I was biking to south Brooklyn last weekend and decided to take a random path through Crown Heights, a neighborhood I haven’t really explored much of. On my way, I noticed a back alley on Brooklyn Ave between Union & President and hopped off my bike to take a look.
Filmmakers constantly come to Manhattan expecting to find it riddled with dank, seedy (ahemclichedahem) alleys, unaware of how unlikely this is when one considers what a single square foot of space on the island goes for these days. There are really only four or five decent alleys, and I’m always on the lookout for interesting alternatives in the boroughs.
What surprised me about the entrance to this back alley, however, was that there was no street sign. Unpaved, with piles of bricks to fill in the deeper holes, the alley felt as if time had forgotten it. It was also eerily quiet for what I’m used to in Brooklyn.
I noticed this stone in the alley, which was once probably positioned on Brooklyn Ave.
Several gardens abutted the road, and I was surprised at how much green there was overall – trees, bushes, vines, and plants seemed to be flourishing, another unusual find in Brooklyn.
Neat old car in decent condition parked off the street:
When I got to the end, I still couldn’t find a street sign. Something was wrong. Not only does EVERYTHING in New York City have a name, places often have several names – streets are overlapped with “ways,” which are in turn overlapped with plazas and squares…
The idea that something would remain nameless in New York City seemed unlikely, and I was going to chalk it up to a stolen sign…That is, until I noticed another unnamed back-alley across the street:
This one was paved and less green, but still interesting nonetheless (a local told me he had paid to have it repaved recently). I really liked these old wooden barn doors with big iron hinges on the back of a garage (I stupidly cut the awesome iron work above the door out of my photo):
This back entrance to an apartment had a really neat design in silver and black:
Yet again, I got to the other side, and still no street name.
As I continued on, I noticed more and more nameless alleys:
This one was greener, and seemed to only be a footpath:
This alley dead-ended a shortways up into the side of an apartment building:
Later, when I got home, I realized that I had only seen a fraction of Crown Heights unnamed streets – they’re everywhere! Alleys, dead-ends, back-ways, multi-block streets…
Some even take very unusual paths:
I’m totally fascinated by the streets – each seems quiet and forgotten, and distinctly unlike what I’m used to finding in Brooklyn. Does anyone know more about their history? I’m curious if the back-alley system originated with Brooklyn’s map-gridding, or if it dates back to an earlier time. A guy in his backyard told me they are private ways, which explains why none of them show up on Google Maps’ Street View. I’m looking forward to heading back in the future to take a more thorough tour.
Finally, if no one else is calling ‘em, I proclaim the one on Brooklyn Ave btw. Union & President be known as “Scout’s Way”! (Or, if we’re feeling particularly obscure, “Scout’s Snickelway“).
-SCOUT
They indeed seem to have no name.
Check the NYC.gov official maps, where they are called just “Alley”
http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/
(Sorry, no way to link to an address inside that map)
I think these mysterious beasts are technically referred to in some circles as “utility alleys.” If they are similar to other cities, they may not legally be public streets but rather easements on the abutting properties, providing access for trash pickup, moving, etc.
I have seen them in some cities where they are fenced off to prevent public access, further accentuating their non-street-ness.
If you think of them as access conveniences for the properties which they serve, then it makes sense they would not be named, similar to how a driveway up to a rural estate is not named.
Very nice. We have some similar alleyed neighborhoods in San Francisco. But ours are named.
I assume you checked the other sides of the stone block with “Brooklyn Avenue” on it?
By the way, since we’re talking San Francisco and Brooklyn: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jef/2932872768/
Very interesting that you find these alleyways so fascinating.
As someone who grew up in this neighborhood, I am used to thinking that they are shared alleyways for the residents of the block. They are used as utility access roads but they are privately maintained.
The city doesn’t treat them as public property as far as I know. My alleyway was repaved twice in the last 35 years collectively by the residents of both streets using the alley.
Other than issuing tickets for sanitation violations the city has no other interest in them.
I believe Daniel is correct. These same utility alleys occur between the street grid in Beverly Hills. The garbage trucks and other “service” oriented vehicles are relegated to these secondary alleys so they don’t detract from the perfectly manicured yards and grandeur of the mansions when viewed from the public street.
Last month I visited a friend who lives in north Chicago, where nearly every two streets have an unnamed alley between them, where residents have garages and garbage cans and the like. She remarked that she was surprised NYC didn’t have such things, as they’re very convenient and provide lots of out-of-traffic parking, and I made the same argument you just did about Manhattan–that giving up that much real estate and not making money off it is just impractical on a little island. But here they are in Brooklyn! Who knew!
What a great post, Scout. Thanks especially for those two photos of the doors (barn and silvery leaves)–those are stunning.
Being from Chicago, I found this a little odd, too. I knew that New York didn’t really have alleys like we do, but I had no idea they were such a novelty. They are pretty much standard all over Chicago and rarely (if ever) have names. They are used mainly for trash and garages.
