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Byrne Bridge

The James J. Byrne Memorial Bridge takes Greenpoint Avenue over Newtown Creek. From FNY's Newtown Creek page:

The J. J. Byrne Memorial Bridge, also known as the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, was opened in 1929 and was completely overhauled in 1987. It is the fifth bridge that has carried Greenpoint Avenue over Newtown Creek. It is a bascule drawbridge as is the Pulaski Bridge.

According to the Department of Transportation, a drawbridge first operated here in 1855; one of its successor bridges also carried a defunct section of the Long Island Rail Road from the Greenpoint waterfront to a connection with the similarly-vanished Evergreen Branch.

LEFT: a view of the Kosciuszko Bridge, which is slated for replacement by two bridges.

In 1950, in what is considered to be the worst oil spill in United States history, 17 to 30 million gallons of oil spilled into Newtown Creek. Oil is believed to have been seeping into the groundwater since then. Groundwater in this area is not used as drinking water, as all of New York City's drinking water presently comes from upstate reservoirs. In January 2006, state and oil company officials asserted that to date half of the spill has been cleaned up. wiki.trytop

Looking west on Newtown Creek; Lukoil (Russia's second largest oil producer); an overhead look at the Long Island Rail Road Montauk Branch tracks. Now used mostly for freight, these tracks see three passenger train runs each weekday.

Land of Bliss

We're now in Queens, but in a little-known subneighborhood known as Blissville. From FNY's Blissville page:

Blissville is the small wedge of Queens positioned between Newtown Creek, Calvary Cemetery and the Queens-Midtown Expressway; it takes its name from Neziah Bliss, inventor, shipbuilder and industrialist, who owned most of the land here in the 1830s and 1840s. Bliss, a protegé of Robert Fulton, was an early steamboat pioneer and owned companies in Philadelphia and Cincinnati. Settling in Manhattan in 1827, his Novelty Iron Works supplied steamboat engines for area vessels. By 1832 he had acquired acreage on both sides of Newtown Creek, in Greenpoint and what would become the southern edge of Long Island City. Bliss laid out streets in Greenpoint to facilitate his riverside shipbuilding concern and built a turnpike connecting it with Astoria (now Franklin Street in Greenpoint, Vernon Blvd. in Queens); he also instituted ferry service with Manhattan. Though most of Bliss' activities were in Greenpoint, he is remembered chiefly by Blissville in Queens and by a stop on the Flushing Line subway (#7) that bears his family name: 46th Street was originally known as Bliss Street.

After arriving in Queens via the JJ Byrne Memorial Bridge we are immediately greeted by busy Van Dam Street, whihc funnels traffic from western Sunnyside south to the bridge. The traffic island formed by Greenpoint Avenue and Van Dam Street contains a flagpole dedicated to Sgt. Daniel Kish, a local who perished in the Vietnam War.

Greenpoint Avenue between Van Dam Street and Starr Avenue. I lked the older multifamily buildings but was also fascinated by the thickly wired utility posts. Starr provides a direct sight of the sea green Citicorp Building, Long Island's tallest.

The former Bradley Hotel at Bradley and Greenpoint Avenues was a way station for weary 19th Century travelers and a watering hole for Calvary Cemetery visitors. It has hosted a succession of pubs in recent decades, includsing today's Bantry Bay Publick House. RIGHT: the bland First Spice Mixing Company on the other side of Best Western.

The City View

Rebecca Cooney of Living in Blissville limns the recent history of the most unusual Best Western you'll ever see, the incredible former PS 80 on Greennpoint Avenue east of Bradley, now the City View:

In the brick school that overlooks all of Blissville, boys entered from the front, girls from the side, so the stone lintels dictated anyway. Judging by its architecture, it must have been built around the turn of the century. Its builders constructed it to last a century or more. They couldn't have known that events greater than weather and age would force the school to close its doors, only after 30 years or so. Blissville lost much of its population in the years of the second World War.

