Thursday, April 19, 2012

Glorious Broad Street - Stapleton Again

   The commercial heart of Stapleton is always assumed to be located at Canal and Water Streets along Tappen Park.  Well that's probably accurate it neglects the stores that ran from Wright Street all the way up Broad Street to Van Duzer Street.  According to my map reading skills that's about 1/2 a mile.  Add to that Broad Street from Bay to Tompkins and you get another 1/4 of a mile.  There half of the latter was pretty much residential, but still, that's about a mile's worth of stores catering to the needs and desires of Stapleton's citizens.  Once you add in the Tappen Park surrounds and Bay Street, Stapleton probably had at least as much commercial property as Port Richmond did.  Now much is gone or pretty low rent stuff.  So it goes.



291,293 and 297 Broad Street at the corner of Targee - 1931


When I was a kid the building on the left housed a canine patrol.  Its logo was a snarling dog's head.  My sister's dance school was originally in the same building on the Targee Street side.  It was called "Charing's Dance School" (or something very similar)



                                            Broad and Targee, northwest corner - 1931


Same corner today - It was an empty lot even when I was a kid in the mid seventies - I remember doing a cleanup of it when I was in the Weblos or Boy Scouts which would have been around 1977.




Broad Street, east from Gordon Street - 1931




Today - the corner store was candy store with a soda fountain when I was kid.  I only went once or twice but my mom and sister went there a bunch when she went to dance classes.



Broad, Canal and Tompkins - 1931



Today - Back in the early nineties the pizzeria (and as long as I can remember the building in the foreground has housed one) was called "Two Crusts".  I don't get why but it did make us laugh when we ordered and they picked up the phone and said it.



Bonus Picture:  Cop contemplating the world - 1931

5 comments:

Christina said...

my granny in law is 99. she grew up in port richmond and the tales she tells. i still can't believe this is how si looked. and how it looks now. great blog.

The Wasp said...

It was and is a fascinating place. The city recently posted tax pictures from the mid to late eighties and the North Shore is actually in better shape than it was twenty-five years ago. I plan to do several posts with those pictures when I get the time. Thanks for the kinds words and give my regards to your granny-in-law

Anonymous said...

Hi, the store on the north-east corner of board & Targee was owned and operated by my Grandfather and Grandmother. It was known as Sarlo's Sweets Shop/Candy store. Ownership of this property pass to my grandmother thorough her grandmother Anne Rheinhardt. Anne was the sister of the infamous murder Edward Rheinhardt. Edward was convicted for murdering of his wife, and burying her body in a beer barrel at Silver Lake. The property was inherited by his mother and sister after his execution at Richmondtown. My grandparents sold the property to the neighboring Church during the 1960's.

The Wasp said...

Wow, that's some story. Thanx for dropping by. Now I have to read up about your infamous ancestor.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
You can reference the Edward Rheinhardt story further in "Murder & Mayhem on Staten Island" by Patricia M. Salmon.