An interesting read, though. I love stuff like this.
They have these same alleys in parts of Queens. In those areas every house is on a main street and there is an alley in the back where the garbage trucks drive though.
There are similar alleys in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, but they’re all numbered, for example, Public Alley 422.
Please tell us that you played music by The Crown Heights Affair while exploring!
Yep, I agree with most other posters here who grew up in the Midwest. Like Chicago, Milwaukee blocks are riddled with these alleys. Their purpose is to allow for garages, without the obnoxious wastes of space that are driveways, and it allows buildings to be build more closely together.
Proper alleys, in every city I’ve been, are not named; unless there’s an address on the alley (thus making it a street), what’s the point? Even in the Polish neighborhoods of Milwaukee, where it was common to build a second house in the backyard, those house addresses were on the street, not the alley behind.
[...] Bono was talking about Crown Heights when he sang “Where the Streets Have No Name.” [Scouting New [...]
Simple. Aliens.
Welcome to your new hipster enclave.
I live in Chicago and I have learned a few things taking some architecture tours here. The alleys here are there by design. The city planners saw how congested and unsanitary the streets of New York were and when the great fire burned this city to the ground they took that opportunity to put in alleys in between most streets here. They are very useful and actually raise the value of the properties that adjoin them since they provide additional points of access and in most cases an entrance point to a garage that doesn’t take up street parking space with a driveway. Well done Chicago city planners.
If you want some cool/creepy back alleys, come down south to richmond, va!
“mysterious beasts”?
What’s the big deal here? These are alleys! Were you all raised out in corn fields? They don’t have names… because they’re alleys.
And Molly is right, the entire city of Richmond VA is built upon alleys that look like this.
Next post preview: ole timey “plaster walls”
I live in Pittsburgh and we have these alleys everywhere. As children, we often played in them because cars rarely used them. In fact, there’s one alley that’s a block-long slope. It was never shoveled, so we used to ride our sleds down it on snowy days.
Great site, by the way. Always interesting!
When exploring Crown Heights recently, I was surprised that there were not named, too. Very un-New York.
I have to agree with Charley– what’s so surprising about alleys? I’ve been down most of these Crown Heights alleys, they just give access to the garages that are behind most of those big houses, and to garbage bins; most are pretty sketchy. There’s another alley near Cooper Park in east Williamsburg, near the intersection of Sharon St and Olive St (right around the corner from the “Eternal Sunshine” house), and like Azi said, lots more in Queens. Great website!
These alleys are old Cow Paths that date from the 19th century and when the area south of Empire Boulevard was called “Pigtown”. Until the end of the 19th century the northern section of Crown Heights was known as Crow Hill a derogatory reference to the small African American community which made it’s home there. The “Pigtown” area was dominated by farmers largely of Irish and Scandinavian ancestry who made their homes and livings in the Glue Factories and Pig Pens nearby hence the name. During the early 20th century the neighborhood surrounding Eastern Parkway became very chic and was dubbed Crown Heights as a reference to being the crown jewel of Kings County. The pigtown area became heavily Italian and Polish and fell into obscurity for much of it’s history hemmed in between chic Crown Heights and Kings County hospital center. Unfortunately in recent years many of the landmarks and structures have vanished in the name of progress but the layout remains.
Alleys are still very common in many Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Many other Alleys behind the row houses in upper Crown Heights are products of the 1920s construction boom when a row house with a place to park an Automobile off the street and well hidden was considered fashionable and quite exclusive for an urban section.
[...] New York finds some streets with no names in Crown [...]
As yet another Chicagoan, I agree with the others.
Chicago is known as the alley capital of the country.
Supposedly there are more alleys here than in the rest of the 10 largest cities combined.
But the real purpose of the alleys was to get the stinking horses away from people’s houses & then later to keep those dangerous automobiles away, as many were steam powered & blew up!
So Chicago city lots are long & relatively narrow. My house is on a 30′ x 180′ lot.
Nearly every single street in my city has an unnamed utility alley behind it…it never occurred to me that in other places, they might be streets. Reading this was strange; I couldn’t understand why you were so intent on finding names for these alleys, haha. Oh well. Fantastic read…I’ve been on your site all day and haven’t gotten any work done
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A number of streets in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst also have these back alleys, or “common drives”. Both my aunt’s and my grandfather’s houses had them. On some blocks, they bisect the block, and are shared by properties on either of the bordering sidestreets. On others, they only belong to one side of the block, and often have garages opposite the backyards. Since they tend to be private property, adjunct to other property, there’s rarely any need to name them, since they won’t ever be used for address or mapping purposes.
We used to love using my grandfather’s alley for nighttime games of Manhunt.
This is my neighborhood…all of these alleys are meant for trash removal/garage access.
Not always safe at night.