In the peace that followed, new people came to Blissville, even a community of Satmars. They bought the school and converted the building into a yeshiva. But after five years or so, they left to migrate to Williamsburg, where they still live.

And so the school emptied out again. It stood vacant during the the 1960s passed, the 1970s, and for part of the 1980s, until an outside investor purchased it. He renovated it, then turned it into a hotel. He named it the City View Motor Inn after the top rooms that look over all of Blissville, out to the skyline of Manhattan. Then for some reason he sold it. One after another, hotel hopefuls tried to make it work, five owners in five years. And still the building stood empty.

Mohammad Daoud is its latest owner, smarter and more determined than his predecessors. His first move was to join forces with Best Western. He's been with them now over 15 years. Then he renovated the hotel again until barely a vestige of the old school remained. He instituted a shuttle service to the airports and city. And he signed on to take LaGuardia Airport's stranded passengers. He has garnered business from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Chamber of Commerce and the District Attorney's office, all because of his innitiatives.

A room at the Best Western here starts at $150. A room with a view costs twice as much. But all rooms include his Delux Complimentary Continental Breakfast, with fresh juice, donuts and bagels with a special bagel cutter.

And now the 71 rooms are always occupied.

While researching the ForgottenBook, I wanted to stay for a couple days at the City View, so I called and asked for a room with a city view, quite reasonably, in my opinion. The reservations person thought I was kidding and told me to take what they had. I never got a room but I might try again.

The B24 bus, given a B since it spends most of its time in Brooklyn, has an odd route-- beginning in Greenpoint, it runs along Greenpoint Avenue to Sunnyside, then south across the Kosciuszko Bridge into Williamsburg to Broadway and Marcy Avenues where there is a J train el station. There is no longer a B29 bus -- this sign goes back to the 1960s.

Calvary

From FNY's Blissville page:

The presence of Calvary Cemetery in southwestern Queens is due to the influence of the parish of St. Patrick's in Manhattan, which bought land here from the Alsop family in the early 1840s. A careful look in southern Calvary Cemetery (near old Penny Bridge) will reveal the Alsop family burial ground, which was incorporated into Calvary, with stones dating to 1743. The parish purchased land that became "New" Calvary Cemetery just to the northeast from the Burroughs family in 1870. A large swamp, known as Wolf Swamp because of the presence of the canines, had to be drained to create the cemetery.

Though the great skyscrapers of Manhattan loom over the cemetery, its architecture is not to be overshadowed, as witness its grand Queen Anne gatehouse at Greenpoint and Gale Avenues.

On my cemetery tours I encourage people to look through the mausoleum doors -- you will often find fine stained glass artwork. The Ashman tomb, right by the gate of Calvary Cemetery on Gale Avenue, is no exception.

St. Raphael's Church looms over Calvary; front gate and Citicorp, Gale and Greenpoint Avenues.

Elaborate monuments, many with weeping angels, near the front gate; cemetery gatehouse, side view.

If you look at a map the original Blissville street layout is still quite clear, as it runs athwart the dominant street grid. Review, Starr, Bradley and Gale Avenues are the north-south routes, while 34th (originally Young) and 35th (Pearsall) Streets and Greenpoint Avenue are the east-west routes.

A group of local artists' work appears here on a building on 35th Street and the Queens Midtown Expressway.

Across the Queens Midtown Expressway, we are in Sunnyside....

It was admittedly a bad day for photos -- I used a picture of St. Raphael's on Greenpoint and Hunters Point Avenues from an earlier walk to do it justice. At 100 feet tall, it is the tallest building in the area, rivalled only by the Celtic Park Houses, and was constructed in 1885. Meanwhile, a much humbler Fedders Special sits nearby.

The Celtic Park Houses complex, near 50th Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue (resembling the project shown here), remembers Celtic Park, a recreational spot and sports center for the area's large Irish population during the first quarter of the 20th century. The site nurtured athletes who participated in the Olympic Games between 1900 and 1912; the spot subsequently became a greyhound racetrack. The name is perpetuated in Celtic Avenue, a short remnant between 43rd and 50th Avenue, of the once-much longer Bowery Bay Road. RIGHT: Dillon's near 40th Street, one of the numerous Irish pubs in Sunnyside and Woodside.

