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Norwood Ave.
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Jamaica Ave, East of Norwood Avenue Dated: 1908 Maker:P. Miller Status: Own (BG) Jamaica Ave, East of Norwood Avenue Dated: Unk Maker:Unk Status: Own (BG) Starting at the top of the block, two similar views looking east down Jamaica Avenue from Norwood. The tall monument on the left sits in Salem Fields Cemetery. |
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Neil Sullivan supplies an updated view from 2006. Joanne Kirk sends over a picture of 666 Jamaica Avenue which sits between Norwood and Logan. That's Joanne and her sister in front of the house in 1961. Joanne recalls the Brodzinski family were tenants on the third floor. Her grandmother bought the house in 1923 for $4,000. Her grandmother told her the house was the model home back in 1904 for the new construction on the block. |
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Gerry Carter provided this view looking east along Jamaica Avenue between Norwood and Logan. (He also provided a full team shot seen on the upper Highland Park page.) Gerry noted the swing out windows for ventilation and the iron gates; " They were easy to remove. Good trick on Halloween. Neighbors use to go nuts. We use to stack all the gates in one of the residence's vestibule. It made it hard for them to open the door the next morning." | |
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Norwood Avenue, from Ridgewood Ave Dated: 1911 Maker: Wm. Fick Status: Own(BG) This is looking north up Norwood from Ridgewood; a monument from Salem Fields Cemetery is visible in the background.Thanks to Neil for 2005 photo. |
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Norwood Avenue Maker:Kraus Mfg. Dated:1912 Status:Own(RG) Also looking north towards Jamaica Avenue. The street is clearly not paved in this image. In the distance there is a horse-drawn vehicle. |
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78 Norwood Avenue, 1925 This 1925 image comes from a St. Peter's Anniversary booklet, found on Larry Rickert's St. Peter's Website. It was the first home for the congregation in 1897 before the church was built. On the right, a 2008 view using Google Maps "Street View" tool. |
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142 Norwood Avenue, 1920s Special kudos to Robert Jefferson, one of the first to submit old family photos. The shot on the left is of his residence in the 1920s, and on the right of Norwood Ave after a blizzard in the early 1940s. |
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Two more great contributions from Robert, these are of his backyard on Norwood looking east. The first is from 1939 and the second from 1941. |
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147 Norwood, 1910 and 2004 Thanks to Anna for sending in this very old shot of 147 Norwood. The house was built between 1900 and 1905 and has an extraordinarily deep lot as it backs to Force Tube Avenue. Still standing, along with the original front railing. |
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155 Norwood, 1971 RoseAnn (Guddemi) Hogan sent in this great series of shots from 1971. The first shot is of RoseAnn standing in front of her dad's 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger looking across Norwood from her house. The second shot was taken on Easter looking south towards Fulton. That's Denise Schmid, Anna (Vallone) Calabro and RoseAnn in the picture. |
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155 Norwood, 1971 Now we have a view north up Norwood towards Ridgewood from 155 Norwood. That's brother Steven with Uncle Sam. The next shot was taken in the yard; the ivy covered wall is the back of the garages which faced Force Tube. That's RoseAnn's brother Steven with mother Rose in the shot. |
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155 Norwood, 1975 The last shot in the series is a little later, circa 1975. That's Anna (Vallone) Calabro, Debbie Parinello and Gail Heimers in a view south towards Fulton. The brick building on the corner of Fulton was of course Cordes. |
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Oeding's (Cordes), Norwood and Fulton Big thanks to Tim O'Reilly for digging up the 1941 tax photo of this well known retreat. Located on the northwest corner of Norwood and Fulton, I'm confident some of our site fans will be able to provide some history and stories about the place. Known as Cordes to my generation in the 60s and 70s, JoAnne LaForte supplied this photo around the time of its closing in 1972. Friends Don DiGennaro and Mike Termini are standing inside and you can see the windows have already been blacked out.  |
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Cordes, 1963 Thom Henrickson sent this pic from 1963, but cannot identify the people in the image. Thom adds; "Cordes Ice Cream Parlor was one of the landmarks in the neighborhood when my family lived there from the late 40's to 1970. As you entered the front door there were glass display cases on both sides containing a variety of special candies - which I believe were made on the premises - that were sold by weight. Moving further into the store was a long sit down counter where one could enjoy one of their numerous ice cream specialties, or order ice cream to take out in a cone or container; their high quality ingredients made for unmatched ice cream. The back part of Cordes had booths for table service of ice cream deserts and from their menu of luncheonette food." |
