THE WEEK OF JULY 17, 2003
When The Heat Became Unbearable,
It Was Time To Sleep On Tar Beach
 We have a letter which we have somewhat condensed, from Fred Castles of Lindenhurst, Long Island, a former resident of our neighborhood, who writes: “My name is Fred Castles. The year is 1929 and the Great Depression is starting. I was four years old when my parents moved our family to a cold water flat on the fourth floor at 61-48 Madison Street in Ridgewood. Besides my mom and dad, our family consisted of Lillian, Carrie, Jim, Adele, Alice, myself and Lawrence. In the years that followed, there would be additions of Harold, John and Patrick. All of us were brought into this world with the aid of a midwife.
“The houses on our block were brick, four-story, eigh
A postcard view of Ridgewood’s Madison Street, looking east from Fresh Pond Road, as it looked around 1915. The four-story brick buildings pictured were erected by the Ring-Gibson Company in 1913-1914.
t-family row houses. During the Depression there were many ‘To-Let’ signs posted on the stoops of these houses. During the wintertime, every morning my dad would remove the ashes from the big coal stove in the kitchen and take them down to our ash barrel in the basement. He would then bring up a bucket of coal from our bin in the basement. He would fill up the coal stove in the kitchen and make a fire. Later that morning he would wake up all the children of school age and rush us out into the warmth of the kitchen stove. At times during the winter it was so cold in the rest of the flat that ice would form on the insides of the windows.
“During the summer with the heat, it was unbearable at night. People on our block used to try and sleep on the fire escape or up on the roof which the kids used to call ‘tar beach’.
“When the weather was mild, during the evenings families used to sit on their stoops chatting or listening to the radio, sometimes singing songs. After Prohibition ended in 1933, the men used to take turns going to the Depot Bar & Grill on Fresh Pond Road with their beer can to get it filled for 25 cents. This was known as ‘rushing the growler’.
“During the week every morning the men in the neighborhood would go to the Fresh Pond Road El Station and go to work.
“During the 1930s, there were over 100 children on that block of all different nationalities. During summer vacation from school, I would get up early in the morning, look out the front window onto Madison Street. The horse-drawn wagons were already on their way down the street. The peddlers were selling flowers, brooms, vegetables and even ice cream [in the morning]. There was a horse-drawn merry-go-round that came to our block. As the morning progressed, the bakery wagons would arrive taking their fresh pastries up and down the stairs of the buildings hoping for a sale. Tony, the iceman, would deliver 5¢ and 10¢ pieces of ice for the tenants’ ice boxes. He brought all of the ice into the basement and it was then hoisted up to the various floors by the dumbwaiter.
“During the summer in the daytime the street was noisy with the children playing various games of box ball, stoop ball, punch ball, stick ball and racquet ball. The girls would jump rope, play potsy or a good game of jacks. The Borden and Sheffield milkmen had already delivered their bottles of milk early in the morning.
“Some of my friends were Billy Moeller, Buck Johnson, Wazzy Clark, Billy Wegener, Billy Snowden
A group of nine three-story buildings, built by the Ring-Gibson Company on the west side of Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood. As shown in this 1912 photo, each building had a store on the ground level plus one apartment on each of the second and third floors. One such group of nine buildings was built between 67th Avenue and 68th Avenue, while another was erected between 68th Avenue and 68th Road. Can anyone tell which group is pictured in this photo?
, Ray Haughney, Joe Tocci, Vin O’Brien, Art Ivanscheck, Vin Kehoe, Bob Katz, Ken McDonald, Eddie Ford, Bill Bunger and Joe Siriani. When we were young, we had a baseball team but only had one glove and this was used by the catcher. We also played football but didn’t have any helmets or equipment to protect ourselves. We limped back home after every game with cuts and bruises and sometimes a broken finger. We played roller hockey games on the street using Union Hardware brand skates.
“We attended P.S. 93 or Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Catholic School. Later on we all ended up at Grover Cleveland High School.
“Basketball games were played on the other side of Fresh Pond Road on Madison Street in Benninger Park. Baseball and football games were played on the other side of Traffic Street across numerous railroad tracks onto a rock- and glass-infested field near Admiral Avenue. We would play ball until the sun went down, never taking time out to go home to eat. Often there would be a major stick ball game on Madison Street, usually after supper. The best players on the block would go up against a good visiting team from the neighborhood. Large crowds would fill both sides of the street and all the residents would sit by their windows to enjoy the game. There were no cars on the block as none of the families could afford one.
“At night we would buy the early morning edition of the Daily News for 2¢. It was pink in color. We would go to the sports section and check the box scores to see how our favorite baseball players had done. We all had our idols and mine was a great center fielder on the Brooklyn Dodgers, Pete Reiser. One year he was voted the most valuable player in the National League. He was a very intense player and often ran into the concrete walls chasing fly balls. This hurt his playing career and he had to retire. All the sports writers said he surely would have made the Hall of Fame. I played a lot of baseball and softball. Center field was my position and I always tried to emulate Pete Reiser.
