Finishing off Bedford Ave (before it finishes me!)

- September 24, 2025

I had not planned on finishing Bedford Ave on that fateful July morning, but this is what happened. I'd walked Bedford Ave from its beginning in Greenpoint where it shoots off from Manhattan Ave all the way (over the course of a few walks) down to Eastern Parkway. My plan that morning was to walk down to Kings Highway and save the last part of it for another day.

The first picture shows Bedford Ave, looking south. A few blocks later, I came to the former site of Ebbets Field, the final home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. I knew it was somewhere in this area, but I've never actually looked for it.

Moving on, Bedford Ave stops being commericial and turns residential. There are still apartment buildings but even that will change to smaller homes.

As always, I'm prone to taking pictures of old churches just because of the architecture. The first is the Grace Reformed Church of Flatbush. After that was the Fellowship Moravian Church by Hawthorne Street.

The island is where Caton Ave merges into Linden Blvd, and where Linden Blvd becomes Route 27 (or stops being 27, depeding upon which direction you're going in.)

When I arrive at Church Ave, two things happened: first, I stopped in a corner store and came out the wrong door and started walking Church Ave. Oops. Second, I stumbled across the Flatbush African Burial Ground, which I didn't know existed.

I took some video:

More houses at I travel farther south in Flatbush, bordering on Midwood until I come upon Midwood High School and Brooklyn College (my alma mater).

When I attended Brooklyn College, Midwood didn't have a double-layer bridge (or any bridge at all) over Bedford Ave because they didn't have a separate science building yet. On the other hand, Brooklyn College did have a promenade over the avenue that had steps down to the quad on one side and led to the roof of the Plaza building on the other, from which you could enter James Hall. (There were also entrances to Roosevelt, but those doors were always locked.) The Plaza building is no longer there nor is the overpass.

Just past Brooklyn College is a set of tracks, which I would've thought was a double set of tracks, that was used by freight trains sometimes back in the day. These are tracks that could be used for the Interboro Express (IBX) that's been proposed but won't exist for another 20 years or so, at least.

The houses are getting grander the farther into Midwood I go. We're not in Flatbush any more!

Surprisingly, I didn't take a picture when I got to Kings Highway. For whatever reason, when I looked at how far I'd gone, I thought, you know, I could go farther. And I thought, there isn't that much left, so the remainder wouldn't make a "good" walk on a later date. So I kept going.

Sigh. I felt this for days!

James Madison High School is bigger than I thought. I've heard about Madison, being one of the "3Ms" of Midwood -- Midwood, Madison, and Murrow. I didn't know exactly where it was in the neighborhood. The only people I knew who went there I didn't meet until long after.

After that was a cool looking chimney.

Next up was the Bill Brown Playground. I take pictures of parks along the way, particularly if there are adults there -- I don't want to take pics of random kids. The sign has worn away, but William A. Brown was a WWI soldier who lived a few blocks from this part. On October 8, 1918, he made the ultimate sacrifice for his country when he died of wounds sustained on the battlefield in France.

And, finally, I made it to the other end of Bedford Ave. Under the Belt Parkway and down to the water, followed by a walk along Emmons Ave to get back to a train station so I could rest my feet!

MY NEWEST BOOK IS OUT

Burke's Lore Briefs: Yesterday's Villains, the following to Tomorrow's Heroes is now available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

If Heroes who don't die live long enough to become the villain, what happens to Villains who live long enough? When do schemes of global conquest become dreams of a quiet place away from all those annoying people you once wanted to subjugate? And does anyone really want to rule over the world's ashes if it means we can't have nice things?

My older books include three more books in my Burke's Lore Briefs series, and the anthologies A Bucket Full of Moonlight and In A Flash 2020.

Vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, used-car salesmen, fairies, superheroes, space and time travel, and little gray aliens talking to rock creatures and living plants.

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