MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
 
JUMP TO PAGE   100  >  200  >  300  >  400  >  500  >  600
VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Bathgate Avenue: 1936

December 1936. "Scene along Bathgate Avenue in the Bronx, a section from which many of the New Jersey homesteaders have come." View full size. Medium format nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.

December 1936. "Scene along Bathgate Avenue in the Bronx, a section from which many of the New Jersey homesteaders have come." View full size. Medium format nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

2068 Bathgate Ave

My great-grandaunt, Anna Havemann, lived at 2068 Bathgate Ave from at least 1936 (the year of this photo) until maybe 1950.

The building that stands there is a large apartment building. Near as I can tell, it's the same building.

1657 Bathgate in the 1920s (and maybe 30s)

A great-great grandfather of mine (Solomon Beckelman) lived at 1657 Bathgate with his wife (Minnie) and at least one of their daughters (Pauline) in the 1920s. His son, Abraham, was my great-grandfather. Solomon was a tailor, and Abe was a cutter and dressmaker who was married with children by 1912. From the maps I've seen, 1657 and the whole block of houses is (long?) gone.

Moe, Irv and Max from Bathgate

Moe, Irv and Max from 1648 Bathgate Ave. in the 1940s are all doing well! I am Max's eldest daughter Aylene. My Dad wrote an article I attached below which was published in a magazine. I spotted this site and couldn't help but to send it to you. Should you wish to reach out to my Dad Max, his e-mail address is primeno19@aol.com. I am sure he would love to reminisce about the days at Bathgate!

GOLDMAN’S YARN on BATHGATE AVE.

Your last issue on Goldman’s Yarn store prompted me to reflect on some very fond childhood memories. When I was asked for my address as a young boy, at about the age of 11-12, I usually responded, “1648 Bathgate Ave., across the street from Goldman’s”. Mentioning Goldman’s as part of my address not only pinpointed my house but in my mind it elevated the status of my building. To the people in our area, Goldman’s was a neighborhood landmark. It almost ranked with the Loew’s Paradise Theater.

My recollection of the Bathgate Ave. area in the late 1940’s was that shoppers associated the ‘market’ as the place to get bargains. My friend claimed he purchased a pair of pants and received a price reduction when he traded in his old pants. The pedestrian traffic on Bathgate Ave from 171st to 174th caused it to be among the most populated areas in the Bronx. Stores were continuous on both sides of the street. There were bakeries, grocery stores, shoe stores, clothing stores, butchers, novelty stores, candy stores, the very first Daitch store, and Olinsky which specialized in appetizing foods. Also, there were many, many vegetable stores which had stands extending half way out onto the sidewalk. Every woman had her favorite stores where she shopped. Also, stationary pushcarts were on the street lined up back to back selling vegetables which added to this already congested scene. In between the pushcarts one can see many horses (how else did the pushcart get to the location?) on the street and some parked cars. The cars which dared to travel through Bathgate Ave. were crawling at 5 mph. This was the environment where Goldman’s was situated. Goldman’s Yarn and Barash Decorators were considered the upscale stores in the area. These stores attracted patrons from affluent Bronx areas, such as the West Bronx (Concourse area), Riverdale, and Parkchester.

During the early evening hours (after dinner), Bathgate Ave. took on a different appearance. Pedestrian traffic subsided, pushcarts were leaving, stores were closing, sanitation crews came in for their nightly clean-up job, and many of the residents in the buildings came outside to recapture their street. Mothers relaxed on their chairs outside and discussed the day’s activities with a little gossip injected to spice up their conversation. Friends from various age groups would congregate for their evening activity. One vegetable stand was used for a nightly card game by the older kids. One evening, that card game ended abruptly when a woman in the building above the stand poured a pail of water on the card players for making too much noise. Needless to say, they never played cards at that stand again.

For a few years, one of the street games I enjoyed was ‘off the point’. This was a variation of ‘stoop ball’. In this game, we threw a spaldeen at the metal bar just below a store’s window. We used Goldman’s Yarn store for our game because it had a sharp point on its metal bar. On an accurate throw at the metal bar, a ball could travel far and hit the building across the street. If not caught, it‘s considered a home run. Occasionally when we were not so accurate with our throw, we would hit the store’s window above the bar causing the window to vibrate. Of course we kids could never think of the possibility of breaking a window. Evidently Mr. Goldman had a more realistic viewpoint. One evening, as my friends (Pete Palladino, Joseph Greco, and Angelo Pezullo) and I were playing this game, Mr. Goldman ran out angrily chasing us away from his store. The following evening, we needed a substitute activity. We decided to make picket signs which read, “Goldmans is Unfair to Kids”, and jokingly marched in front of the store with these signs. Apparently Mr. Goldman did not see this action as amusing. On the following night, as we were picketing again, 2 policemen from a patrol car stopped and approached us. They took our signs and told us to leave the area. Obviously Mr. Goldman called the police. This was a dramatic event for 11 and 12 year old kids. Who would believe we had a confrontation with the police at that age? During the next few years, I noticed many stores on Bathgate Ave were installing accordion gates. At that time, I naively thought the store owners installed the gates to curtail our evening game ‘hit the point’.

