St. Mark's Place

Why I didn't take a screenshot then, I don't know. Luckily, Map My Walk keeps a record of your routes, but that's looks different from the others because I just downloaded this map to make this blog post.

Another street in Crown Heights that I got to by taking the L train to Atlantic Ave. Soon I'll have to venture farther south.

I was surprised how many pictures I took considering that I walked mostly a single street, and the other streets I was on, I'd walked before.

I started at Atlantic Ave and walked down East New York Avenue, but I had to make a detour. I took Pacific Street two blocks to Mother Gaston. I had three blocks between Eastern Parkway and East New York Avenues to fill in. That brough me to the begining of St. Mark's Place.

One block brought me back to Eastern Parkway. Crossing the parkway brought me to Our Lady of the Presentation / Our Lady of Mercy church and the parish building next to it.

Here's a row of houses playing "One of these things is not like the others". Unlike other places, this one seems to have been there for a lot longer. Still ugly and devoid of character though, standing out like a sore thumb.

The second photo is a uniform row. Nothing fancy about them they serve their purpose, I guess. I'm curious if any developer will try to buy them all up and redo them.

The Tehuti Ma’at Community Garden was at Ralph Avenue. (They call this area Ocean Hill, by the way.)

After that was ... well, I don't know what that sculpture is supposed to be. But it was interesting.

Next up is a picture of the Woods Playground, behind PS 335 Granville T Woods School. Granville T. Woods was a prolific African-American inventor and electrical engineer who secured over 50 patents for improvements to railway and electrical technology. Known as the "Black Edison," he is best known for inventing the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which allowed moving trains to communicate, significantly improving rail safety. (Source: biography dot com.)

I think I took a street picture because there were more trees than there had been on previous blocks.

And that brings me to St. John's Park and Buddy Keaton Fields. Keaton was a dedicated Director of Sports Programs for Brooklyn Recreation at Parks for 24 years, passing away in 2010.

The park has a path aligned with St. Mark's Place, so I could continue straight through. Likewise, the housing complex had a path, so I walked through there as well. I might've gotten a look or two, but I get the feeling that people likely walk through it rather than go around it.

Then came the biggest anomaly: between Albany Ave and Kingstong Ave, St. Marks Place is broken into two loops with a playground in the middle of it. A playground where people have no problem parking on the sidewalk next it to. There seems to be no apparent reason for the break. No trains or highways running through it, for example.

A little research says that a pedestrian-friendly plaza was created in the 1970s. Originally, planners, including architect I.M. Pei, considered more drastic measures, but settled on creating two cul-de-sacs with a central park, playground, and sitting area between the two avenues. It was supposed to revitalize the neighborhood and reduce traffic. I'm not sure how much traffic there was considering the housing complex and park to the east, but maybe there were maniacs coming down Albany and turning west to head downtown.

Brower State Park came up next, along with some interesting architecture.

Mama Dee's Community Garden was founded in 1994. I can't find more info on who "Mama Dee" is. (Unfortunately, Google keeps telling me about "Momma Dee", also from Brooklyn.) It's located on the narrow strip between Bedford and Rogers Aves.

And that brought me to Franklin Ave and my ride home.

And that's it for this trip. Come back soon.

All of the above photos and videos, unless otherwise stated, were taken by Christopher J. Burke and are subject to copyright.

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