Streets Of Canarsie Paved With Crushed Oysters
John Denton

Around the year 1918 there were quite a few streets around Canarsie that had been dirt roads, and were paved with crushed oyster and clam shells. This made a good solid foundation so that the horses and wagons wouldn't get stuck in the soft mud every time it rained. Conklin Avenue was one of the roads, from East 92nd Street to about 50 feet this side of Remsen Avenue, which was not finished until about 1925 or 1926. East 93rd Street from Avenue K to about 400 feet north, where it ended by the Baisley Farm, was also one of those roads.

Then there was a lane called Tiemans Lane, which ran through to the house and yard of Hewlett Seaman, who lived in one house and rented out the others. Just where the entrance now is to Canarsie High School - East 87th from Avenue L down to the shanties of Indian Creek - was a beautiful street where Bill Smith and his brother Harry lived, along with John Brodie, a great baseball manager of local teams.

There also were salt meadows east of Rockway Parkway, which is now Seaview Village. These meadowlands had what was known as salt ponds, which were small little lakes that had stagnant water, that use to breed lots of mosquitoes.

All of this land was filled in by the contractor who dug out the dirt and rocks to build the 8th Avenue Independent subway along Fulton Street downtown and carted all this to good old Canarsie to fill in the meadowland. I think the contractor's name was Civil and his brother was in charge of dumping all the dirt here around the early 1920's.

Before this land was filled, many a great fire swept all this land and just burned itself out, as there were only the Warner Home at Rockway Parkway and, the three houses of Frank Kraftmeyers down at the end of Tiemans Lane. They were in no danger because a creek was there to separate them so the fires wouldn't do them harm.

Avenue L at this time only ran just about where East 98th Street is now on the east, and going west it ran as far as East 87th Street. We had some streets (not many) with sewers and most homes here had cesspools in the front or rear of the house.

The older Canarsie people made their living from Jamaica Bay and they didn't want to ruin the bay with sewers from their homes, but the city ran them from every place else and did the job anyway.