Come see Lafayette Walk in Bay Ridge, where Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine 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 great Carl Erskine, seen here pitching during a 1953 World Series game, lived in Bay Ridge. 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.

Back when the Dodgers were still here in Brooklyn, the team’s beloved pitcher, Carl Erskine, lived in Bay Ridge.

He and his family rented a rowhouse on Lafayette Walk during baseball seasons.

In a book by Ed Shakespeare called “When Baseball Returned to Brooklyn,” Erskine reminisced that Bay Ridge “was like a small town” in his ball-playing days.

“The neighbors were all great and took care of my family,” Erskine recalled.

Lafayette Walk is a pedestrian-only street that’s less than a block long. Its entrance is on the 94th Street block between Third and Fourth avenues — and it runs parallel to pedestrian-only Hamilton Walk.

This time of year Lafayette Walk looks especially charming, with flowers blooming in residents’ gardens and umbrellas unfurled over patio tables.

Erskine spent his entire Major League Baseball career with the Dodgers, mostly in Brooklyn and then briefly in Los Angeles after the team’s move to California. He retired from the Dodgers in 1959.

Erskine pitched in the World Series in years that the Dodgers lost to the New York Yankees. And he started the fourth game of the 1955 World Series, which of course is the World Series the Brooklyn Dodgers won.

Baseball fans nicknamed him “Oisk,” which is how the first syllable of his surname is pronounced with an old-time Brooklyn accent.

Other dandy dead-end streets

There are two other short Bay Ridge streets we want to talk about.

* One is Hamilton Walk, which is a stone’s throw away from Lafayette Walk.

The low-rise brick rowhouses and fenced-in gardens look fairly similar on both streets.

To give you an idea of what the homes are worth, 9317 Hamilton Walk sold for $798,000 in June, city Finance Department records indicate.

The sellers had purchased it for $468,000 in 2010, Finance Department records show.

* The other short street we want to mention is Wogan Terrace. It’s a cul-de-sac with a paved street wide enough to park cars on both sides of it. Its entrance is on the 94th Street block between Fifth Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway.

A word of caution: You can park on Wogan Terrace only if you’re a resident. If you’re not, your car will get towed. It’s a private street.

The Tudor-style rowhouses on this terrace are eye-pleasers with slate roofs.

To give you an idea of what these homes go for, 9404 Wogan Terrace sold for $795,000 in early July, Finance Department records indicate.

In November, 9409 Wogan Terrace sold for $760,000, Finance Department records show.

The records also indicate that 9417 Wogan Terrace sold for $720,000 in 2016. The seller had bought the house for $575,000 in 2012.

The house at right is 9404 Wogan Terrace, which recently changed hands. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

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1 Comment

Nightflyer March 18, 2021

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.

March 18, 2021 at 8:17 pm

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