WPIX Discovers The Mystery Of 58 Joralemon Street In Brooklyn Heights

By on March 2, 2014 8:13 am in History

WPIX Joe Mauceri discovers the MTV subway vent/brownstone at 58 Joralemon Street in a report filed this week. Brooklyn Heights residents/BHB readers are totally up to speed on this nabe “mystery” and this report does a nice job of explaining it all. Heck it’s almost like WPIX did this story, say, four years ago!

WPIX: But the true story of 58 Joralemon is found in the history books at the Brooklyn Historical Society. Elizabeth Call, head of reference and user services, searched the archives to help bring the building to life.

While it was once a home, no one has lived there for more than 100 years. In 1913 58 Joralemon was sold to Interborough Rapid Transit and turned into a ventilation system and exit for the Lexington Line that still travels several stories underground.

“It was very deliberate on the part of the IRT to keep the facade because at the time of purchase 58 Joralemon was considered [to be in a] a classy neighborhood,” said Call. “It’s an interesting … because in the 1950s you start seeing that perhaps [the neighborhood] is not as classy or is seen as classy as it once was.”

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  • Jorale-man

    Interesting to see the backyard and the old newspaper clippings from when it was converted. Also, strange how the MTA won’t even talk about it citing “security concerns.” What do they think is going to happen exactly? Everyone knows it’s a subway entrance by now.

  • David on Middagh

    If anyone is screening the stories via the comment feed, turn down your speakers /take off your headphones if you must click this one. The embedded WPIX vid autoplays. (It also autoadvances to the next, unrelated news story, a trend that is just as reprehensible.)

  • Jorale-man

    I noticed that too. Really annoying.

    The point I didn’t get in this story is where the neighbor woman at the start said it was “really dilapidated” 20 years ago when she moved in. But we never hear why it’s not any longer. Presumably the MTA fixed it up at some point along the way but I’d be eager to know more.

  • Andrew Porter

    After 9/11, the MTA decided that the location of and access to this air vent should be stricken from the public’s knowledge, but alas for them, the message was long ago common knowledge. Their paranoia included trying to force people to take schematics for subway tunnels down from various websites, too, another ship that sailed long ago, to mix metaphors.