Greenpoint Nurses' Residence: Inside Brooklyn's Abandoned Quarters

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1940s Greenpoint Hospital Campus Tax Photo There is a certain kind of quiet that only abandoned buildings have. Not peaceful, quiet. More like held-breath quiet. The kind that makes you hyper-aware of every footstep, every creak, every shadow shifting at the edge of your vision. I found that quiet on a cloudy afternoon in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, standing outside a chain-link fence and looking up at the old Nurse Quarters of Greenpoint Hospital. I had stumbled onto the building almost by accident. I was deep into researching other vacant structures across the borough when the Nurses' Residence turned up on the blogs. The fact that it sat close to home made the decision easy. One overcast day, I drove slowly down the block on a hunch, scanning the fence line. That is when I spotted it: a gap, barely noticeable unless you were looking for it. No rope. No gear. Just an opening and a window of time between passing cars and foot traffic. I slipped inside. The entrance foyer stopped me cold...
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Hidden Gems #4: The $1.9 Million Shack




Drove by this unsuspecting gem traveling home. Immediately got out and snapped away.

Come to find out this piece of property was built all the way back in 1899 (119 years old). You can't see from the street but there is a house located behind this small building. Surprisingly, with all the huge money pouring into this neighborhood, the current owners have not sold out with the rising New York City real estate prices. This property currently has an estimated land value of $1.9 million. The house on the property is still inhabited according to sources who have looked into the property. I guess the current landowners are just sitting on it for now to maximize the most land value they can get in this increasingly hot real estate market.

Quite a jarring sight in a hip Brooklyn neighborhood.


July 4, 2018

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