“Back in those days families had very little. There were always hand-me-downs and a few toys for Christmas and perhaps a trip to Coney Island and Steeplechase Park. If you weren’t playing ball on the street, you would be flipping for baseball cards or playing poker for them.
“The Oasis Theatre on Fresh Pond Road was always the place to go on a Saturday afternoon. You would go in around noon and get out by 5 p.m. There would be two feature films, one of which was always a cowboy movie and the other a detective or musical. There would also be a serial chapter and several cartoons, coming attractions and the Hearst Metrotone News. Sometimes they would give away prizes. All this for 10¢ which was a lot of money to kids at the time.
“Growing up on this block was a good experience and gave us the backbone to face obstacles in our future. We had a great love for our parents. Our hard-working dad delivered packages with his horse and wagon all over the city and worked until late in the evening. Our mom washed our clothes on a scrubbing board late into the night, cooked for a large family and in turn looked for nothing from us but our love.
“In the mid-to-late 1930s, the German-American Bund made its appearance in Ridgewood and its members attended a rally at Madison Square Garden. They wore brown shirts. The America First committee also made an appearance at Fresh Pond Road and Madison Street. The United States at the time was neutral. Germany had conquered most of Continental Europe. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan—Germany and Italy shortly thereafter. We were very patriotic on Madison Street. In the Memorial Day Parade of 1942, we marched down Fresh Pond Road to Myrtle Avenue and then to the Ridgewood War Memorial at Myrtle, Cypress and Putnam avenues in Ridgewood. Today some people think this three-day holiday was created to shop at the malls and teenagers can’t wait to go swimming as the beaches open.
“All of my friends from Madison Street and I joined the various branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. One of my friends, Joe Siriani (mentioned earlier) a paratrooper,
The Oasis Theatre, located at 579 Fresh Pond Road (on the northeast corner of Grove Street and Fresh Pond Road), as it looked on opening day on September 16, 1927. The neighborhood event took place as the movie industry was about to enter the age of talking pictures. Three weeks after the Oasis opened its doors, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, was released. It was the first talking motion picture utilizing the sound-on-film process.
was killed in action on D-Day at Normandy. Tommy Montalbano died in the Battle of the Bulge. Eddie Fogarty, a U.S. sailor assigned to a Landing Craft Infantry, also died on D-Day at Normandy at Omaha Beach, when his ship was hit with German gun fire. Eddie Burke, a U.S. Marine, was blinded by a Japanese shell when landing on a beach in the South Pacific. My brother, Jim, an infantryman with the U.S. Army 8th Division, was wounded crossing the Rhine River in Germany and shortly thereafter was killed in action on April 15, 1945 in Germany.
“Some of my other friends from Ridgewood, Glendale and Maspeth who spent part of their youth on Madison Street, were: Jim Cahill, Jack Barrett, Bob and Joe Galvin, the Halvey Brothers, Ray Dietz, Bob Hartmann, Hank Henderson, Frank and Robbie Miller, Ray Isemann, Rosemary Fogarty, Eileen Canovan, Anne Spellman, Mary Kelly, Mary Raedy, Bill Gonyon, Jeanne McEntee, Murial Isemann, Mary Zukermann, Joan Pine, Margie Miller and Marie Parker. I thank all of them for letting me be part of their lives.
“Fifty-four years ago I was fortunate to marry Lucy Loud, a young and beautiful lady from our neighborhood. We have three sons (Jim, Kevin and Brian) and a beautiful daughter, Peggy. Jim and Peggy live in California. Kevin lives in Patchogue, Long Island and Brian in Holbrook, Long Island. My wife Lucy and I have been living in Lindenhurst for the past 47 years. We have six grandchildren.”
Old Timer’s note–We offer Fred Castles our condolences on the death of his brother, Jim, during World War II. The passing of a loved one is always difficult for the immediate family and particularly during war time.
Pete Reiser, Fred’s baseball idol, didn’t quite make it as the most valuable player. In 1941, he batted .343 and won the National League batting championship and was a big factor in the Brooklyn Dodgers winning the pennant that season. When the sports writers voted for the most valuable player in the National League that season, Dolph Camilli, the first baseman on the Dodgers, got 300 votes and was declared the most valuable player. Pete Reiser got 183 votes and was in second place. Whitlow Wyatt, the ace Dodger pitcher, got 151 votes and was in 3rd place.
The residential building boom which took place in Ridgewood/ Glendale in the early 1900’s was spurred by the extension of the Myrtle Avenue Elevated Railroad from Wyckoff Avenue to Metropolitan Avenue in 1906. This ground level extension was known as the Lutheran Cemetery Extension as the terminal on Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village was adjacent to the main entrance to the cemetery. With a 5¢ fare from Metropolitan Avenue to the Park Row Terminal in Manhattan, it stimulated the building of multi-family brick row houses. One of the best known of the builders, was Gustave Mathews who specialized in constructing three-story, six-family, brick row houses which he sold for $11,000 with $2,000 cash down. At this price, a buyer could occupy one of the flats and rent the other five flats at $15 to $16 per month, and with the rents have enough income to pay the interest on the mortgage, the taxes and the upkeep on the house. However, to be able to sell at $11,000, Gustave Mathews eliminated the central heating plant which meant the occupants lived in “cold water” flats, with the only heat being the coal stove in the kitchen and a kerosene heater in the living room. With the low rents, tenants were waiting to move in. When the houses were ready, buyers were there with their $2,000 cash down payment. Initially Mathews built these houses on 25’x100” lots with two flats per story. By 1911 he had changed to 27.5’x100 lots and with the extra width, redesigned the flats with a window in every room. Both the original Mathews House and the improved version were 65’ long.
