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 #2: The Graffiti Dog House



Beware of the dog!

This small two story family house sits quietly between two other structures as cars whiz by. The heavy and colorful graffiti and rotting wood standing out. This local monstrosity caught my eye on the way to another local gem. In the corner of my eye, I saw her bright colored paint and knew I had to pull over and give her the once over. Someone actually lives here based on the padlocked chain around the door. Who would live in such substandard conditions? A roof is a roof in the quicksand of gentrifying neighborhoods and sky-high rents.

This house goes way back past 2007 as being boarded up. It wasn't until 2013 it received its base color of yellow and blue before receiving its graffiti marks sometime around September 2013 and September 2014. The house on the left was also vacant before being renovated.

Still continuing this series and feeling out where its headed in the future. So far I like the juxtapose of the old standing house mixed in with occupied and well-maintained housing. It truly stands out in these times of hyperinflated housing prices and obscene rents. 

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