Bay Ridge

Come see Barwell Terrace in Bay Ridge, where Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese lived

Eye on Real Estate: The neighborhood's tiny streets are tucked-away treasures

July 25, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese, second from left in this 1947 photo, lived in Bay Ridge. Other starting infielders that year were (from right) Jackie Robinson, Ed Stanky and John Jorgensen. AP Photo
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Short streets, long on charm.

Bay Ridge is full of them.

The southwest Brooklyn shoreline neighborhood has picturesque single-block streets and privately owned cul-de-sacs, some of which are pedestrian pathways rather than roads for cars.

Stroll with us in search of these tucked-away treasures, which are sprinkled throughout Bay Ridge from Cannonball Park by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Owl’s Head Park at the neighborhood’s north end.

 

Did you know Pee Wee Reese and his family lived on Barwell Terrace?

The legendary Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop and team captain’s home was on this tiny Bay Ridge street, his 1999 New York Times obituary says.

This pedestrian-only cul-de-sac is at the top of a flight of stairs at the edge of the sidewalk on 97th Street. You need only stand on the sidewalk to see the terrace is a beautiful, tranquil place.

The rowhouses on Barwell Terrace were built in the 1920s. A Brooklyn Daily Eagle advertisement of that era describes them as “Old English Type One Family Brick Homes With Garage.”

A statue at the Brooklyn Cyclones’ MCU Park in Coney Island memorializes a key moment in Reese’s storied career — when he put his arm around teammate Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League Baseball.

As an inscription on the statue explains, Reese made his public gesture of friendship at Cincinnati’s  ballpark in 1947, where Robinson was subjected to death threats and racist taunts.

The staircase that leads to Barwell Terrace is on the 97th Street block between Third and Fourth avenues. A street sign at the corner of 97th Street and Third Avenue says this block is Terence “Terry” Gazzani 9/11 Memorial Way.

According to published reports about New Yorkers who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Gazzani worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, which was at the top of the North Tower.

He lived with his parents in Bay Ridge.

He was 24 years old at the time of his death.

 

Harbor Court and other short streets

There are three other tiny streets nearby that we want to show you.

* Short but sweet. That’s 98th Street.

It’s just a block long. It starts at Marine Avenue and dead-ends just short of Shore Road.

Detached houses with flowery gardens and finely landscaped front yards charm the eye on 98th Street. It’s so quiet and peaceful.

As an indication of what the houses are worth, 160 98th St. sold for $1.05 million in February, city Finance Department records show.

Here is the full length of 98th Street. To take this picture, we stood with our back to the wall where the street dead-ends and faced Marine Avenue. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

* Part-way down the block on 98th Street, there’s a perpendicular mini-street called Harbor Court, which runs to 99th Street.

On Harbor Court, you’ll see garages and the sides of houses whose front doors are on 98th Street or 99th Street.

* If you go to Cannonball Park, as everybody in Bay Ridge calls John Paul Jones Park, you can find Jackson Court.

It’s a private cul-de-sac whose entrance is on 101st Street between Fourth Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway, right across from the park.

To give you an idea of what houses are worth on Jackson Court, the two-story, single-family home at 5 Jackson Court sold for $917,000 in October 2016, Finance Department records indicate.

Also, 1 Jackson Court sold for $885,000 in October 2015, Finance Department records show. The seller had purchased the house for $490,000 in 2004.

 

 

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  1. Nightflyer

    As a fourth-generation native New Yorker and a guy who wrote a guide to baseball sites for the Society for American Baseball Research, I have to visit this site.

    Back then, ballplayers LIVED in the “old neighborhood.” Today, they live in gated mansions.