Crown Heights' 73-99 Empire Boulevard Erased for Luxury Housing

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Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Services/1940s.nyc From Mack Trucks to Apartments: A Century on Empire Boulevard For most of the twentieth century, the block at 73-99 Empire Boulevard in Crown Heights handled the heavy work of the city. Trucks came in for service. Tires were swapped out. Parts were stocked and sold. The buildings on this stretch of Brooklyn were built for vehicles, and for about sixty years, that's exactly what they served. The site directly neighbors the much taller Ebbets Field Apartment complex, which is the housing that replaced the ballpark. By 2025, both were rubble. By September 2026, the foundation of a 13-story apartment building was going in. A hundred years of industrial and automotive history on a single block, cleared in a matter of months. The main building at 73-99 Empire Boulevard went up in 1925 and opened as a Mack Truck auto service facility. At 29,000 square feet, it was built for the scale of commercial vehicle work: bay doors, floor drains, th...
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Abandoned Newark Ironbound Stadium (Urbex)

 






Explored a very sketchy part of town to explore this once sports-centered athletic stadium. Various locals and teenagers seem to inhabit the place as a chill spot even though this property's soil is contaminated due to its previous use as an industrial site by Celanese that once stood here. It is one of the reasons that it fell to the wayside once contaminates were found in 1986 on a portion of the site during excavation for a community center next door. I didn't take any photos here due to the association of gangs and criminal activity in the overgrown back lot. One of the sketchiest places that I have ever explored. It even beat out a textile mill I visited the same day where locals and amateur explorers seemed to waltz around on the banks of the river next to the mill. In that place, the paths were enclosed on all sides with various weeds, grasses, and trees. Straight inner city jungle.





Update:




Nov 2019, the Ironbound Stadium is now the Eddie Moraes Stadium home to an all-encompassing athletic field for soccer, baseball, and football, an ice rink, and an indoor pool.

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