In the three years that we have been publishing the Frankford Gazette I have been all over the neighborhood. I found places I had never seen and looked again at places that I had never really stopped to look at before. We ran a series on the home of the week and we took 100 pictures of what we thought were some of the best homes in Frankford/Northwood. It was fun to find them and enlightening at the same time.
Some of those pictures had to be cropped very carefully because it was not all that unusual to find one beautiful house among the ruins of a block. It was great training in the powers of observation. I learned that we will often not look beyond our perception. If I am driving down the street and most of the houses or poorly kept, my brain will not let my eyes see the beauty that might be hidden in plain sight.
The video below is not one of those situations. During my hunt for the house of the week, I could easily have used almost every house on this block. For some of us, this is what Frankford looked like when we grew up. In fact, I really don’t think it looked this good. It’s about two and a half minutes and is silent. There will be more about this area in future posts.
If anybody recognizes it, feel free to post a comment.
Not sure which block this is but it looks like the East side of Frankford Ave. There is one or two blocks on Duffield St. near Wakeling where you can see what a block in Frankford could look like when neighbors get together and decide to take pride in their neighborhood. The pavements are clean, lawns and shurbs are kept trimmed and the people maintain the upkeep on the outside of their homes. During the Christman season the block is a show place of lights and decorations. Unfortunately there are too few blocks like that left in Frankford. It doesn’t take much money to keep your neighborhood clean and well kept, it takes physical effort and pride in your community.
Based on the style of homes, I would also say that it is in the vicinity of Duffield, Wakeling, Haworth, Dyre, and Darrah sts. This was my childhood haunt in the late 60s. The conditions look very much the same. I walked through this area every school day heading to Smedley.
Warren
Hey i know this block!!! the video starts off on Wakeling st and Darah st as soon as you cross the L. It has some very pretty homes. Just goes to show you that a little group effort can lead to beautiful outcome.