The house just south of the church as it appeared in 1940

In 1919 the Albemarle Mandolin Club once met in the home of Marion Daily of 44 East 5th Street.

In 1918 Corporal Joseph Parker, grandson of George Mason of 44 East 4th Street, was home during a leave from the Marine Corps.

I spoke to the current owner of this house. He was a great source of local history as he and his parents have lived in the neighborhood for many years

I learned that papers found in this house date it as being built as far back as 1860

A current view of this house.

The house how it looked in 1940

Joseph Mulligan lived at this address in 1914. Three of his local pals were arrested and fined for shooting craps. Artie's memory about shooting craps:"For some reason or another the number of crap (dice) games were growing in our section of Windsor Terrace. The police were out in force and determined to stop it. The first police raid happened outside Ulmers Bar on East 2nd street. What happened that night you won’t believe. I came there from a wedding with my friends Butch Connolly, Charlie Regan, Ted Healy, Tommy Gunn, Johnny Burke and Erlitz. We stayed in Ulmers till closing. As we walked out we saw that a children’s street game was scribbled on the sidewalk. All of the sudden us old geezers started playing the kids game of Potsy (hopscotch). \*Thank you JUDY CASEY for verifying the name of the game for me. Apparently some people thought it was a crap game and were annoyed at being disturbed at 4 AM and called the cops. A short time later two police cars with flashing lights arrived. They got out of their cars and asked ” who is holding the crap game money?” They also asked us our names. Poor Tommy Gunn got a slap from the cop because they thought he was being a wise guy with his name. When we explained we were playing the kids game Potsy everyone was laughing, including the cops. Meanwhile, a few days later, not far from Ulmers, the police were again called but this time they did actually break up a dice game. They asked who was holding the dice and Botch Martin admitted it was him and laughed. The cop said ”keep laughing and you’ll be behind bars” and Botch replied ” I’m already behind bars, I’m a bartender”. He was given a ticket with a fine and if you don’t believe me here is the evidence pictured and FYI Botch I paid the interest of 23 cents so you didn’t end up leaving us with a poor record. "

Artie Halbran's first home was at 78 East 4th Street. He was actually born here. He lived there with his maternal grandparents John and Alice Wamsley. from his book:"I loved sitting on my grandfather’s lap, at a very young age, and him reading books to me and telling stories of his childhood. I always felt so safe and comfortable and would fall asleep in his arms. I loved when the family got together at parties and he would play the piano and we would all laugh and sing with him .He would always read me the Sunday comics and one of them was an old cartoon called Barney Google. I would tease him and call him Barney and he would laugh and laugh and hug me each time. Until the day he died that nickname stayed with him and everyone called him Barney. Most people never knew his real name was John Wamsley."

.The Greenwood Avenue view of 78 East 4th Street. It was one of Artie's "Four Corners" A recollection about Zoot Suits "Flashbacks-I was standing on the corner of East 4th street and Greenwood Ave, an area that we kids called the Four Corners when a friend Mike Vitucci came by and told me he had just come from buying a Zoot. I asked what the hell is a Zoot? He said all the girls think they are a cute kind of suit. I can’t explain it but the neighborhoods are fighting over suits that have oversized knees that are tight at the ankle and a suit jacket that reached down to the shins but last but not least the government restricted their design because of a waste of needed material during wartime."

A meat market occupies 403 Greenwood in 1940. One of Artie's "4 Corners"

A grocery store occupied 326 Greenwood Avenue in 1940. It's Still a grocery store. This corner was one of Artie Halbran's "4 Corners"

402 Greenwood Avenue was the location for many years of the Terrace Bar and Grill. A recollection about something that occurred once in front of the bar: "I will never forget the Sundays in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood. The daytime activities involved stickball, baseball, football or basketball. Later in the afternoon, the crowd would then get together and play cards or “craps”. This weekend routine was very common throughout Brooklyn in that era. I was in one of those card games on the elevated sidewalk in front of the old Terrace Cafe on Greenwood Avenue. Diagonally across the corner (East 4th st) there was a “crap” game going on. It was in this card game that the story of LK3202 began in 1947. During our card game, a local retired police officer, Jim Cammeron, approached us and asked if anyone wanted to buy a 1932 Plymouth for $80.00. We knew that there wasn’t that much money in the whole card game, but we told him we wished we could afford it. I guess he felt sorry for us and lowered the price to $50.00. It so happens that I was winning about $15.00 and my friend Jim Bowen about the same. We jointly agreed to buy the car after he lowered the price, once again, to $40.00."

The Murphy family lived for many years at 54 East 4th Street

That's the "pony man" who was named Dominick Murphy. He gave pony rides to neighborhood kids. Here his cart is in front of 54 East 4th Street

Artie getting his picture taken on one of Mr. Murphy's ponies.