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Cordes menu, 1950s I received this menu from an anonymous contributor, along with some background; "The owners were Herman and Charlotte Cordes, her sister Elizabeth and son Ray all worked there...in the basement, which was spotless, Mr. Cordes made ice cream and candy...at Christmas he would make hard candies and candy canes and and watching him was a treat. In the rear of the store was a small hand elevator that would bring the chocolates up to the rear room where a woman dipped the candies in chocolate, and art in and of itself. In fact I remember in the mid-1950s she was paid $7.50 per hour when the hourly rate at the time was $1.00. His homemade chocolate creations during the Easter season brought lines out the door and on many such times there were 5 or 6 persons in a small area serving the public. In the rear parlor the tables were always full and the Cordes had no problem with the young people hanging out." |
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Herman Cordes Courtesy of his niece Charlotte, here's a picture of Herman Cordes himself, decorating a gigantic chocolate Easter egg for the holidays. |
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Norwood Palace, Norwood and Fulton Another longtime hangout; the ad at the top of the page is from a 1939 Record and Jan Simmons told me it was still a hangout in the 1970s. Debbie Brodzinski adds; " I was still hanging out there in the early 90's. It was like a private bar, the door was always locked and only the people who were known there were allowed in. Every year they would have a Christmas party for the kids in the area." Located on the Southwest corner of Norwood and Fulton. Big thanks again to Tim for the tax photo from 1941. The Palace was re-opened in 2009 (right) but by 2019 the location is now a pharmacy. |
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Norwood Grill Joanne Montgomery, who lived just down the block (see pictures below), sent this matchbook cover. I did a lttle digging and discovered the Norwood Palace name goes back as early as 1919, pre-Prohibition. The place was padlocked in 1927 for violations so we can guess it operated as a speakeasy in those years. In the early 1940s it is using the Norwood Grill name and this matchbook is probably from that era. Bowling was very popular in that era and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported the results of teams sponsored by local businesses at Hale Lanes. |
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| Norwood Palace early history I heard from a Lynette Maheu, whose great-great-grandparents owned it at one time. She shared her great-grandfather's memoirs about his parents ownership of an earlier restaurant and later the Palace;"We arrived Aug 4-1912 we did not know our parents or brother + sister. My mother for awhile had taken in wash and had boarders but by now had opened a Restaurant – oyster + hop house my mother sat us in a side room and gave us veal cutlets we ate like wolves my mother watching cried to think what we went through my mother did very well with the Rest. business so that my father could buy a saloon about a mile away it also had a bowling alley and dancing on Thus + Sat. he also sold a lot of Rhine wine which he made himself 60-75 barrels a year he had it in mind that my mother could have a Restaurant with him. he did very well but did not like the customers they always wanted things cheaper. In 1915 he got a buyer and sold the place he needed the rest but after a week he was very uneasy going out every day looking for a new place far enough away from the neighborhood of his own kind of people because they wanted everything cheaper. Well after looking for a place about 7 miles away he found one. Two saloons on a crossing one doing a big business the one for sale doing practically nothing, a three Story on a corner 100x28 the owner went bail for a friend of 5000 and skipped so it was cheap for anybody who had cash which my father had from the sale of his old place. Now was the question of how to draw customers from across the street starting a restaurant with 2 to 3 kinds of meat but no customers all we had was (leeches?) or bums he threw them out so we had nobody, after 4 months as fate will have it the owner of the place across the street died and the place closed for 3 days after it opened up again half ½ of their customers stayed with us, from then on the business kept going up + up, we build it up to about 150 customers a day...When I was 17 I had the going away fever and I took a trip to Panama on the liner Comus as a bus boy seeing the locks in Panama Colon to be exact was something worthwhile to see, particularly the Locks. how they work boats going in and out, after several trip I settled down again at my father place and that’s where Daddy stayed till place (Norwood Palace) was sold Uncle Frank had died and war broke out in Europe and both parents were over here." |
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Fulton, west from Norwood 1946 I've upgraded this shot, thanks to the Brian Merlis Archives. You can see the Norwood Palace on the left as well as Oeding's (Cordes) on the right. The second view, from 2005, is Fulton looking east from Shepherd Ave. |
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Fulton and Norwood, 1963 The first image is looking west down Fulton from Norwood Avenue in 1963. What makes this timestamp image so unusual to me is the couple on the right; the young man is dressed in full British Invasion style, but this image was taken in April, 1963, before the Beatles even came to America. Was he that hip? On the right, the view is south across Fulton, and we can see Curci's law office (see below) and the restaurant, though the Norwood Palace sign is gone. Of more interest to me is the classic car parked on the right. My brother Lou believes it is a 1936 Buick 40 Special. Who would have a 27-year old car in mint condition parked by Fulton Street? |
