A Window Was Here

A bricked-up portal on a Willett Street building.

Under Clark's Corner

Not too long after writing about the demolition of the Paul Clark Tavern at the corner of Madison Avenue and Lark Street, the site was excavated further and I noticed this brick structure.  This week, I finally got a chance to poke my camera through the fence surrounding the construction area.

Don Rittner has some suggestions as to what it might have been in his excellent post, What Happened To Paul Clark's Corner?

The brick building in the background is the former Metroland office, now being converted to condos.

Also:  Paul Clark's gravestone

From Jail To Synagogue

This modest little brick building at the far end of Federal Street off Delaware Avenue was erected in the 1930s as a synagogue for the Sons of Israel (a congregation which would later merge with others to form Temple Israel).  I remember this building being vacant when I first noticed it in the mid-1980s, but it now seems to be occupied by a business.

A fascinating detail about this building is that it was constructed from bricks recycled from the demolition of the Albany Penitentiary.

Summer Buff

A couple of weeks ago - before I spotted the Catskill brick - another brick caught my eye on a facade near the Burger King on Central Avenue. I was waiting for my partner-in-crime to finish a phone call and noticed words stamped on the ends of some of the pale yellow bricks.

On a cold winter day, the phrase SUMMER BUFF seemed a little ironic.

It refers, of course, to the color of the bricks which are also stamped with the manufacturer's name, Hanley. Hanley bricks were used in the construction of the iconic Chrysler Building, as well as the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China, also in Manhattan. The company, based in Summerville, PA was founded in 1910 and acquired by Glen-Gary Brick in the mid-1980s.

Catskill Brick

On Monday, my partner-in-crime and I had to drop off his friend at the Double Happiness Chinatown bus stop. While we waited for his NYC-bound coach, I tried unsuccessfully to photograph a small stained glass window on a nearby building. Unfortunately, the light was wrong and tree branches were in my way.

And then this brick embedded in the grimy, rock-salted encrusted, cigarette-littered sidewalk caught my eye. It's not the first time I've noticed bricks stamped with the names of their manufacturers...in fact, there's some pale yellow bricks further up the Avenue that need to have their picture taken, too.

The town of Catskill...not to mention much of the Hudson Valley...has long been a center of brick manufacturing. A bit of quick research at a brick collecting web site (yes, people do collect bricks) shows about a dozen such companies. I believe this one came from the Catskill Vitrified Paving Brick Company.

There's a stack of old bricks in my garage. I'm just a little tempted to go out and see if they have any interesting markings. But it's snowing and I don't feel like venturing off the back porch.

Revelations

My great-uncle used to live down in Sheridan Hollow when I was very little. His house there is long, long gone; a fire destroyed the building and a parking lot now occupies the corner.

On a short cut through the old neighborhood this past autumn, I passed that corner for the first time in years. The asphalt paving had crumbled away to reveal a surprisingly elegant pattern of bricks beneath.