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Ashford Street
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Having grown up on Ashford Street, there is no shortage of pictures from the 1960s. The first shot is from 1964, looking up the block between Fulton and Arlington. The second is from Halloween 1963 looking right out our front door- 120 Ashford. | |
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Across the street- 117 Ashford- Tony Davenport comes up big with a 1960 photo of him and his dad, and a 1961 photo of him and his cousins and Regina Murphy, who lived 2 doors down. Trivia- can you identify the object on the right with the writing? |
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A huge thanks to Tim O'Reilly who supplied the 1941 tax photo of my childhood home, 120 Ashford St. (My microfilm copy was so poor I had never tried to order it.)The picture shows, left to right, 122, 120, 118 and 116 Ashford. That beautiful tree was there when we moved in 1961, but was taken down the same year to my mother's horror. The update shot on the right is from 2005 and the house has since changed colors again! | |
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Lucy Patini was our neighbor at 122 Ashford (the house with the diagonal siding in the 2005 picture) up to 1968. On the left is a picture of Lucy with her mother in front of 122 Ashford in November 1965. On the right, a 1971 pic of my brother and I showing our house with the "fake grey stone" siding that had replaced the "fake red brick" siding of many years. | |
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Detouring off Fulton for a moment down to Atlantic Avenue. The Ranieiri family ran a deli on the corner of Ashford and Atlantic. Mike Ranieri, who sometimes played ball with myself and my younger brother Dennis, sent in this pic of his brother Augie shoveling snow after a blizzard in the 1960s. The view I believe is west down Atlantic with the Borden's plant visible in the distance. | ||
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Back to Fulton and Ashford, where the northeast corner was the "Fish store". Jim Kopas recalls it was owned by the Pellegrini family. We heard from Rosemarie Pelligrini who confirmed the store was first located on Fulton between Elton and Essex around 1959 and moved to Ashford in 1961, closing around 1973. In the 1941 tax photo supplied by Tim O'Reilly the location appears to be some sort of fruit stand or grocery store. Mike Pastore pointed out the car facing west- Fulton Street was two-way in this section back then. My uncle recalls it was the conflict of the trolleys and street parking that forced a change to one-way. | |
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Ashford and Fulton Streets, ca. 1966 This is the north side of Fulton Street between Ashford and Cleveland Streets. At the foot of the El stairs was our candy store, the source of our newspapers, spaldeens and baseball cards. The “grown-up” stuff like the Insurance brokers I don’t remotely recall. |
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Ashford and Fulton Streets, ca. 1966 This view is east along Fulton Street from Ashford Street. |
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On the northwest corner, the first photograph is from the 1941 tax series, the second from 2005. This was our corner grocery store, as well as where we played "Kings" or "Chinese handball". Robbie Dupree recalls his uncles Al Perillo and John Leddy owned the store in the late 50's, when it was called "Al and John's". | |
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Phil Mastriano supplied these images from circa 1945, looking north across Fulton along Ashford Street. We can see that same grocery store, which at the time was "Fusco's". Check out that football helmet! I also love the car, and the vast availability of parking back then. | |
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158 Ashford Street Phil Mastriano supplied this shot circa 1939 looking north towards Fulton from in front of 158 Ashford Street. That's Phil ad his mother, and he identifies the house in the background as belonging to the Tint family. On the right, a shot of Phil from the early 1930s, taken in front of the house. In those days a man would come around with a pony for kids to pose on while the family took pictures. We have several examples of this scattered around the site. |
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At the top is a picture is of my aunt and uncle in the late 1940s. That "C" on the sweater stood for "Captains", the name of their punchball team. Although I played punchball right in front of this house a bunch of times, it was Phil who ID'd the location. The location is the east side of Ashford Street just south of Fulton Street across from 158 Ashford. "Right behind Buster and Sister is the first house after the Soviero driveway. Sam Perillo lived in the house on the left." Below, another great early shot from Phil Mastriano. Similar to the shot of my Aunt and Uncle above, just two doors down. Phil identifies the terrific house with all the detaill trim as the Barta house. I did check and though the house is standing the trim is all gone. The shot is from 1932, and it is Phil with his maternal grandmother Domenica Civitano. "She was a founder of the original St. Rita’s Chuch in 1913, and president of the St. Ann’s Society." |
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Thanks to Rosemary who sent these views of Ashford Street after a storm had knocked down several trees circa 1950. We can see just a bit of the Banta house mentioned above and the trim was intact. The view here is looking north toward Fulton Street and the El. | |
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The second pair were taken a little further south, showing a second tree in a precarious tilt. Rosemary's Aunt and Uncle Kilchewski lived at 171 Ashford; in fact her uncle was born in the house in the 1920s. | |
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My grandfather once owned the building on the southwest corner of Ashford and Fulton. It was a wire factory and lampshade company. It was "Matthew Lampshade Co." in the 1970s and my older brother even worked there a bit. That "curb" at the base of the building visible in the 2005 photo on the right was installed by my grandfather. Although my father recalls it as a great "point" for playing a version of stoop baseball, its real purpose can be seen below. | |
