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Memories Of Fires, Restoration And A New School

I have to make mention of an oldtime 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 Avenue 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, and Punch and Judy. Some of Canarsie's leading talent of those days appeared there.

When P.S. 114, then a wooden building, caught fire, the Harms' property became the temporary home of the young pupils and their teachers. A new school was built on Remsen Avenue and Glenwood Road. Next to the hall was the home of the Flatlands Volunteer Fire Department which had among its members some who later went into the city's paid Fire Department.

Among these were Peter Lou Bullwinkel, James Webb, George Miller, Charles Rumph, or 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 East 94th Street and Avenue 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 Avenue L and there was no East 95th or East 93rd Street 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 Avenue and west of East 93rd Street.

I remember the Halfway House, an original spot owned by Jacob Trochelman, who later sold candy and groceries where I used to stop in often and enjoy his wares. He was a short man with a long beard and he had three daughters, one of who married the scion of one of Canarsie's oldest families, the Skidmore's. He will be remembered as the man who used to blow the whistle every time the Canarsie shuttle, trolleys and buses left the Rockaway Parkway station for the trip to the shore.

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