Huff & Puff and I spend a lot of time working in Brooklyn. One day last week we were on any inspection and of course as always the architectural detail of the connected homes there were breathtakingly beautiful. Many of the once massive homes had been turned into crackerjack box apartments which I can only imagine what beautiful hidden gems they are, and would kill to have one. I watched as all the hipsters came barreling out of these places in their skinny jeans, oversized beanies, and hand knitted scarves, only to hop on their 1950's bicycles and head off to start their day.
The person who owned of one of the homes, that had not been separated into apartments, told us the houses on that street were built in 1901 and at some point of their exsistence Al Capone, one of the most notorious Mafia leaders of all time, used to own every house on the street. He, his gang members, security guards, and posse lived in them all at one time. There was one part on the street where the connecting homes had a gap inbetween them filled with grass and a locked fence to get to the empty space. He told us that was the entry way for them to park their vehicles behind the connecting homes, and to my knowledge it is unheard of in NY. You park on the street. It is such a pain. He said there used to be a tunnel than ran under all the connected houses on the street. Incase there was ever a raid from the police they could escape out of the tunnel and to their cars that were parked behind the homes on a secret street. I couldn't believe it! I was looking at a piece of history and then I became even more envious of those hipstas wondering if they even had any of idea of this information and how lucky they were to be living there while I'm stuck out on Long Island in a 1970's nik-nak filled house with a redneck. Ugh. I told myself they had no clue about this piece of information, but that I knew about and it and they didnt. It made me feel better. =)
Before we can actually get to some of these beautiful places we have to drive thru basically...the ghetto. We've passed a Chinese resturant called 'Da Real Ting' yes ting, t-i-n-g. One time we passed a drop off bin where you donate toys, clothes and such and the sign on the bin was supposed to read 'Drop Off Toys, Clothes, & Shoes' but someone had removed the 's' from 'shoes' and the bin then read - 'Drop off Toys, Clothes, & Hoes'. I found them both to be hilarious signs, but dare not stop and take a pic of either. Those places in Brooklyn are scary even at 8 o' clock in the morning.
