Before It's Gone: Kensington Stables

When I moved to this neighborhood (Windsor Terrace/Kensington, Brooklyn), a pleasant surprise was discovering this working stables nearby, just a few blocks from Prospect Park. It's neat seeing the horses clip-clopping through the Brooklyn streets on the way to Prospect Park. The wife and I even took a ride once. I rode on a big old horse named Tinkerbell.

Unfortunately, the stables are not long for this world. The Blankenship Family, who has owned the stables since the 1930s, had racked up a ton of back taxes and filed for bankruptcy last year. There had been a deal to turn the property over to the city parks department, which would maintain a stables on the site and presumably hire the Blakenships to operate it, but that deal has fallen apart and the property is going up for sale.

The adjacent property is up for development, probably for another expensive apartment builidng. Local officials have said that they would keep the property zoned to include a stable, but I'm skeptical that any real estate developer is going to build a big condo that includes a horse stable. There's a big apartment complex across the street, where apartments rent from $3000 to $5000+ a month. I always wondered about the people who pay $5000 for an apartment that overlooks a street that is always covered in horse shit. (That guy sitting on the bucket on the side of the building; one of his jobs is to walk the streets from the stables to the park once or twice a day, shoveling horse manure into a wheelbarrow.) It's the last horse stable serving Prospect Park. Maybe it will have (another) last-minute reprieve, but I doubt it.

Some history about the stables here.

Betty

Recent life drawings. I believe I've drawn this model in the past.

Some people who have never done life drawing think all the models are sexy young things. But in reality, the ages and body types of models span a wide range. In fact, they're rarely young and nubile, in my experience. And often the non-young and nubile ones are the best models.

Lorraine

Recent life drawing, at Minerva's Studio.

Louis Valentino Jr. Pump House

This is part of a pump house, located in Bush Terminal Park in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. It's across from this pier and near this abandoned caboose.

My Google-Fu is pretty good, so usually I can draw things and figure out what they are later. Not this time. I know this is the Louis Valentino Jr. Pump House, and is a FDNY facility. But I don't know exactly what it's pumping. I think maybe it's connected to the fire hydrant system, or maybe the sprinkler system of the nearby warehouses? I know from previous sketching that the thing to the left of the large pipe is called a test header. But I don't know what the overall function of the building is.

Louis Valentino Jr. was a firefighter who died in the line of duty in 1996. There are a lot of things in Brooklyn named after him, but Google doesn't turn up any reference to this building. It's a mystery to me.

Jacqueline

I've been able to get back to life drawing sessions the past few weeks. It feels like going back to the gym after a long absence. At least, I imagine that's what it feels like. I've never gone to the gym.

This is Jacqueline. She was very good. I've drawn her at least once before.

LaFarge Brooklyn

The LaFarge Cement plant in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. As it happens, this was the second time I've drawn a LaFarge facility. Last year, I drew this one, located in New Jersey, seen from the shore of Staten Island.

Bush Terminal Caboose

An abandoned caboose at Bush Terminal Park. Bush Terminal was once part of the Industry City complex in Sunset Park, and was a major transfer point for freight, with ships unloading at the Bay Ridge Channel onto rail cars. There is now a park hidden away behind the industrial waterfront. Who knows how long this caboose has stood there? And is it actually still in use somehow? There are wires running from a nearby antenna to it. Maybe it's a secret NSA site or something.