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On the southeast corner of Norwood and Fulton was the law office of Michael Curci; his daughter Paula sent in this photo and informed her mother was still practicing law there as late as 2005. They just recently sold the building. We believe the photo was shot in the early 1960s judging from the cars and the "No Parking" sign visible in the reflection in the window. That 2007 update shot had a lot of interference. |
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The Norwood Ave. elevated station. On the left from Kurt Eger, a shot of his friend Dennis Friscia in 1965. On the right a view west as the J train pulls in during the 1970s from Peter Stango. |
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On the left Peter supplied this 1940s image which we believe is the Norwood Avenue Station, but looking east. That's his Uncle Ray with Rita and Peter's grandmother. On the right is the platform in the 1970s, sent in by Diane Moore Villaseca (via JoAnn LaForte). |
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The sharp eyes of Tim O'Reilly noted the presence of steps to the Norwood Station on the south side of Fulton; they did not exist for over 100 years. The MTA has been doing a massive rehabilitation of the line, and the 2007 photo shows a completely new subplatform and stairs leading to the station. On the right, an update photo of the northwest corner, the former site of Cordes. |
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206 Norwood Joann Montgomery sent over these tax photo images along with some backround."This one is the Vegetable store (located between Curci's & the fish store) South side of Fulton between Norwood & Logan. It was owned by Mrs. Gertler and her son Stanley (spelling?) . Every time you walked past her store she gave you free string beans!! She couldn't have made one penny on her string beans!" On the right is the Norwood fish store. |
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206 Norwood Now we now south of Fulton Street. Joann Montgomery lived at 206 Norwood, and she supplied the 1941 tax photo as well as the update shot! |
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Completing a rare trifecta, Joann even supplies a shot from the 1970s of the house. | |
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Two shots from Joann looking north, with the Norwood Palace in the background. In the 1964 snowstorm shot on the left, Joann IDs the crowd; " The little boy is Joseph D'Auria, his Mom Harriet D'Auria,myself on the snow bank , and Margie D'Auria Kavoures holding my hand." On the right, this 1962 picture features Caroline Dagri with the Palace in the background. |
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Norwood Avenue Station Joann supplied these two views looking north towards the station. That's her brother John on the left in the 1953 photo and a view from the 1970s on the right. |
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Northeast corner, Norwood and Fulton Tim O'Reilly supplied the 1941 tax photos, from two angles. The one at the right is looking west along Fulton Street towards Norwood. |
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Trommers Garage, 1941 This is the northeast corner of Atlantic and Norwood. Joann Montgomery adds; "After Trommers moved out Hammer Beverage used the warehouse to store their trucks. They had a bottling plant on the same street as ENY Vocational High.The warehouse next to Trommers - I think it's the bus garage now, used to be ,in the late 40's , a wholesale food distributor called Shapiro & Frankel. My father started working there after he came home from Japan." For more on Trommers visit Zone 1 On the right, the building is still standing in 2007 and is still a garage. |
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Creveling's Lumber and Coal This gem from the 1870's comes from the Brian Merlis archives. The Creveling family spanned several generations in East New York in the lumber business. This is the northwest corner of Atlantic and Norwood Avenues. The image on the right is from 1913, though Creveling moved his business the location would still be a good site for people in the coal business since there were railroad spurs coming onto the property from the LIRR tracks on Atlantic Avenue. |
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Atlantic and Norwood After the LIRR is placed under Atlantic Avenue in the 1940s, this site becomes less suited for raw materials and is sold. The 1941 tax image sent by Joann Montgomery is of the building which was just west of the coal yard; we can see the Trommers garage in the distance and it appears the coal yard is gone. The location is ideal for a gas station, and I believe it was a Mobil station from at least the early 1950s to the 1980s. The Bing Maps image on the left shows it is now a fast food restaurant, but I think the building is the same structure that served the gas station for many years (at the very least it has the exact same footprint.) Joann recalls; "The gas station had a small wooded lot behind it and all the kids on Norwood Ave played there. The owner of the station was Mr. Gallagher - he never bothered us- always let us play there. It was a Mobil station - I can still see the sign!! There was also a black guy who worked there. He would take the train every day and get off at Norwood. Every time he passed by he had a chocolate bar for my brother. He was the nicest guy. It's amazing the things you remember." |