Raphael Deli, possibly named for the church, Greenpoint Avenue at 41st Street and 48th Avenue. It has a modern vinyl awning, but a peek underneath reveals a vintage sign.

The Greenpoint Pharmacy, next to the Raphael Deli, is actually in Sunnyside. Its vintage sign, complete with a vessel with a pestle, is right out in the open.

Some handsome multi-colored Tudors and some Sunnyside wash adjoin a smashed phone on 41st street. Public pay phones have come a long way from booths, where you could actually close a door and not bother anyone, to hoods, to posts. I suppose all public pay phones will soon be extinct, anyway.

Featuring music and song by Spanish and Latin American composers and artists, this bilingual Queens theater company has produced more than 100 plays, operettas and folklore shows since its 1977 founding by actress and director Silvia Brito. Her successor, Angel Gil Orrios, has served as artistic director since 1999 and innovated by presenting bilingual casts and alternating performances in English and Spanish. NYCGO

Someone was so hungry, they ripped the vinyl fish off the awning here on 42nd Street.

Thomson Hill Park, a triangle at Greenpoint Avenue, 47th Avenue and 42nd street, and the Lance Corporal Thomas P. Noonan Playground make up the only park and play space in all of Sunnyside. While eastern and southern Queens can boast Forest Park, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Kissena Park, Cunningham Park, Alley Pond Park, Springfield, Brookville and Baisley Pond Parks, western Queens is relatively park-starved with the exception of Astoria Park in the extreme northwest.

The Harout Ardzivian Custom Tailor sign, east of 43rd, has been here many seasons. The Woodside Herald offices strongly resemble a former pub. Nelson Hardware, a Sunnyside fixture for many years (especially in Christmas season when it sold ornaments and trees) is gone for good.

In the 1990s (or was it the 1980s?) Greenpoint Avenue in Sunnyside underwent a radical remake, with new sidewalks, benches and tall and short lampposts. Most were replaced in the early 2000s, but a few around 47th Avenue are still hanging on.

Apartment building, 47th and Greenpoint Avenues. RIGHT: 1950s era sign, A&T Liquors.

LEFT: the former Bliss Theatre, Greenpoint Avenue and 45th Street. Cinematreasures:

The Bliss first opened in 1931 and was built by Century Theatres with its usual architect-designer team of R. Thomas Short & William Rau. By that time, the sound era was well underway, so the Bliss was designed solely for movies, with a stage just deep enough for the hanging of a Magnascopic Screen that could be enlarged for special effects from the projection booth.

The Bliss' interior decor was a modern interpretation of motifs found in ancient Egyptian architecture. Boldly-colored murals on the side walls and above the proscenium arch depicted scenes from Egyptian history. Located in the heart of the Sunnyside shopping district, the Bliss was never more than a subsequent-run neighborhood house until the 1960s when movie distribution switched to city-wide Premiere Showcase openings. But the change didn't increase attendance at the Bliss, and Century decided to close it due to its high operating costs.

The building was sold to Jehovah's Witnesses, which converted it into a church with almost no changes to the exterior. The interior, however, has been extensively renovated, although an atmospheric lobby remains but with new paintings on the walls. The new owners removed everything of the Egyptian decor that showed nudity and/or pagan symbolism. The result now is an auditorium that looks like it was built yesterday, though you can still find touches of the original Bliss decor if you look hard enough. Church services are held every Sunday morning at 10 AM, and non-members are welcome to attend.

Near the heart of Sunnyside, the arch at Queens Boulevard and 46th Street, Greenpoint Avenue finally comes to an end ... but as Roosevelt Avenue it hosts the #7 "International Express" to Flushing.

Photographed March 7, 2009; page completed March 8.

erpietri@earthlink.net