20:18 GMT

i work in sunset park. and i love this area. i work on 61st btwn 3rd and 2nd ave.im gonna visit the 58th street pier soon.

Sunset Park....: 4th Jun 2009 - 02:19 GMT

I grew up in sunset park (47th st & 6ave) between 1975 through 1990. Everyone hung out on the stoop in the summer, and we'd play stick ball, stoop ball, and tag into the night. I got into a lot of fights because there were so many punks looking to prove something. My friends were a mix of the arriving Puerto Ricans, and the whites that never left when we started moving into the area. Most everyone was cool and there were no stop lights on the avenues and China town on 8th ave only occupied 1 block. Many of the older guys that befriended me and looked out for me were also IV drug abusers, these were the coolest guys and they never let me know about their addiction. Every single one died of AIDS a few years later. We had nothing back then, sometimes it was crackers and water for dinner. Dad scrubbed toilets. I have everything now, a house, a business, and a great family, but I miss not having anything because it seems that's when we were the most alive and closest to each other.

Josh: 10th Jul 2009 - 04:12 GMT

I grew up on 46th street between forth and fifth avenue from 1950 to 1967. In 1967 I joined the United States Marines and left sunset park to serve and fight in the Vietnam War. I have fond memories of growing up in sunset park and I would do it all over again. My family was one of the first Puertoricans to move in the neighborhood. I hung out with Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, friends that attended PS2, Saint Michaels, or Dewey Jr. High. We played stick ball, baseball, two hand touch football, basketball, Kings, handball, boardgames, cards games, stoop ball, skellzies, and tag. There was the top season, the yo yo season and winter snowball fights. We went swimming at Sunset Pool or went to the park movie theater. My friends always found something fun to do. When I wasn't in school, attending mass, or religious instruction I was in the boy scouts, or trying to play a musical instrument. Everyone on my block knew everyone. During hot humid summer nights families would sit in front of their homes or apartment building until the late hours to talk and possibly catch a breeze to cool off. Sometimes during a hot summer day someone would turn on the johnny pump and everyone would cool off until the fire department would come to shut it off. I remember the smell of bread being baked as I past the Italian bakeries, or buying my fresh meat from Trunz our local butcher. I remember how good ZA ZA pizza tasted on 47th street and fifth avenue. And even though I live in Hollywood, Los Angeles at the age of 59 I will never forget the wonderful childhood I had growing up in Sunset Park.

Diane P.: 21st Jul 2009 - 01:41 GMT

Fourth Avenue and 43rd Street, then 42nd Street from 1962-1971 when we moved to South Florida. When I was born, we lived in a house right behind the police stataion (the house is no longer there) and we later moved to the fifth floor of the building on Fourth and 42nd. We were always across the street from St. Michael's and I still think that it's the most beautiful church in the whole world. I wanted to go to school there so bad, but instead, we went to PS 169, on Seventh Avenue, across the street from Sunset Park.

I was little, but have some very nice memories of this beautiful place. :)

Mary: 24th Jul 2009 - 03:32 GMT

I lived on 49th street from 1965 till 1983, near St. Agatha's. Even as a little blonde girl, I played stickball, skellies, tag...you name it, there were so many kids it was wonderful! There were many, many good times and good people - immigrants and survivors, struggling to reach and attain that American Dream. Sunset Park was for daytime ONLY and even then with friends or family. Drugs and gangs drove our neighborhood down, but it will always survive in our hearts and memories. After many years, I still dream of my neighborhood - it was magical and frightening, sometimes at the same time. I miss it sometimes, but also remember how we all wanted to get out and have some space and quiet for our family. After many years I finally met a nice man (a Ital-Swede from Carrol Gardens, for Pete's sake!) and we have settled down with kids - not in Sunset Park or even Brooklyn - but still not far, and still reminiscing our immigrant roots and hometown. Thanks for the memories...

lynn: 26th Jul 2009 - 00:28 GMT

I lived there from 1959-1966, but I must have been living in a parallel universe. The place was a dump, a hotbed of racism and close-mindedness. Couldn't wait to leave. Went back to take a look 3 years ago. Same old backwater provincialism. You can have it.

Peter H: 6th Aug 2009 - 05:17 GMT

Born Brooklyn 1955. Lived at 50th x 2nd 60th btw 3rd and 4th and the corner of 61st and 4th. I'd like to know if anyone has photos of the old PS2 in Sunset Park and the old PS 140 that was nestled between 59th/60th and 3rd/4th Avenues. I left Brooklyn in '69. I remember Sunset Park Pool and all the pizza places on almost every block. John's Bargain Store on 5th. It seemed like simpler times. It is probably just a case of distorted memories. I know we were dirt poor.

neutral: 5th Sep 2009 - 02:24 GMT

sunset park has some very racist people. it is so wrong to harass someone walking down the street just because of what they look like and the color of their skin.