Max Tuchman

City Girl

a short video shot on Bathgate in 1958

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgxr03mcVAs

Brings tears to my eyes

My Dad and his brothers{ the Geller Bros.} had the candy store, which later turned into a grocery store. There was Bobby{Isadore} Max, Sam, Harry,and Jack. My dad. who was the oldest, lived above the store with his four brothers and two sisters, Faye and Dottie. Will have to post a picture of all of my cousins standing in front of Geller Bros. My uncle Jack and Aunt Millie had the Sugar Bowl, and my Aunt Faye and Uncle Jaime had the chicken market. My dad Bobby died several years ago, and I have fond memories of going to the markets, and visiting grandma Sophie . If you have anything to share, I would love it! This all brings tears to my eyes. Melody Please e mail me @ melody.dancer@cox.net thank you

Bathgate Avenue

1575 Bathgate Avenue, 1946 to 1952: from my grandmother's apartment, I could look across the street and see Daitch Dairy. Sometimes I would be sent there to get butter. Then, it came in a large block, and they would chop you off the amount you wanted, either by the amount or amount of money I was given to buy it.

I was never board, after all, I could visit the chickens, watch the fish swim in a tank, go to the deli for chicken salami (which I don't believe is made anymore). Through my grandmother, the shop keepers knew me, so I always got a slice of salami. There was Woolworth to walk around in. The Sugar Bowl for ice cream, the shop around the corner for ices for 5 cents, the leather shop (to smell new leather), and produce stands everywhere.

Loved to go to Crotona Park and climb what I thought then were mountains, but just big boulders. You could hear and see the world just by sitting at a window, and ride on a merry-go-round that came by on a truck. Most night the third avenue L put me to sleep.

Everything was simple then, yet an awful lot of fun. Good memories they were indeed.

Crotona Park Pool

I taught myself to swim in the shallow pool and then was daring enough to dive off the diving board towards the ladder opposite in the semi-circular diving pool. I am 83 and still a good swimmer. I recently found a site where I could see the pool and the shallow one is still active but the diving pool has all the boards gone and a fence around the pool to keep people out! damn lawyers for making an end to diving boards due to their incessant suits!

1991 Bathgate

I lived at 1991 Bathgate apt 1A at the end of the 60s into 1976 and I love that neighborhood I still go back there once a year I walk down towards tremont where St josephs church is i had great times there if anyone was from around there at that time email me at bronx1966@hotmail.com

1593 Bathgate Avenue

The window appearing in the upper right hand corner of the picture is that of a top floor apartment at 1593 Bathgate Avenue. From the early 1940s to the early '60s, our family (Tosca) lived on the first floor (same line as the window) in Apartment 6.

1589 was Geller Bros., a candy stand which in the fifties became somewhat of a supermarket. 1591 was a full fresh fish market, huge water tank and all. The ground floor of 1593 housed a kosher meat market and as well Mr. Cherry's grocery store. 1595 was another tenement. After a few shops, there was a Woolworth's, a drug store and Meyers & Shapiro Deli. After which more shops and at the end of the block 1599, another tenement. Further down from the other side of Gellers, a huge poultry store. With no doubt, hundreds of live chickens daily sold, slaughtered & quartered on the premises. Many many thanks for affording "Junior" the trip down Memory Lane.

I remember Mama

I was born in 1946 and shopped with my mother on Bathgate as a very small child. I remember watching her choose a flounder at the fish market, and kosher pickles from the barrels on the street. One of the women in the Rothstein photo looks just like my grandmother. She shopped there too. What if?

Eat at Paul's

My grandfather had a deli on Bathgate Avenue. I have a pic taken in 1932. The awning on the store said Eat at Paul's, my grandpa was Henry. That was the way the awning was when he opened the store. Does anyone remember? or know the address number of the store. I want to see what is on that spot now.

Memories of a fellow Bathgater..

I was born in Apartment 4C at 1663 Bathgate, the southwest corner of Bathgate and 173rd, in December 1933. My dad died in 1934.

Vogel's Grocery was on the northwest corner and I delivered groceries for them. Schactner's Haberdashery was opposite 1663 as was the Daitch Dairy. The orthodox synagogue was underneath 1663 on 173rd and Grubmans Interior Decorators was underneath 1663 on Bathgate. (For some unexplained reason the interior decorators' center of NYC was Bathgate between Clairmont Parkway and 173rd, three blocks with about a dozen interior decorator stores. As kids we used to marvel at the chauffeured limousines carrying elegantly dressed ladies from Park & Fifth Avenues in Manhattan to Bathgate to buy extraordinary fabrics for their apartment & mansions.)

Tillie's Specialty Shop may also have been Zweigart's Specialty Shop, whose daughter, Sally, I once dated, when I was a student at P.S. 4 on Fulton Avenue. There were many such shops.

Freshly slaughtered chickens and live pike & carp for Friday night's "gefulte" fish was a given. Mom used to keep the fish alive in the bathtub so we could see them when we came home from school!