The home that Artie owned at 309 Greenwood Avenue as it appeared in 1940

The Schnaars family, long time Windsor Terrace residents of the neighborhood, owned several houses. They were of German ancestry. One of the Schnaars' had a grocery at this address. The Hassenkamp family (also of German ancestry) owned this property at one time too. Both the Schnaars and Hassenkamps had family members who served in both World Wars.

Oscar Seltzer, a childhood friend of Artie, once lived at 410 Greenwood. His father ran a neighborhood grocery store.

Oscar Seltzer received a posthumous medal for his heroism in the Korean War.Oscar was both a friend of Artie's as well as to another PS 130 graduate and later a famous author named Herman Raucher. In the movie "Summer of 42" he is known as Ossy.

The Hill family had a long history in Windsor Terrace. (Cambridge is quite an old-fashioned name :)For many years they lived at 70 East 4th Street.

District 61 is an old numeration for this area of Windsor Terrace most likely used for the draft of World War 1. From my estimation it seemed like a very disproportionate share of men were called upon and many lost their lives due both to wounds as well as the ravages of the 1918 flu. One young person in the picture lost a mother who served as a nurse.

Faaland's was a local drug store with a rich history in Artie's Windsor Terrace. Mr. Faaland was of Norwegian ancestry and had sons that served iin both world wars. Artie once wrote of getting a special "prescription" for his grandmother Patricia Mulhearn who lived at 2921 Fort Hamilton Parkway:"One of my favorite flashbacks involves my great grandmother named Patience Mulhern. She was a beautiful immigrant from Ireland and was in her late nineties when she passed away. She would sit in her favorite rocking chair at her favorite window and stare at the neighborhood activities. She would laugh and sing some Irish songs and sit me on her lap and tell me stories. Then generally about the same time each day she would call out for her medication. Whomever heard her would bring it in. She would then hold her thumb and index finger together and raise them in the air and say “ I only want a THIMBLE full”. I found out years later that meant a shot of IRISH whiskey. The family insisted she never asked for more, but I don’t know about that. But I do know that rocking chair sure picked up speed, after taking the medication! I imagine I would have worn a helmet or seatbelt, if they existed. OK Granny I finally gotcha. Believe it or not, that was the kind of dialogue that I had with my grandparents in both good and not so good times. They were always laughing and teasing me and I loved it. I always told my Granny that I was going to school shortly and that I’ll look up at the window to be sure to wave to me. I often think of our great memories together. I love you"

Artie attended this church. A memory about it and his old Plymouth with license LK3202: "One memorable incident with LK3202 and the other four old wrecks occurred in 1949. We all attended a wedding or our friends, Rita and Ed Fox, at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Windsor Terrace. This was on the same block as our card game previously mentioned. After the ceremony ended, the Fox’s went into their wedding car as everyone applauded. At that very moment, we pulled all five wrecks on the sidewalk in front of the Church. Whatever provoked it, many of the churchgoers climbed on the hoods, roofs, and sides of all five cars and we rode around the entire block on the sidewalk. We had horns honking and people cheering from the windows and stoops around the entire block and past the Terrace Cafe as noted above. It was fascinating but not unusual, to see how the neighbors joined together in happy, as well as sad, situations."

A view of the park before eminent domain removed homes just north of this view on the eastern side of east 5th Street and narrowed the width of the park. Artie wrote: "As you are aware there was a lot of strange activity going on behind the scenes that was having a negative affect on our shop owners and homeowners dreams-It was the result of a ruling called Eminent Domain. If the city decides to build a road on your property that benefits the community but you refuse to sell, chances are the city can force you to take the offer or go to hell. This explains economic losses that occurred in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. It has been estimated that a third of this parish was displaced which included stores, businesses and homeowners too. As I sat on my porch and said to myself I can’t believe this was done, they might as well have used a Gun and believe me that was not a Pun to see families and friends on the Run. I still get tears in my eyes when I think of days gone by and the fun things and dumb things we did each day just to keep sanity from going astray

from Artie:"A little bit more Windsor Terrace History. Many years ago on Fort Hamilton Parkway and East 2nd Street there was a building called Williams Brothers Restaurant Bar. An interesting fact is that there were a few hotel rooms located above. Some famous people have been rumored to have stayed there. This enabled them to cut their trip in half on the way to their performances. One of these celebrities was Jimmy Durante. He took a horse and carriage to Coney Island. This form of transportation was similar to our car service today but the communication was obviously difficult. After the building was torn down, it was made into a parking lot for 140 East 2nd street and has now been replaced with condos. By the way my Grandfather Barney Wamsley drove the horse and carriage. "