The Stapleton Projects Project - Part Fourteen - Warren Street to Fulton Street to Patten Street to Meadow Street

After a lengthy hiatus, welcome back to the lost buildings and homes wiped out by the construction of the Stapleton Housing Projects. Here's a large number of photos from a block that once existed along Warren Street between Hill and Gordon. Unlike many of the other blocks I've recreated, there are no stores. The only things that isn't a house is the original Holy Trinity Ukrainian Church (click HERE for its history).

Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church - the congregation moved to Vanderbilt Avenue in 1957 when the city decided to build the projects.

The Stapleton Projects Project - Part Ten - Meadow Street between Gordon and Patten Streets, McKeon between Gordon and Patten, and Warren between Meadow and McKeon

A typical backstreet block, a mix of commerical and residential with a definite worn-out appearance. Even with my antipathy toward urban renewal and dislike of housing projects that pack people together like rats, these pictures show a pretty run down neighborhood. If this is what it looked like in the late thirties, I imagine twenty years only made it worse. Between the publication of the map (1917) and the photos (ca. 1940), several lots became vacant, not, I'd wager, a sign indicative of good neighborhood health.

When I see people, especially kids, in these pictures, I love it. They add a dimension of life to them that make it easier to imagine these lost place alive again. Then I realize these kids are in their eighties at least - if they're still alive.