Pitkin Ave / Montgomery Street

To make up for the short walk I took the day before, I sojourned more than four miles on this day. I'm not sure if I realized that it would be quite this far. However, I had streets in Crown Heights that I needed to walk and it made sense to start in Brownsville from the L train and walk west toward Prospect Park instead of taking a train all the way to the park and looping around two streets like I did over the Christmas break (when I started my train ride from home).

Besides Pitkin and Montgomery, I had a couple of small streets here, including an orphanded section of Union Street, Portal Street and Buffalo Ave.

The trip starts, as I stated already, on the L train, getting off at the Sutter Ave station (with its fancy stained glass) and then walking up Junius Street to Pitkin Ave. Once there, I found myself standing next to the East New York Industrial Building, and under a sign stating that I was in the East New York Business District, neither of which I knew existed, but neither of which I had any reason to believe didn't exist.

I didn't get far along Pitkin Ave before I got to two short dead end blocks: Sackman St and Christopher Ave. This section of Sackman appears to be orphaned from the sections that runs a couple blocks to the north and a couple of blocks to the south. There is no walkway or any other access to make one continuous trip. On the other hand, Christopher Ave appears to continue via walkway so that I could probably take an uninterrupted trip north to south.

Crossing Mother Gaston, I saw that the neighborhood was still celebrating the holdiays. Little Christmas (the Epiphany) was still a few days away.

Two more dead-end blocks: Osborn St and Thatford Ave. Both of these blocks are cut off for housing, which includes a public library. I could conceivably walk through, but I might seem a bit out of place. I'll figure that out when I get to it. I might walk along the area.

The final dead end was Hazel Street, which has a walkway that ends at East New York Avenue, less than a full city block away. It doesn't continue north of there. The artwork was posted on the side of a building on Hazel Street.

Google Maps tells me that the building in the next photo is the Brownsville Ascend Lower and Middle School, a charter school. It looks that way because it started life as the Pitkin Theater (or the Loew's Pitkin Theater), a famous movie palace, an Art Deco building designed by renowned architect Thomas Lamb, built in 1929–1930 that underwent a major rehabilitation between 2010 and 2012.

Next to this is Zion Triangle and the Brownstone War Memorial. This monument was sculpted by Charles Cary Rumsey (1879–1922) and dedicated in 1925.

In 1896, landowner Peter L. Vandeveer gave this property, bounded by Legion Street, and Pitkin and East New York Avenues at the junction of Eastern Parkway, to the City of Brooklyn. It had the name Vandeveer Park before being renamed Zion Park in 1911 by the Board of Aldermen, in acknowledgment of the large local Jewish community.

And there's the community Christmas tree.

The junction of Pitkin Ave and East New York Ave at Howard Ave must be difficult for cars. I had to make sure that I didn't veer off down the wrong block! Not to worry, though, because Pitkin ends one block farther when it hits Eastern Parkway. I took Ralph Ave one block south to get to an isolated section of Union Street, cut off from the rest of that block by a park and by the subway emerging from underground.

After that, it was up Portal Street (no portals opened for me, sadly), down Buffalo Avenue, along East New York Avenue once more, and finally onto Montgomery Street.

I stopped to take a picture of Clove Road, where I've stood before. The sidewalk isn't broken here. Clove Road doesn't come all the way up to meet Montgomery. However, given the development of the area, that could change.

The next two pictures are pictures of Montgomery as I get closer to the park. The housing changes a bit.

I finally made it to the end of the line, which is the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, before doubling back to Franklin Avenue and the IRT at Eastern Parkway. Of course, there's an obligatory photo of the shuttle tracks.

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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