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A Snapshot In Time And Space

Max Hubacher, January 28, 1943, “The Long Island R.R. station in Brooklyn during a snow storm”:

That’s the old Atlantic Terminal of the LIRR on the right. It was frankly nothing much to look at, although the same could be said of its successor, buried under a shopping mall. The tall building behind it is the Williamsburg Bank tower, probably by 1943 already on its way to be full of dentists’ offices. I’ve eaten in Nedick’s – not recently, as I believe the chain went under long ago – and I’d say you can almost always do better, although maybe not if you’re running to catch a train. I am intrigued by the Gateway Milk Bar.

We’re looking up Flatbush Avenue, running lower right to upper left, with Atlantic Avenue branching off in the left foreground. The jungle of suspended trolley wires gives a sense of local transportation.

So far, the only things I’ve mentioned that haven’t changed are the street layout, location of the LIRR terminal, and the Bank tower. But of course, there’s a constant in New York winters: gray slush in the streets after significant snowfall. It may be 80 years ago, but the streets look just like the ones I walked through today.

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