WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JANUARY 18, 2018 25
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
A forgotten name for a Ridgewood community
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Ask someone about the location
of St. James Park and the answer
could be somewhere in
the Bronx or in London, England.
But we wonder how many of our
readers are aware that the name
once referred to a section in our
neighborhood.
Today, much of what once was
known as St. James Park is commonly
referred to as the Farmers Oval area,
for the park at 65th Place and Catalpa
Avenue that has had a few diff erent
names but is officially known as
Mafera Park.
The St. James Park area was roughly
bounded by Catalpa Avenue on the
south; Madison Street on the north;
Fresh Pond Road on the west; and 68th
Street on the east.
Before it was developed as a residential
section, the property was
farmland known as the Wagner farm
(previously known as the George Lahr
farm and before that, as part of the Edsall
farm) that was subdivided in 1891.
The property immediately east of
65th Place eventually became Farmers
Oval, while additional land was
purchased for use by the New York
Connecting Railroad.
As noted by George Miller, historian
for the Greater Ridgewood Historical
Society, all of the north-south roadways
in the subdivision were named for
Union Army generals in the Civil War.
St. James United Presbyterian
Church was located on Hughes Street
(now 68th Avenue) east of Fresh Pond
Road. Today, the building remains a
house of worship, known as Marantha
Romanian Baptist Church.
During the summer of 1913, the
St. James Park Airdrome (an outdoor
movie operation in a tent) opened at
Grant Street (62nd Street) and Hancock
Street (later Hughes Street and now
68th Avenue). Admission was fi ve cents.
Although St. James Park was east
of Fresh Pond Road, in the early days
When this photo was taken, the street where these men are pictured was located in a section known as St. James Park.
of P.S. 88 — located on the west side
of Fresh Pond Road, then a dirt road,
at Elm Street (now known as Catalpa
Avenue) — it was considered as being
in St. James Park. Jacob H. Rohrbach
was the first principal of P.S. 88,
which opened on Sept. 8, 1908. People
referred to it as “the St. James Park
School.”
The use of “St. James Park” as a name
for that section of the neighborhood
began to fade around 1917.
The iceman cometh
One of the photos that we have
this week, showing two men with
horses, was taken around 1915 in St.
James Park.
On the left is William Keller, holding
the reins of his horse, while on the
right is his father, Jacob Keller. Pictured
in the background is the house
where William Keller resided. Its address
was 881 Sedgwick St. (formerly
Grant Street, now 62nd Street).
The address of the two-story house
later became 68-33 62nd St.
William Keller delivered coal and
ice from Philip Dietz and also from
the Knickerbocker Ice Company. Aft er
obtaining the ice, he would make his
rounds to customers.
Typically, the icemen such as William
Keller would travel on the dirt
side roads, delivering pieces of ice to
houses for use in iceboxes and also to
local saloons.
The Dietz plant was located on the
west side of “Old” Fresh Pond Road
(now Cypress Hills Street) and Van
Cortlandt Avenue (now 71st Avenue)
near the Ridgewood/Glendale border.
Today, it is the site of the Glenridge
Mews condominiums.
Many people who are somewhat
familiar with the name of the former
company’s owner associate it with
coal. Originally, however, Philip Dietz
operated a dairy before he made the
switch to selling coal and wood in 1905.
Six years later, he expanded his business
by installing artifi cial ice-making
machinery with a capacity of 82 long
tons per day.
The ice was produced in 320-lb.
cakes (seven cakes to the long ton). It
was sold to route men for $3 per ton.
The icemen would come with their
horse and open wagon to the ice plant
to pick up the cakes of ice for delivery.
The route men usually had divided
up the areas among themselves so
that there was little competition. They
cut the 320-lb. cakes of ice into eight
10-cent pieces of 40 lbs. each and made
a profi t of $2.60 per ton. They earned
every penny, as it was hard work.
During the hot summer months, as
Ridgewood Times archives
the iceman made his rounds, the horse
pulled his open wagon with the cakes
of ice covered with a heavy canvas to
prevent melting. When he arrived at
the home of one of his customers, the
iceman would remove the covering.
Using an ice pick, he would proceed
to chop the cake of ice to obtain the size
piece as wanted by the customer.
The iceman then used his ice tongs
and a burlap cloth to haul the piece
of ice from his wagon to the house. In
some homes, he entered the basement
and went to the dumbwaiter, where a
metal dishpan was placed to await the
ice. When the iceman placed it in the
pan, his customer would then haul up
the ice and put it in the icebox.
During the summer months, a
housewife would usually order a piece
of ice every other day, and twice per
week during the winter months.
When General Electric introduced
an electric refrigerator in the early
1930s, however, it signaled the beginning
of the end for the “ice age.” Even
so, many people continued to think
in terms of an icebox, referring to a
refrigerator as one.
Reprinted from the June 25, 2009,
issue of the Ridgewood Times.
* * *
If you have memories to share with us,
send an email to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.
com (subject: Our Neighborhood:
The Way it Was) or write to The Old
Timer, ℅ Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. Any mailed
pictures will be carefully returned to you
upon request.
(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
This photo shows an iceman delivering ice in Louisiana in 1938, with a
method similar to that used by icemen in Ridgewood.