December 3: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1918, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The government has taken over the country home of the Crescent Athletic Club at Bay Ridge and will probably make use of it as an officers headquarters during the period of demobilization. The lease has been sent to Washington and has not yet been returned with signatures, but the negotiations which have been going on for the past six weeks have proceeded to such a point that there is scarcely any possibility that the arrangement will fall through. The government representatives are now in actual possession of the property. With the big clubhouse, the government will also take the boathouse and a portion of the extensive grounds. They will not take the golf links or the golf house. How long the government will remain in possession of the property is problematical. Officers of the club do not anticipate, however, that it will be possible for the members to make use of the clubhouse or boathouse next summer. This is the second time that the Crescent has put its fine country home at the service of the country. For some time during the summer months, the upper floors of the club were turned over for the use of nurses prior to their departure overseas.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “Park Commissioner Robert Moses’ plan to rejuvenate Coney Island with a $3,500,000 development was hailed as welcome news today by the resort’s businessmen, but none of them would agree with his basic thesis that the character of the place must change. Curiosity about the commissioner’s intentions was unanimously expressed by public officials, property owners, business executives and civic workers. His published proposals, they insisted, were one thing, and the limits of his actual project quite another. But little change in the aspect of the Boardwalk and the established amusement centers was seen in the scheme to obtain land at an average depth of 400 feet from Ocean Parkway to Stillwell Ave. along the oceanfront. It was pointed out that Mr. Moses was aware of the limitations of his project when he said: ‘The drastic changes which would be required to bring about a real reconstruction of Coney Island on sound planning principles have been found too expensive to carry out. The sums required to wipe out all the frontage on the boardwalk, move it back and supply adequate play and parking spaces and municipal bathhouses is simply beyond the means of the city at this time, and I have not been able to discover any basis on which an authority could be set up for Coney Island to issue bonds on anything approaching a self-liquidating basis.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.