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joseph ditta

A collection of 9 issues

Lundy’s Building: A Real Fixer Upper?

Ragged blue tarp hanging from the Lundy’s building. (Photo: Ed Cheney)The historic Lundy’s Building [/?s=lundy%27s], located along the waterfront at 1901 Emmons Avenue, is in many ways the face of Sheepshead Bay. First constructed in the 1930s to house the legendary Lundy’s Restaurant, the

Tonight: NY1 Interviews Gravesend Historian Joseph Ditta For 5-Part Brooklyn Series

Courtesy of Joseph Ditta/Gravesend Gazette [https://www.facebook.com/GravesendGazette/photos/pb.102353071530.-2207520000.1445873156./10153999548986531/?type=3&theater] NY1 News recently launched a history series [http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/brooklyn-week-2015/2015/10/25/what-s-in-a-name--native-americans-and-dutch-settlers-gave-brooklyn-landmarks-their-names.html] that zooms in on a different borough each week, and

A Grisly Bicentennial: Man Kills Toddler, Self In What May Have Been Gravesend’s First Murder-Suicide

Two hundred years ago this week, the now historic village of Gravesend was rocked by a violent and tragic outburst that may have been the town’s first murder-suicide. The bicentennial was first noted by historian and friend of the site Joseph Ditta, who posted on his blog of Gravesend

Historic Gravesend House, Once Home To Infamous Judge, Hits Market For $1.2 Million

The turret-equipped home at 2064 West 6th Street has hit the market with a slightly above market-value price tag of $1.2 million [http://www.trulia.com/property/3135456889-2064-W-6th-St-Brooklyn-NY-11223#photo-9] . It’s a stucco-covered affair, with three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, being sold as a “one of a kind property.

Saphier’s “Neck Road Farm House”: Which Farmhouse Is It?

“Neck Road Farm House, Brooklyn, N.Y., painted by Louis Saphier, July 1942″ (Collection of Joseph Ditta)At a glance, it may seem as though this is a painting of a small country house in a rural area. Perhaps in upstate New York, or maybe somewhere in the mid-west. But

Earlier Maurice Sendak Illustration Surfaces In Boody Junior High School Yearbook

Source: Joseph Ditta of the Gravesend GazetteLongtime reader, author and guest contributor of all things historical in Southern Brooklyn Joseph Ditta [http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2009/08/gravesent-brooklyn-joseph-ditta-intervie/] managed to find a Maurice Sendak illustration published even earlier than the one we ran [/maurice-sendak-first-published-illustration/]last week. The newly unearthed work

Sheepshead Bay’s Historic Footbridge To Change, As DOT Alters Material Without Telling Community

Strolling over the Ocean Avenue footbridge’s wooden planks has been the quintessential Sheepshead Bay experience for 131 years, but a Department of Transportation initiative will soon see the familiar timber ripped out in favor of new materials – a decision they’ve made without community input. For at least a

Photos: Gravesend Cemetery Tour

Gravesend historian Joseph Ditta led a morbid mass of miscreants amongst the decayed and dismembered tombstones of the Gravesend Cemetery last Sunday. It. Was. Awesome. I wish I had more to report, but this was an event I went to enjoy, not to work. I took no notes and even

"Hell House" Once Home Of Famed Cartoonist

After seeing our posts about 1811 Voorhies Avenue, now known to some as the “Hell House” for its graffiti and nefarious residents [/welcome-to-hell-voorhies-home-gets-a-makeover/], local historian Joseph Ditta [/gravesent-brooklyn-joseph-ditta-intervie/] sent us the above photo of the same house published 101 years ago. According to Ditta, the photo came from a very