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Ashford and Fulton Flooding, 1971 Ashford and Fulton represent a low elevation point in the area. It was the location of Sullivan's pond in the 1800s and it would become a pond after every fierce rainstorm. Everyone who lived close to that corner would have to deal with potential flooding. My father claims that when they put the LIRR underground in the 40s some storm sewers were cut off and that exacerbated the problem but even at the turn of the century it would flood. These pictures come from my brother Lou taken with his very first camera.  |
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Ashford and Fulton Flooding, 1967 Now for some irony; Lucy (Patini) Ellis was my next door neighbor at 122 Ashford and was surprised to see flood photos that looked just like the ones in her old album. Her pictures from 1967 are sharper and show the adventurous folks wading around the flood down on Fulton Street. We recognize the Pastores on their porch in the picture on the right. |
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Ashford and Fulton Flooding, 1967 The third picture from the series is of her friend Fran Fiorino holding nephew Joey. It shows how far up the flooding would go; this was halfway up the block! More irony; when my mother heard the name, she recalled how she would help Fran's mother at 109 Ashford who was an invalid. This was actually years later and I never knew it until Lucy shared this photo. On the right, a flood picture from 1969. |
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The 1973 shot on the left has 2 stories; that's my brother Bruce heading off to his last day at Stuyvesant High; on his back he wore a shirt reading "Seniors take heart! Only xxx days left" and changed the numbers to provide a countdown. In the background is the "shoeshine parlor"; click on the stories button for that one. After Neil sent in a 2006 shot, I had to add a second story. |
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That "shoeshine parlor" once housed Bove Electronics, and Mike Pastore sent this image circa 1961 showing the original sign. On the right, the view is south down Ashford Street to Fulton Street, with the beauty parlor visible on the southeast corner. Mr. Miller, who was a legend to the kids in the neighborhood, is standing between John Boyle (left) and Anthony Pastore. The girl on the right was Crystal. | |
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This is 126 and 130 Ashford, which had the best stoop on the block for, what else, stoop ball. Mike Pastore has corrected me on the address which was 126 Ashford, not 128 as I originally posted. | |
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Ashford St. 8mm Film, 1963 A short clip of my younger brother with views south down Ashford towards Fulton circa 1963.  |
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THE sport of Ashford Street was punchball.It spanned generations, as my father played punchball in the same neighborhood in the '40's. They were "The Captains". We called ourselves the "War Hawks". These shots are from 1973. That's your webmaster on the left, and old pal Tony Kachykalo on the right. | |
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105 Ashford Here was an oddity; the house behind those punchball players is 105 Ashford, and it appears to be brick. When I found the 1940 tax photo, it is clearly a wood frame house. When I took this 2006 photo, I also cleared up the puzzle, as the building was simply brickfaced. |
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In 1972 we were inspired by the Olympics and decided to hold our own "Ashford Olympics". There were such illustrious events like the garbage can hurdles, the bocci ball throw, the one sewer dash, etc. These photos from 1974 were our third "Olympics", and these tug-of-war shots give a good view of the houses on the east side of the street, 115-121 Ashford. | |
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Yes, we had a high jump. That's yours truly sailing over the bar in 1973 with a shot looking north up Ashford. On the right, a touch football huddle in 1973 with friends Steve Pastore, Mike Pastore, Tony Kachykalo and Pete Colantuoni. | |
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Some snowstorm shots from 1964. | |
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114 Ashford, 1939 tax photo and today. | |
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My old friend Tom O'Meara sent these shots of Ashford Street in the 1960s. When I tell some guys I grew up on Ashford Street, they ask; "Did you know the O'Meara sisters?". That's Tom with sister Joan in 1968 and on the left a mid 60s shot of sisters Maureen and Joan with niece Dawn Gagliucci standing in front of 110 Ashford. | |
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Street hockey didn't grab hold until the mid-70's, when shoe skates had improved significantly. These two shots show the upper end of the block. The one on the left is from 1974; the one on the right is from 1977 and shows the demise of the trees on that block. | |
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Tim O'Reilly took this shot of Ashford looking north across Arlington in 1990, as well as the house on the southeast corner. You can see additional views of this intersection on the Arlington Avenue Page. | |
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Now working north across Arlington Avenue heading towards the park, this is an early photo of 79 Ashford from the Brian Merlis archives. Neil sent in the 2006 shot. | |
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This early photo postcard was taken in front of 43,45 and 49 Ashford, which is on the east side between Ridgewood and Arlington. By coincidence I photographed this stretch of houses in 2005, and featured my struggle to ID the image in my January 2019 blog post on the home page. | |
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43 and 45 Ashford, 1940 Part of my struggle to ID the post card was due to the fact that the notable gothic arches on these homes were mostly gone even by the time of the 1940 tax photos. 43 Ashford, on the left, had a front porch enclosure added and 45 Ashford had lost the arches though the distinct window remained. That window was gone by 2005, but I'm happy to report these homes have received nice renovations by 2018. |
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18 Ashford, 2018 Sandy Solano tipped me off that 18 Ashford was once featured on the Brownstoner website with some early history, which can be found here. |
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