YZNAGA PLACE and JAY PLACE Historic Info:

check out http://www.forgotten-ny.com/Alleys/otherbronx/yznaga.html

August 1776

After the Battle of Long Island in the summer of 1776, the British army moved into Queens and by the beginning of September, occupied all the major communities. Major General Robertson wrote his official report of the battle to the British parliament while encamped in Elmhurst, and sent troops to Hell Gate to watch the Americans entrenched near present day Gracie Mansion. In the following weeks both sides exchanged long artillery duels across the East River. The British moved their command to the head of Newtown creek near the location of St Saviour’s church. On October 12, 1776, General von Heister and his German Hessian troops, who were mercenary troops paid by the British, marched from Newtown Village (Grand Avenue and Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst) first to Jamaica, then along Kissena Boulevard to Flushing, pursuing the Americans who had retreated to Westchester, he crossed the East River on 53 flatboats to the Baxter Creek Inlet (now the future Golf Course at Ferry Point Park) and landed at Throgg’s Neck. The Hessian troops marched down "E. Tremont Ave" with plans to cross over the Bronx and head off the retreating Americans as they tried to reach Westchester to get reinforcements. The "minutemen" American Farmers in the area of Throggs Neck and Westchester Square, destroyed the wood footbridge that crossed Westchester Creek (where Lehman HS is now). They held back and picked off the Hessians until they gave up their attempt to cross the Bronx. This gave the American Troops time to reach Safety and gain reinforcement. The war was over in Queens and the occupation began. It would last seven long years.

Growing up before the Development of the area........

Where the US Post Office is was a vacant piece of land where the grass grew to your waist. We called this mountain "the fields" (Amber waves of grain). There was an interesting household dump that we had adventurous times in. There were costumes, feathers and scenery dumped one year that kept us in Halloween Ghost story telling production material for at least 6 years after that.There was and old well from a previous farm that brought a sense of the past to the children as they chased gardner snakes in and out of the well. There was a huge Red Leafed Elm that stretched its branches 50 feet above you as you traveled up the gravel road which is now Brush Ave. along side the US Post Office site. For entertainment our mom would take us up the road in carriages to watch the cranes constructing the Sanitation Building on Zerega from across the creek.

Catherine would point out the old Farm that belonged to the Marcos along the way and tell us stories about farm life. There were still some strawberrys growing from the past. There were no buildings on the west side of Brush yet. This area was eventually filled with dredge material from Westchester Creek. This was called the mud flats because it would crack into flaky pieces when the dry weather came. On an adventure one day along the waterfront Richard and John and Chucka dug up a large round stone with a square hole in the middle. They were so young that they thought they had found ancient chinese money, or maybe the first wheel. They put a stick through the center and carried their treasure home. Instead of a chinese coin, they ended up learning about they old grinding mills that used stone wheels to crush the corn.

Westchester Creek has gone through different stages of polution over the years. Most of the time it has maintained what is called a thriving Benthic Community. This means that there is a plant life that filters the water and creates a healthy place for constant growth of microorganisms that feed the tiny fish and then the fish feed the larger fish, crabs, eels, birds etc. Westchester Creek was once a nice place to swim, boat, fish, crab, etc. The neighborhood children basically grew up on the rocks and jettis of this creek.This area had little traffic, and the waterfront was not developed. There were woods and spirea, fiddler, blueclaw, horseshoe crabs and fragmites along the entire shoreline.

At Wenner Place, the street turned to a small dirt road that led to the water. This was across from 748 Brush Ave. where Joanne, Cathy, Lauren, Bobby & Arthur Wicks lived along with Uncle Joe, Charlotte and Mr. Wicks. This trail was how we ran barefoot, or flip flopped down to the waterfront at hightide every day of the summer. Along the way we would smell the honeysuckle, pick a handful of juicy blackberries and a few pears from sickle pear tree.

A day kind of went like this:

Hey! Watch out for the poison Ivy on the left side of the trail. Who's down first, oh theres Mr. Holzman catching some sun...Old man Pop has the crab nets ready and the pot of water boiling on the fire pit. Watch out for Cathy and Joanne their splashing everyone. Let little Leenie go first, I'll watch her Bobby, while you bring Karen and Michael Corton in with you. Oh Nyuff Nyuff do you have to shake your smelly wet fur all over me?? OK lets untie the raft and push it out from the grass to do some jumping in. Dad, Richard, John, Chucka Leenie...all on? and Nyuff too?

Nyuff watch out for Leenie...watch out! Hey Leenie fell in...hey Leenie fell in...oh forget it, I'll get her...splash...Leenie you ok?...cough! cough! I'm OK...allright lets get you dried off. Hey it's Joey D'Angelo... are you swimming or stayin out? Oh I'm stayin out, my mom says it's to late it the day to start swimming. Ok well I'm coming in to dry Leenie off so we can stay out together.

