BRONX W www.BXTimes.com EEKLY February 2, 2020 4
Historic Kelly Street property receives LPC repair grant
Professional players make NY Slugger Academy a hit
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MEMBER:
BY KYLE VUILLE
The NYC Landmark Preservation
Commission selected
a Bronx residence as
one of its fi ve recipients for
a matching $35,000 grant for
restorations.
The LPC announced on
Thursday, January 16 a Neo-
Renaissance-styled house at
736-34 Kelly Street in Longwood
was selected to receive
renovations through the Historic
Preservation Grant Program.
The grant program assist
low-to-moderate income homeowners
and non-profi t make
much needed repairs to their
properties.
“The LPC Historic Preservation
Grant Program is a
great resource that enables
us to support homeowners
and non-profi t organizations,”
said Landmarks Preservation
Commission chair
Sarah Carroll. “I am thrilled
that this year’s grant recipients,
who represent all fi ve
boroughs, will get the funding
they need to maintain
their landmark buildings
and bring pride of place to
these communities.”
The grants are funded
through the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development’s
Community Development
Block Grant Program.
The property on Kelly
Street falls under the nonprofi
t category because the
Roman brick twin family attached
property is the location
for Homes for the Homeless
. According to the LPC’s
press release, the grant
money will go towards restorative
work to the building’s
façade including repointing,
repairing masonry and replacing
doors.
Homes for the Homeless
has been sheltering families
and providing social services
to those in need in Queens
and the Bronx for over 40
years.
According to Managing
director of Communications
and Marketing of HFH, Linda
Bazerjian, the non-profi t has
occupied the Kelly Street location
since 1986. Bazerjian
said the property was formerly
a hospital.
Warren Dickinson, a
turn-of-the-century architect,
designed the building
when the neighborhood was
predominantly occupied by
European Jews. It is mostly
African American and Latin
today.
According to Bronx historian
Lloyd Ultan, Kelly
Street, in particular, has
housed some notable people
throughout its early years.
A Yiddish writer by the
pen name of Sholem Aleichem
whose work inspired
the musical ‘Fiddler on
the Roof’ is from the area.
His funeral had the most
mourners ever for the entire
city at the time of his
death in 1916, according to
Ultan.
Other notables who
lived on Kelly Street were
Clifford Odets, a popular
playwright in the 1920s
and 30s and former U.S.
National Security Advisor
Colin Powell, who learned
to speak Yiddish from
his Jewish friends in the
neighborhood.
However, the work done
at 736-34 Kelly Street is
more focused on civic work
nowadays.
For Bazerjian, it is not
so much about the historic
structure, but the 88 families
who are housed there
at any given time with approximately
125 children
who benefi t from the after
school programs offered
there.
“We want to make it as
comfortable as we can, especially
for the children,”
Bazerjian said. “We want
them to feel like they’re not
missing out.”
Bazerjian estimated
around 3,000 families have
been housed at the shelter.
To meet growing needs
HFH expanded to other
Kelly Street brownstones
over the years.
Homes for the Homeless employees Gretchen Hernandez, Julissa
Lantigua and Wilfredo Gonzalez stand in front of 736-34 Kelly
Street, “The Prospect” House in the historic Longwood District.
The shelter received a $35,000 grant from the Landmark Preservation
Commission for restorative work.
Photo by Kyle Vuille/Schneps Media
BY JASON COHEN
While MLB’s sign stealing
scandal is dominating
baseball headlines, one
Bronx facility is teaching
kids how to play the game
properly.
New York Sluggers Academy,
located at 728 E. 136th
Street, trains a couple of
hundred youngsters each
week, ranging from youths
to professionals.
The facility opened in
2012 and is operated by
Brett Brown and former
MLB player Eladio Rodriguez.
Since it’s inception,
Brown said he has been
blown away by the impact it
has had on the community.
“There was a need for
a baseball training facility
unlike anything else
that’s currently in the
Bronx,” Brown said. “Our
goal is to get these players
to play at a high level.”
Brown told the Bronx
Times he used to train
kids in a school gym with
batting cages, but knew
he wanted do more.
“I wanted to replicate
something like that,” he
explained. “We felt like
there was a better way
to teach baseball. We felt
that in the travel baseball
community within
Manhattan, the Bronx
and Queens there wasn’t
a place that somebody
could go to really and
train, that was what the
impetus was to open.”
The facility has fi ve
batting cages with weight
bearing posts that are 12
feet apart and a pitching
tunnel.
Coached by former professional
players, the kids
train 1-on-1 or as a team
and learn how to swing,
fi eld, catch and hit.
“It’s defi nitely more
focused and specialized,”
Brown said. “If you come
here you’re serious about
playing.”
Many MLB players
work out there, including
St. Louis Cardinals
centerfi elder Harrison
Bader, who attended the
Horace Mann School.
Brown stressed how
important it is to have
proper mechanics and
not just rely on talent.
“Everybody who comes
here is blown away by
the place and what we do
here,” he commented.
Another key element
of the academy is the
coaches are local. Many
of them work at Bronx
high schools, including
Cardinal Spellman and
Monroe.
In nearly a decade of
running the academy, he
has observed kids grow
on and off the fi eld. More
importantly, seeing them
return when they are
older makes him proud.
“It’s great when a
player comes back or when
I see a player that went to
college or high school,”
Brown remarked.
The training camp recently
had the New York
regional director for USA
Baseball there watching
the kids.
“We’re building relationships,”
he said. I feel
like the area here in the
Bronx and Manhattan is
overlooked.”
One youngster the
academy has impacted is
Josh Zola, 14. Zola, who
lives in the Manhattan,
has been attending the facility
for three years and
plays for the Slugger 14U
team.
He attended a few
places beforehand, but according
to his uncle Tony
Porcello, none have benefi
tted him as much as this
one.
“They’re (the coaches)
the best with kids,” Porcello
said. “They’re strict,
but keep it fun.
“At this age it’s about
learning. They know
what to do, how to teach
and what to teach. We
played with a couple of
other organizations, but
this place has the depth
and the facilities, which
is key.”
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