Coney Island photographer Eric Kowalsky, who documented the demolition of the Bank of Coney Island in November, has eloquently captured the destruction-in-progress of the historic Henderson Music Hall in this series of images.
Eric put his camera through the gate on Henderson Walk to take the above photo of the crushed remains of part of the Henderson Building formerly occupied by Faber’s Fascination. “They took the front and side of the building down. The Bowery is still standing,” he said this morning.
Last week we posted historian Charles Denson’s video tribute to the Henderson Theater. As we previously noted, the City aided and abetted Joey “Bulldozer” Sitt by rezoning the Henderson parcel for a high rise hotel. There are however no immediate plans to build a hotel on the site. The City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission denied landmark designation and also declined to create a historic district, which would have created tax incentives to rehab the building.
The Henderson Building is the first sight you see on Surf Avenue when you step out of Stillwell Terminal. It is at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues. We should probably use the past tense, though the demolition is still underway. The first sight you see when you step out of Stillwell will soon be another empty lot to add to Joe Sitt’s collection of empty lots.
Related posts on ATZ…
September 29, 2010: Saved or Not? Signs from Coney Island’s Henderson Building
September 24, 2010: Coney Island Cat Is Last Tenant of Henderson Building
September 12, 2010: Video: Coney Island’s Faber’s Fascination by Charles Denson
April 29, 2010: Photo of the Day: Interior of Coney Island’s Doomed Henderson Music Hall
Somehow it’s always Breeze demolition company that’s destroying all the old historic buildings in this city.
Those same excavators (they are excavators and not bulldozers, by the way) tore down some Civil War buildings at the Atlantic Yards.
Owner Toby Romano seems to have it in for cool old buildings. He likes to reduce them to rubble. I’ve spoken to him, and he has no regret at destroying old important buildings. To him, it’s just a firetrap.
Thanks for the info. we stand corrected on excavator vs. bulldozer. The demolition of the Bank of Coney, Shore Hotel and now the Henderson has been our first experience covering demolitions. The vocab is completely new to us!
Joey “Bulldozer” Sitt is catchier than Joey “Excavator” Sitt though, dontcha think?
Don’t call them bulldozers. If you don’t think “excavator” is catchy enough, try “wrecking machine.”
Both of the pieces of equipment that Breeze is using to wreck the Henderson building are hydraulic excavators, not bulldozer. A hydraulic excavator is also referred to as a “track hoe” by those in the business.
The yellow CAT has a bucket attached. Usually they use a demolition thumb with the bucket, but this one doesn’t seem to have one.
The red excavator has a grapple attachment. The grapple is a very violent wrecking tool that is used to grab pieces of the old building and pull them apart.
Very sad to see a cool old building destroyed this way.
I have fought to save a lot of old buildings, but usually the wrecking machines win out in the end.
I have talked to some of the operators at Breeze, but they don’t seem to care at all about the history they are destroying. They won’t even stop to save a cool fireplace mantel or some great decorations from the outside of brownstones. I guess that is why they are the wrecking crew.
Great coverage of the demo. Let’s hope there is not too much more demo. So sad.
So be it. Joey “Wrecking Machine” Sitt
I’m also hoping this is the last of the demolitions. It is an awful sight to see and to write about
You are very knowledgeable on the subject. Thanks for your comments
A killing machine…
“The red excavator has a grapple attachment. The grapple is a very violent wrecking tool that is used to grab pieces of the old building and pull them apart.”
Just awful
Have you seen it in action?
It is so violent.
The guys who run it seem to get a kick out of destroying the old building. And they get even more violent when they know how upset we are that they are wrecking Henderson.
What you’re saying makes me think a documentary film or book about demo men would be a very interesting study.
However, from this blog’s POV, the only person to blame for all of this–the evictions, the demolitions, the decimation, the empty lots–is the property owner and decision-maker –Joe Sitt of Thor Equities. Of course, the City also shares some of the blame for capitulating to Sitt in the rezoning.
An interview with the demo men doing the work at Coney Island would be interesting.
I agree with you completely, Tricia, that the culprit is Joe Sitt—not Breeze demolition.
Truth is, Breeze would not be there if it were not for Joey “Wrecking Machine” Sitt. And even if Breeze had a different (i.e., more preservation minded) attitude, there would be another demolition company ready to come in and destroy the buildings. I was just shocked at how little they cared about what they were wrecking.
A. Russo Wrecking also has a particularly bad track record on this front too. They were the ones who started wrecking St. Bridgid’s Church in St. Mark’s Square a couple of years ago.
Those guys punched a hole in the church wall and started pushing the pews and other church relics out through the hole with a bobcat Then they came along with a big track loader and crushed the whole pile, despite the fact that there were bystanders trying to get some of the relics from the church.
When it became clear that there was going to be a court injunction to stop the demo, the wreckers took sledge hammers and smashed out the stained glass windows, laughing about it so that the protesters could see their glee in destruction of a landmark.
The demolition company’s logo is:
Progress Begins with Breeze.
Interesting! Perhaps the name was inspired by the laundry detergent?
This hurts.
It hurt to pass by the Henderson on New Year’s day after the Polar Bear Swim and see it shrouded in black demolition netting, the top story hacked off.
[…] lamented Astroland, but at the same time much of the Surf Avenue commercial district has fallen to developer Joe Sitt's bulldozers, while the much-anticipated construction of condos and mixed-use retail buildings on Coney's vacant […]