BY BEN BRACHFELD
A tree falls in Brooklyn!
Monday night’s thunderstorm,
and the 60 mile-perhour
winds it brought with
it, led to a number of downed
trees in Kings County, including
one that slammed
right into the roof of a historic
rowhouse in Bay Ridge
owned by the same family for
decades.
No one was hurt, luckily,
though the roof suffered a
great deal of damage. But it
won’t be too much of a problem
for owner Bill Boshell,
because by trade he is, of all
things, a roofer.
“Thank God I’m in the
roofi ng business,” said
Boshell, who owns Super
Roofer and will be fi xing his
own roof. “The roof is the
least of the trouble. Thank
God nobody was hurt.”
The two-family home on
Bay Ridge Parkway, between
Fifth and Sixth avenues, was
built in 1899, according to city
property records, and has
been in the Boshell family
for about 75 years. The house
is one block east of the Doctors’
COURIER L 48 IFE, MARCH 11-17, 2022
Row Historic District on
Bay Ridge Parkway between
Fourth and Fifth avenues,
but Boshell’s house is actually
about a decade older than
the houses on that stretch.
The tree that fell on the
house, after its trunk snapped
in two during the overnight
tempest, was also quite old,
Boshell said, estimating its
age at about 80 years. He said
it was rotting from the inside,
but that the city inspected it
a year ago and deemed it safe
to continue standing. The
tree — which Boshell said
was also struck by lightening
during the storm — was
actually in front of Boshell’s
neighbor’s house; during the
same inspection last year, the
city decided to cut down a tree
directly in front of Boshell’s
dwelling.
The tree ripped a hole in
the cornice and roof of the
rowhouse and crushed the
iron gate out front, but caused
no interior damage, and the
house’s occupants have not
been displaced. The Parks
Department has removed the
tree from the premises after
what Boshell described as
a Herculean effort, but the
owners will have to cover up
the hole in the roof today before
another rain and snow
storm expected to fall on New
York tomorrow.
It’s the fi rst major disaster
to befall the Boshell building
that the owner can remember,
but no disaster can uproot the
family out of its ancestral
homeland of Bay Ridge.
“We’re over 100 years in
Bay Ridge,” Boshell said.
“Super Roofers here, we got
it covered.”
A closer look at where the tree
snapped before collapsing on the
Boshell property. Bill Boshell
A tree lodged into the roof of the Boshell home on Bay Ridge Parkway on
March 8, 2022. Bill Boshell
A tree falls in Brooklyn
Tree falls on Bay Ridge roofer’s roof during storm
Cusimano & Russo Funeral Home
SERVING THE COMMUNITY OF BROOKLYN FOR OVER 90 YEARS
Committed to Offering
Exceptional Quality and Service
Affordable Costs and Personalized Attention
• Offering No-Contact Virtual Appointments
• Ample Parking
• Specializing in Advance Funeral Planning
• Catered Receptions
2005 West 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11223
718-372-1348
www.cusimanoandrussofuneralhome.com
Michael G. Rizzotto, Manager
This firm is owned by a subsidiary of Service Corp. International, 1929 Allen Pkwy, Houston, TX 77019, 713-522-5141. New York state law mandates that all contracts for
prearranged funeral agreements executed by applicants for or recipients of supplemental social security income or medical assistance be irrevocable.
/www.cusimanoandrussofuneralhome.com
/www.cusimanoandrussofuneralhome.com
