Did you know there was once an actual 87th Precinct in NYC? McBain's books take place in a fictionalised equivalent of Manhattan ("Isola"), but in the real world the 87th Precinct was based on the corner of Humboldt and Herbert in Brooklyn.
The station house is now condos. Originally built in 1891 in the days when stables for horses needed to be incorporated into the design of the precinct houses.
There were proposals to close the precinct for quite some time. News reports from 1954 and 1971 show community protests against the proposed closures. Clearly the precinct was important to the community. An article from the Greenpoint Weekly Star in 1967 reports on the final day of the precinct's "Village Art Exhibition".
Sadly, the '71 protests didn't prevent the precinct from closing, merging - along with the 92nd Precinct - into the 90th Precinct which still operates out of 211 Union Avenue.
No comments:
Post a Comment