Street Scenes

View my Message Board
Free Forums by Bravenet.com

Links

Brooklyn Tourism

BrooklynPix.com

Canarsie Courier

City Legacy - Canarsie

Forgotten-ny

Contact

mnuch@oldcanarsie.com

www.addr.com

Updated 03/22/2008

In the early days of Canarsie, there were two main routes. They were Rockaway Avenue (Parkway) and Main Road (East 92 Street). Anyone who wanted to get to the City could travel on Church Lane or Rockaway Avenue. The land west of what is now Remsen Avenue and Flatlands Avenue was sparsely developed. There was a dirt road with about 25 scattered homes in the area from Church Lane to Canarsie Lane (now Bedell Lane). The land only reached to about what is now East 82 Street. After that, it was all meadows except for Bedford’s Creek (now Paerdegat Basin) which ran through. East of Remsen Avenue, homes, churches, fire houses, farms, hotels and businesses existed along with a Trolley that ran through backyards along “the right of way” to Canarsie Pier. Along Canarsie Shore was Golden City Park which was demolished in 1939 after a fire to make room for the new Belt Parkway.

Canarsie had many dirt roads and alleys that ran throughout its land. Some of the Roads were known as Road to Lotts house, School Lane, Canarsie Lane, Church Lane, Smiths Lane, Holmes Lane, Varkens Hook Road, Schenck Place and quite a few more. In the 1920’s the building boom began and Canarsie started to develop at a rapid pace with its buildings and population. Between 1921 and 1923, the City began to close up the surrounding creeks by pumping up sand from the Bay. As the new land was developed, so were new streets and buildings. Many of Canarsie’s original buildings and streets still exist today. Only a few remnants of Canarsie’s lanes, alleys and trolley easement exist today as a lot of them were built and developed over.