The area that is now the future Pepsi Lot along side the Hutch. was the only place in our neighborhood that had manicured lawns. This we called the green grass. "I'll meet you up the green grass after lunch". "Get enough kids together and we will play ball or tag". The trees were the bases and the buttercups grew along the highway. The big flat stone was used for private deep conversations, it was a special place where you could discuss problems with friends. The big tree was where you raced your latest enemy to to see who was the best...and the woods were off limits because they were dense and not checked out by parents on a regular basis.One year we made a family of snowmen facing the Highway waving, they were really good. The mom snow woman was cradling a snow baby. If you went past the big tree one of you had to wait there because you couldn't hear Catherines whistle if you went further and you would get a smack in the head for being late for dinner. The other side of this lot was wild...a swampy area that had fresh water stream under ground that fed into Westchester Creek. When they put in the new double lined sewer they raised Brush Ave. over 4 feet. This created dam for the bulk of the water and in winter the swamp froze over to create a pretty nice ice skating pond for the neighborhood. Because our feet were growing every year, Catherine got a big box and collected all the skates that didn't fit anymore and we just kept rotating them as we grew into them...Some times the only pair that fit a boy was white figure skates so they got shoe polished black and that was that......

The Unionport Bridge was the closest connection to a candy store in our area. The Little Candy Store was between Castle Hill Ave. and Brush Ave. along the service road of Bruckner Blvd. it is now a graffittied mess. Wax lips and red hot dollars were my favorite.Candy cigarettes and disgusting edible lipstick were next on the list. There was something interesting about the texture of the edible lipstick that had me coming back for more. It was a strange un describable texture when your teeth cut through it. One day Chucka was walking over the Unionport when someone pointed out the part where it joins at closing. This metal tooth like space had about 3/4 of a inch gap between the teeth. Chucka froze in her tracks. She was concentrating on the water under the Bridge. It seemed so far down. She did not see the cement walkway or the metal teeth of the bridge. Chucka only saw the water and how far down she would fall if she even moved one bit. So she stood there frozen in place with a dreary look on her face. Richard came back and comforted her with an nice voice. He told her that if she held onto him he would not let her fall. She held his hand and took a big wide jump over the 3/4 inch space to safety.

At the turn of Yznaga Place there was a really nice naturally formed private beach. This was the only really sandy beach in the area. We actually would swim across the Creek at it's widest point here. Because of the tow from the Tides you could only accomplish this as a teenager. It was a right of passage you could say. There was a big old barge that was stuck or placed at the edge of the turn in the creek to show commercial boats where the Channel was not. If a boat went on the wrong side of the barge it would get stuck in the mud.We used to swim to this barge but it was extrememly dangerous...the metal was all rusted and sharp and the wood could collapse as you walked on it. Once you got onto the strong part it was really nice...a big flat wooden deck that was bleached clean from the sun. Michelle, Dominic& Stephen Fiore lived on Yznaga. What a lot of fun we had....chicken fights with Carmine Pantenella, and Mrs. Fiore doing Lucille Ball type skits for us with coco nuts and grass skirts. I enjoyed decorating their Christmas tree each year.

Not often, but when we were crazy with boredom, there were times when we would actually have mud fights. This mud was disgusting. It smelled and stained any bathing suit you wore. I remember when I finally got a strapless white bathingsuit(at the age of 12) I thought "this is it" "I am the greatest, the most beautiful girl in the world, there has and will never be anyone to compare to me in this beautiful suit" as I strutted to the water I was hit with black smelly mud from Richard, John, another boy that were playing. WELL I NEVER!!! That suit never came clean, and ended up in the garbage along with my inflated ego. The best mud area was just after the "Jetti" but before "The Beach". The Jetti was a long pile of rocks that were great to run on barefoot (if you could). Chucka was the fastest on the Jetti..barefoot only, shoes would not conform to the shape of the rocks and you could kill yourself. You did not want to swim near the Jetti, there were old cars rotting under the water. These cars were rusted and dangerous. They were spooky when the tide was high, and ugly when it was low.

Where Ciminellos vacant lot is there is the grass Jetti . This was the third in the row of jettis. This is where we would find soft shell crabs. They were freaky so we just left them alone. This is the jetti where they found John Holtzmans body. He was naked and had a gun shot to his head??? or was he hit in the head by a propeller? or was there and explosion at the gas station and he ran down to the water in excrutiating pain to put out the fire? know one knew....

We had a large area where ProFoods is now. This was our main meeting place. Catherine Poggi was available for any emergencies and helped advise and direct the building of a 3 room 2 story Hut with a balcony, ladders and rope pulleys that would lift us up with a couple of pulls. We had rope swings, a truck tire swing that could be pushed by one kid in the tree while the other sat in it. The children built a dance floor out of an old refrigerator truck. with christmas lighting, we had Ghost stories on Halloween and of course Mr. Daly would come down as the Mummy and scare us to death...we loved it!!!

Randall Ave. where the HO Penn side parking lot is now is what we called "the wall". It was where the storm sewer enters Westchester Creek. There is a wall of concrete that sits above the pipe. This is the area of the Creek where Artie Marco drowned. Something happened to the boat he was on. It sunk, while it was sinking, Artie did not swim and supposedly panicked. Artie Campbell was also in the water. Marco had a leather jacket on that was heavy and slippery when wet. He tried to climb up on Campbell and they were both drowning. Campbell probably could not help Marco who was frantic without drowning himself, so Marco drowned. Catherine made sure we were taught not to panic in the water or you could die. We were taught how to let your body relax and float if you had to. The younger Marcos were not allowed in the water, you can understand why.