Our Building on Layton Street

I just came up from the mailbox. The small metal boxes line a wall in an alcove next to the stairway. Each tenant holds the key to their box. We also have a key fob for the two front doors and to unlock the elevator so it will go to the basement where the trash and the laundry room are. Another key unlocks our apartment door. You’d be amazed at the the number of locks on our door. When our guests want to leave, they stand puzzled by the door until either Laurence or myself unlock it. The funniest thing is when they try to leave via the front closet door. They open it to see coats, folding chairs, and table boards; and quickly close it again. This happens quite frequently.

We are safe here, and I did not lock the door while I ran down the three flights to the mailbox. As I walked through the hallway back to our apartment in the corner, I felt grateful again that the management had the hall walls painted a nice golden yellow (after years of ugly orange). The hall doors and the elevator door are brown. We pass seven apartment doors before coming to ours if we use the stairs. The elevator is in the middle of these doors. So eight apartments to a floor and there are six floors.

This building was built in 1938. The same year as is the map of Bible Lands that hangs on our foyer wall. (The map came into our possession while dumpster diving with friends in Philadelphia. I’ll spare them from telling you who they were.)

The subway came through in 1934. Before then it was farmland. Clement Moore who penned “The Night Before Christmas,” would sometimes stay with his grandparents at the farmhouse that was razed when the subway came through.

I didn’t want to write about this building – to tell you how we have a new red canvas awning that stretches from the entry to the front sidewalk. It’s caused some of the neighbors to raise an awful fuss at the absurdity of it. We even had a letter from the management telling the tenants to take their problems to them and not to complain to the co-op board. I messaged our friend on the board and told him we think he’s doing a great job. He messaged back, “You are great neighbors, and I am very happy to share our home with you.”

Home. This building on this quiet street in this big city is home. We’ve lived here since October 17, 1997. We rented our apartment for two years and then bought its shares in 1999. (Thanks to the encouragement of the late Jay Bullock and a loan from the late deacon Allen Issac.)

Thanks to the many of you who have graced our home with your presence. God bless! Berniece

P.s. What I really wanted to write about was the beautiful scene along the Hudson River by the lighthouse at Tarrytown last evening.

P.s.s. Comments keep me writing.