A Lot Of Movement In North Canarsie

Early aerial photo of northern Canarsie area. Photo is from “Brooklyn’s Flatlands” by Brian Merlis and Lee Rosenzweig (Israelowitz Publishing) From 1914-1918, Canarsie Lane started at East 92 Street and wound its way to about East 87 Street, then made a sharp turn past the former Lott Mansion, which was occupied by the well-known farmer, Alphonse Fiero, who had both sides of all the vacant land planted with vegetables. The land came to a sharp turn under the arch of the L.I.R.R. where many accidents happened as automobiles replaced the horse and buggy. Some of the car names were the Model T-Ford, Maxwells, Durants, Chevys, Stutz Bearcat, Locomobile, Packards, Rolls Royce, Overland Whitppets, Nash, and Wintons - among others.

When you went around the curve, you would pass the Becker Aniline & Dye Works, which covered a large area along what is now Ditmas Avenue on one side and the embankment of the railroad on the other. When Armistice came on November 11th, 1918, and the U.S. was able to again import the dyes & chemicals from Germany, the Becker plant closed down and was empty and idle a few years and then the Brook-lyn Union Gas Co. took over the property and remodeled the buildings.

Besides the dye works, most of the land was used by the farmers of Canarsie and all of this area which is now known as East Flatbush, which in those days was known as the Rugby section. It was layed out with streets and sidewalks for many years and these lots were more or less used as a dumping ground for old tin lizzies and other refuse. After the building boom of the 1920s to 1929, many new homes were built along with a lot of factories, garages and gas stations all along Ditmas Avenue. Then came the famous Cobe Diner on the corner of Remsen and Ditmas. On the side of the embankment of the railroad, a pump came out of the ground to supply certain parts of Flatbush with water. After they got Catskill water, this building was used as a wholesale banana place until it was torn down and this area was occupied by a tremendous building that belonged to the big Key Food chain.

The rest of this land was used by the City of N.Y. to build the Brooklyn Terminal Market around the 1940s for the merchants of the Wall-about Market, who had to get out of their old place to allow the Government to enlarge the Brooklyn Navy yard, which they needed after 1940 to build the ships and aircraft carriers. This market is one of the busiest spots in town.