As desirable land adjacent to rapid-transit transportation became scarce in Ridgewood at prices that he could afford to pay, Gustave Mathews moved his building operations to Astoria.
The house that Fred Castles lived in was on the south side of Madison Street. In the rear of these houses was the Fresh Pond Depot storage yard. The houses were four-story, eight-family brick row houses built by Ring-Gibson Company. This company was organized in 1909 by Walter F. Ring and William R. Gibson. Their initial venture was to purchase 23 building lots, 20’ wide and 98’ to 118’ in length on the west side of Fresh Pond Road from Putnam Avenue on south to what is today 68th Road. On these lots they built three-story brick row buildings, with stores on the ground floor and a single apartment on each of the second and third floors. They installed a central heating plant and were flexible in either selling the buildings for from $24,000 to $26,000 or to rent the steam heated apartments with janitorial service from $22 to $26 per month. Frederick Lemmermann was appointed their rental agent.
In October 1912, Ring-Gibson Company purchased from Chauncey Marshall 142 building lots on the west side of Fresh Pond Road north of Putnam Avenue.
In March 1913, Ring-Gibson Company purchased 141 building lots from the Inter-County Realty Company on the east side of Fresh Pond Road, with the bulk of the lots being on Madison Street and Woodbine Street, but apparently several of the lots were on the east side of Fresh Pond Road between Catalpa Avenue and what is 68th Avenue today. On the the lots adjacent to Catalpa Avenue they built three, four-story, eight-family brick row houses apparently with central heating plants, and offered the apartments at $22 to $26 per month through Frederick Lemmermann (Ridgewood Apartments). In 1913-1914 they built four-story, eight-family brick row houses on both sides of Madison Street and then on both sides of Woodbine Street. Apparently these homes were without central heating plants. They were built on 36’x100’ lots. With the wider width, these flats had larger and more airier rooms than the Mathews Flats. However, the 4th floor of the Ring-Gibson houses meant one more story for the tenants to climb compared to the Mathews Flats. Ring Gibson sold the houses for $17,500 and on a square footage of building, was competitive to the Mathews Flats at $11,000.
The German Bund was organized in America in the early 1930s as “The Friends of New Germany.” The name was subsequently changed to “The German American Bund.” Ridgewood, Glendale and Astoria were focal points as were Camp Siegfried at Yaphank, Long Island and Camp Nordland in New Jersey. In addition, there was the “Deutsche Krieger Bund,” which was made up of German war veterans. This organization was founded in America in 1936.
In early April 1934, a Bund rally was held at Ridgewood Grove at Palmetto Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Ridgewood.
When the U.S. declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy in December 1941, the U.S. Secret Service arrested members of the German American Bund for attempting to persuade people to evade the military draft.
Early in the morning of Tuesday, June 16, 1942 Karl Jacob Geiger, 59, of 164 Wyckoff Avenue, Ridgewood, was arrested for marching along Wyckoff Avenue near Myrtle Avenue in his German American Bund uniform. He had joined the Bund in 1937. He had promised a friend that whoever died first, the other would march through the streets in Ridgewood in his bund uniform and he was just keeping this promise. Upon investigating, the police found that he had a son, Carl, 19, who was also a Bund member and had gone to Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, Long Island and Camp Nordland in New Jersey.
By July 8, 1942, 72 members of the Bund had been arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents for attempting to get people to evade the military draft. Several of the Bund leaders had fled to Mexico. One was arrested there and returned to the U.S. for trial in Hartford, Connecticut. Among those arrested were four gauleiter (regional leaders): Bruno Knupfer, age 45, a coal dealer, living at 65-15 Fresh Pond Road, Ridgewood. He was born in Germany and came to the U.S. in 1923. He became a U.S. naturalized citizen in 1930. In 1940 he was appointed gauleiter for Brooklyn. Hugh Weiss, 31, born in Germany in 1911, came to U.S. in 1929. He became a U.S. naturalized citizen in 1934 and joined the bund in the same year. He was appointed gauleiter for Astoria and Ridgewood. Reportedly he had 250 members in his Astoria unit. No number was cited for Ridgewood. John August Grill, he was born in the U.S. in 1905. He lived at 2045 Gates Avenue, Ridgewood. He joined the bund in 1937 and in 1939 was appointed gauleiter for Glendale with 45 members. Grill decided to plead guilty and turn “states evidence” Otto Fenske lived in Woodhaven and was gauleiter for Manhattan.