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Little Old Canarsie
When trains stopped running straight through to Canarsie Shore and were replaced by a trolley shuttle from Rockaway Pkway Station to the shore on the same tracks of the right of way between East 96th St. and East 95th St. for a few years until the old B.R.T. system officials decided to switch the trolleys over to run down to Canarsie Shore on Rockaway Pkway, during the 1940’s there was a loop alongside the station with a beautiful flower garden in the center of it which was looked after by an old employee of the railroad, Charles Van Houten, from an old and well known Canarsie family, who kept it very nice. Many trolleys went in and out of this loop, back and forth to the shore. there were three or four stores. One was a bat and grill occupied by the well known Frank Dumches, later by Dick Evarts, a retired ice man and when he passed away his popular wife, Marge (nee Staub) ran it. Next to it was the candy and stationery store of Charles Buchan of an old Canarsie family who sold it to the popular Ike and Jerry. Next to them was Lenny the Barber. When the Green Point Bank decided to build a bank at this spot in the early 50’s, Marge Evarts gave up the bar and Ike and Jerry moved next to the bar of Ned Caro and Mazurk. Lenny the Barber moved over to Glenwood Road and East 95 St. until he sold out and retired to Franklin Square, L.I. Charles Buchan retired and went to Florida. Ike and Jerry sold out after a couple of years at the new location. Jerry is now deceased. I don’t know what became of Ike. In a recent article, I forgot to make mention of an old-time Canarsien, Fred Harms, and his good man Friday, Doot Debensee, a member of one of Canarsie’s oldest families. Doot later became a truant officer and worked out of the Truant Home which stood on Jamaica Ave. and which was later occupied by Dexter Park, home of the Bushwick Semi-Pro Baseball Team. In the hall next to the barroom at harms there were many shows put on, such as Minstrel Shows, Punch and Judy, and some of Canarsie’s leading talent of those days appeared there. When P.S. 114, then a wooden building, caught on fire, the Harms property became the temporary home of the young pupils and their teachers. A new school was built on Remsen Ave, and Glenwood Road. Next to the hall was the home of the Flatlands Volunteer Fire Dept., which had among its members some who later went into the city’s paid Fire Dept. Among these were Peter Lou Bullwinkel, James Webb, George Miller, Charles Rumph, nor should we forget one of the greatest fire heroes of that day, Barney Van Houten, who performed heroic duties at the Grove Fire at the spot now known as E. 94th St and Ave M. This fire was in a large hotel in the middle of a large tract of land with trees which was used as a picnic ground by Canarsie’s churches in the good old summertime. The grove was south of Ave L. and there was no E. 95th or E. 93rd at that time. Barney also drove the horses of Engine Company No. 257, which had the red hot fire going in its innards to maintain the pressure for the pumper to help extinguish the blazes. Most fires, it appears now in retrospect, were in the meadows, which were east of Rockaway Ave. and west of E. 87th St. We were spared excessive fires but I do recall two really big ones: The hotel at the Grove and the one at the original Holy Family Church at Conklin Ave. and E. 93rd St.
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