11th-21 Streets between 5th and 6th Aves (Park Slope)

- August 24, 2025

This was going to be another zigzag up and down Park Slope streets, this time between 5th and 6th Avenues. I'm glad I remembered to turn on the walking app, even if it was a little late. I got off the train at 9th Street and 4th Ave. I walked up to 5th Ave and over to 11th Street to get started.

I grew up in the area, but I rarely went above 5th avenue taking these blocks. If I had to get somewhere on 6th, 7th, or 8th Avenues, I'd likely walk up 8th street (which I lived on) or 9th Street (which was a main street) and then walk over. I didn't really know these blocks. I didn't have friends who lived on them.

Walking up Ninth Street from the Fourth Ave station, the first thing I noticed are the top floors of the buildings across the street. I'm almost 100% positive that these were NOT there when I was growing up. None of these buildings were more than three stories, as evidenced by the two on the left side of the photo. These are all add-ons to take advantage of the astronomical rents Park Slope has commanded since the mid 80s.

After that, I was over on 11th Street where I took a couple of shots of houses that almost seem out of place today, given what is being erected now and over the past few decades in the area.

Down 12th Street. (I say "down" because it is, after all, a slope!)

On 13th Street, there was an unusual site. Not the construction -- there's a lot of that. The porta potties were labeled Men and Women. I'd never noticed such a thing before, especially not at a construction site. Maybe a concert venue or an amusement park or something, but I don't think so.

On 14th Street, there's a driveway that looks like it takes up an entire lot. In Park Slope. Where lots this size go for over a million dollars.

The interesting thing about it was the house in the back. From where I should on the curb, I couldn't tell if this was a house behind the main house (like a servant house, but bigger) or if it was the back door of a house on 15th Street. Unfortunately, by the time I got around the block, I could guess where the house might've been.

Down 16th Street and up Prospect Avenue (next to the Prospect Expressway). The scaffolding is covering the Grand Prospect Hall, which recently closed. I'd been in there two times that I recall: once, recently, for a wedding, and back in college when The Prospect Press had an anniversary celebration and I was part of a group singing some Broadway tunes about New York.

Up by Sixth Avenue is the Lutheran Church. I'd been in there once or twice as well.

There was a park on the corner that was so small that it didn't even have a name. It was just "Park". Once again, I wondered what it takes to get someone's name on a park. My relatives didn't live all that close to this particular park and they had no connection to the expressway or the Lutheran Church across the street.

I went down 17th street, on the unihabited side, and I got to another park, but it was attached to the school, so it wasn't open. I'd seen the lookout point from the other side of the highway, so I wanted to come around and get a picture from there. No such luck.

Next was 18th Street, which had this double-message on the wall on the corner by 5th Ave. And then I had to scoot back along Sixth Ave because I forgot that I still had about half of a block of Prospect Ave between Sixth and Seventh Aves to walk.

I've already walked 19th and 20th Streets, so I skipped these and advanced to 21st Street.

Mid-block, I came to St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic School and Church. This would've been the third or fourth closest Catholic church to where I lived back then, and I don't think I even knew about this place. It's not a street I ever walked down, and it wasn't exactly visible from either avenue.

Almost done. While I was on my way to the 25th Street train station anyway, I took the opportunity to walk a few blocks between 3rd and 4th Avenues that I hadn't covered before. I don't know why I only have two photos instead of three, but that's how it goes sometimes.

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