Punch ball on 173rd from Bathgate to 3rd Avenue started promptly at 10 every Sunday morning and ended promptly at 2 pm when all the Italian kids had to go home for their traditional Sunday pasta dinner. If there were cars parked on 173rd, we pushed them out of the way. Spectators lined both sides of the street and total bets could be $100 or more.

I could punch a "spaldeen" 3 sewers, but Rocky Colavito, the eventual Cleveland Brown slugger, could punch the ball onto the 3rd Avenue Elevated tracks, almost a whole block away!

Correction: The movie house on Clairmont and Washington Avenue was the Fenway, not the Delux. Admission was five cents and we were there on Saturdays from 11 to 5 -- two feature films and about 25 serials and cartoons. Our moms came to pull us out for dinner. If you went in the evening, you would also be awarded a free dinner plate. My mom collected an entire service for eight, some of which my niece may still have!

The Delux was at the corner of Arthur & Tremont, also 5 cents. The Crotona on Tremont was 10 cents, the more resplendent Loewe's farther east on Tremont at 15 cents and the famous & magnificent Loewe's Paradise at Grand Concourse and Fordham Road, admission was a hefty 25 cents, but well worth the beauty of that particular movie palace!

I left Bathgate in 1953 to go to college and never returned. I'm 75, but those memories are as fresh in my mind today as though they occurred yesterday.

Please pass on to your Bathgate cohorts !

Fair Winds,
Jack Cook

Reprinted from an email I received today from Jack.

Fond Memories of my youth

My grandparents lived at 1663 Bathgate Avenue and 173rd Street. My grandfather owned a tomato store near the corner of 173rd. I was only a small child then but can remember the delicious smells in the hallway when entering the building from all the cooking. There was Italian, German, Irish, Greek and Jewish food that created the most wonderful aroma.

I remember all the stores that had their products outside under awnings. There was clothing, shoes, toys, food, etc.

My mom used to take me to a clothing store south of 173rd on the east side of the street. I remember a heater in the middle of the floor in this clothing store.

I also went to a pool a few blocks away, must have been Crotona Park Wading Pool. I remember the water not being very deep.

For some reason many things have stayed with me and the memories are cherished.

Bathgate Avenue

My grandparents owned a small store called Tillie's Specialty Shop from about 1945 to 1957 on Bathgate Avenue, just next to the stores in the photo and a few doors down from Woolworth's. Tillie's sold housedresses, hosiery, robes, etc. During the summer, when I wasn't attending P.S. 4, I'd sit next to the hosiery display at the front of the store and sell stockings. I also collected baseball cards, which my mother threw out. My guess is that I had a bunch of Mickey Mantles. Wish I still did!

I recall a haberdasher (when was the last time you heard that word?) on the corner of 3rd Avenue and Claremont Parkway. The el still stood then. Crotona Park was two blocks away.

Nice to remember...

Bathgate Avenue Shopping

I lived on Washington Avenue during the same timeframe (mid 60s through late 70s) and can remember a poultry shop where you could buy freshly slaughtered (right in front of you) chicken. Also, the smell of roasted peanuts sold from the fruit stands on Bathgate is something I remember.

My first job while in Junior High was at a small variety store across the street from Woolworth (I can still hear the 3rd Avenue El rattling as it heads towards the Claremont Avenue Station).

Pop vs Soda Map

See this site.

Bathgate

I lived across the street from this address at 1599 Bathgate Avenue in the late 60's thru the mid 70's and my fondest memories were that of Melvin's Eggs right next to this location. This store was right in the middle of the block. Next door to me was F.W. Woolworth. The Manager was Mr.Blackman, funny how some names you never forget. The cross street was Claremont Avenue and that was 172nd street. The next street over was Washington Avenue and the Deluxe Theatre, where I went to my first movie by myself for 35 cents. Gosh I feel old and I'm only 46.

Great times playing stickball and kick the can on Sundays, everything was closed because of the Blue Laws.

Tone2020@gmail.com

Bathgate Avenue

I used to go shopping on Bathgate Avenue with my mother in the early 1950's. I was still a kid and it was an exciting place. Open display cases in front of the stores, the smells of dried fish and ethnic foods baking in the sun. The area was much more crowded in the 1950's. If I remember correctly there were still some pushcarts in those days. Bathgate Avenue is near Crotona Park.

Pop vs soda

This shows that the word "pop" was still in use in NYC at that time, with the word "soda" presumably meaning an ice cream soda. The word "soda" has all but obliterated "pop" for soft drink in most of the country now. If you still say "pop" you're really from the hinterlands.

Bathgate Avenue

I googled the address and it is shown to be between Claremont Parkway and East 172nd Street. It was never considered a Garden Spot.

The one little boy

The one little boy appears to be carrying a toy airplane while the stroller has a piece of wood being used to keep it from rolling away.

TK
http://unidentifiedfamilyobjects.blogspot.com/

Nothing really changes

Funny, I've seen scenes just like this (with different languages on the signs and different clothes) in Cueramaro, GTO and Oakland, CA within the last few months. We don't really change as much as we think sometimes...

Billy Bathgate

I lived on Bathgate and 187th four years ago when I went to school at Fordham. Looking at the address on the bulding I wonder what the cross-street was at this time?

Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.