Topic: My visit to Bath Beach/Bensonhurst - With Pics (3 stooges "historic" sites)

[Shemp]

Hey guys,

I was doing work in Long Island and had a free day on the way back to Newark Airport.  It suddenly hit me that I could go to Bath Beach (now Bensonhurst), where the Horwitz family grew up.  What a blast!  Thanks to Gary for helping me out on Moe/Shemp's birthplace.  Here are the places I went to, and the pics I took:

1)  The address where Shemp (confirmed by birth certificate) and probably Moe were born.  It's now an apartment complex, but I'm showing it to you anyways! 



I imagined that Sol would be spending all his days in the local synagogue, so I went to the various synagogues near the address above but could not find one that was old enough.  I really wanted to envision where it was that he was endlessly spending his time. Had I done my homework in advance, I probably could have found the name out, gone there, and taken pics of that as well. 

2)  Moe built 4 homes in the 1925 - 1928 time frame, as you all know.  He bought the land for $12K and I think he spent $40k on construction, and you know what happened next.  2 of these homes were demolished in 2003 and an apartment building was put on top.  Two still remain.  Here are pics of those 2 homes.  One of them (the 2nd pic) has a garage on the side that I am pretty sure was not built by Moe.  It looks like an add on and the construction materials don't match. 





3) Here is the grammar school that Moe and Shemp went to - PS 163.  Note that what is now called PS 163 is around the corner, and I went there first.  Seeing it was far too new, I went inside, and thankfully a lady behind the desk knew the story.  This was a new school that is now called PS 163.  What was PS 163 in 1908, which is when Shemp probably graduated (and in 1911, which is when Moe probably graduated), both educated guesses on my part, is now called PS 748.  This where Moe's deportment was atrocious and Shemp didn't graduate, his mother did! 



For the record, here is what is currently noted as being PS 163 in Bensonhurst and it is NOT the same as the PS 163 that Moe and Shemp went to:



4) This is where Moe went to high school for 2 months, then dropped out.  I surmise that Shemp dropped out at the same time (would have been his 2nd year I think), but I don't know that for sure.  Others on this board know better than me.  By the way, this high school was in the most ghetto place I have ever been in my life.  I did not dare get out of the car and I took my watch off and hid it before rolling down the window to take a picture! 

[metaldams]

Thanks for the tour man!  You really did your research and it’s cool seeing where it all began.  Without you saying it, I would have guessed the high school on the bottom was a church.  Really a great post.

I made it to Larry’s birthplace a few years back, but never to The Howard’s.

[Paul Pain]

Thanks for sharing this account!  This is a real trip in the imagination-machine for me.

[Shemp]

Thanks for sharing this account!  This is a real trip in the imagination-machine for me.

I'm glad you liked it!  I can't believe I didn't go up the stairs of PS 163 and immerse myself in the experience.  I was so caught up in taking pictures from all angles and imagining Moe and Shemp walking the streets to school that I forgot to live the experience myself a little.

My other regret is that I couldn't go to Chatham Farms.  It was a couple of hours away and I would have missed my flight.  I will definitely do that someday. 

One thing that was cool was that near the area where Moe built the homes, the other homes were really old in the neighborhood.  Same with the homes near PS 163.  It made me think that the neighborhood may have looked not much that different than when the boys roamed the area.  I should also note that there were areas near PS 163 that had very nice (but similarly old homes), semi-Victorian style.  Since PS 163 was a public school, they must have lived near it.  Its possible that Jennie had already started making good money and was able to afford that area. 

I ate at a hole in the wall restaurant (like 200 sqr feet dining space) near where Shemp/Moe were born.  It was a half mile walk and I took in the entire historic looking neighborhood  Those buildings too looked like they were probably there 100 years ago.  Heck, maybe there was a little restaurant in that same hole in the wall that the boys ate at! 

Only bummer was I got a parking ticket.  It was like a scene out of one of the boy's shorts.  The curb was unpainted and the only sign there said "No Standing".  I figured I wasn't standing, I was parking, and so I did - happy to get such a great spot, with no meter to boot!  I returned back from the restaurant to find a ticket for parking in a no-standing zone.  I still don't know what that means.  But for duty and humanity, I will pay the fee. 

[Shemp]

Hey guys, I just realized I made a mistake!  I had said that the attached garage on one of the homes that Moe built (below) is not something that Moe built, and that it was built later.  I was comparing the facade of the 2 buildings and easily concluded that the garage facade was not from the same time frame.  However, if you look at the side of both buildings, they are identical.  That can only mean that Moe built that garage.  The facades, both of them I suspect, were added at later but differing dates. 

But that leads to something much more interesting, to me anyways.  I am sure I read someplace that Moe was running that last ditch side business of his (buying closeout merchandise - what turned out to be useless small lefty gloves, disintegrating umbrellas, "floozies", etc) out of a small building next to one of his homes, am I wrong?  If I'm correct on that, then this is very likely that building where he was trying to sell this useless merchandise, while Helen laughed away.   What do you guys think? 

[stoogestats]

Today on Facebook someone posted a photo of a building at 39 Henry St. in Manhattan
 They said this was the birthplace of Shemp.
 Is this correct? A Google search shows the building wasn't built until 1900 so I'm a little bit confused.

[GreenCanaries]

Today on Facebook someone posted a photo of a building at 39 Henry St. in Manhattan
 They said this was the birthplace of Shemp.
 Is this correct? A Google search shows the building wasn't built until 1900 so I'm a little bit confused.

I think that was confirmed by Shemp's birth certificate (found the original post announcing its find from ten years ago, but the image is broken).