Actor Mickey Rooney (left) and gangster Al Capone (right) both spent time on Leonard Street. Photos via Wikimedia.
From Hollywood stars to brutal gangsters, the unassuming Greenpoint street has hosted a multitude of colorful characters.
GEOFFREY COBB | gcobb91839@Aol.com
Author, “Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past
A friend, John Dereszewski, who lived for many years on Leonard Street, recently posted some memories of his days on the street on Facebook, so I thought I would expand on them and write a piece about this quiet local thoroughfare. The street was once the Eastern end of the Meserole farm, but as the neighborhood grew, the Meserole family sold off the area. It was surveyed and a street was created running through the former farm. The street, named after Superintendent of School Buildings Samuel Leonard – who oversaw the building of nearby P.S. #34 – opened in 1852 and ran from Broadway in Williamsburg to the now long-gone Bushwick Creek. In 1865, it was extended to Greenpoint Avenue.
The street was once home to one of the most feared mobsters, Sonny Franseze who grew up on the corner of Leonard Street and Jackson Street. Reputedly legendary gangster Al Capone carved his name into a social club there owned by the Franzese family. Sonny, allegedly a longtime underboss in the Colombo crime family, was reputedly inducted into the mafia as a teenager. Sentenced to 50 years in prison for allegedly orchestrating a number of bank robberies across the country in 1967, he was paroled in 1978; however, Franzese was re-jailed at least six times on parole violations in the decades that followed. He is alleged to have killed between 30 and 60 people during his career as a Mafia enforcer. In 2017 at the age of 100, he became the oldest federal inmate in the United States and the only centenarian in federal custody. He was released and lived three more years until his death at age 103 in 2020.
The block between Driggs and Nassau contains two noteworthy buildings on its west side. A former Protestant church became for many years the Greenpoint Knights of Columbus meeting hall. The Knights became famous for marching in their full regalia during Greenpoint’s frequent parades and processions. Later, the St. Stan’s American Legion post, home to many brave veterans, shared the building with them. Down the block was a former public-school building that became The Polish War Veterans Club. Many of the heroes of the storming on Monte Casino during World War II settled in Greenpoint and became members of the club. When they died off, the club closed and eventually became a condominium apartment.
The office of Doctor McCartney, a beloved local physician who treated locals for decades, was situated about midway between Nassau and Norman Avenues. Further down the street, on the corner of Leonard and Norman Avenue is my favorite Polish flower shop, Paradise Florists, run by a Polish family for decades. Their beautiful bouquets for my wife have gotten me out of the doghouse on many occasions. Across the street from the flower shop is the Greenpoint branch of the library. Sadly, it was once an elegant Carnegie Library with a graceful marble façade. In the 1960s, the buildings foundation was found to be unstable and instead of repairing this architectural gem, it was torn down and lost forever, replaced by a drab modern structure that thankfully also has been replaced by the nicer present library.
Around the corner from the library, on the west side of the block was the home of legendary politician Peter McGuinness, whom I described in my book The King of Greenpoint. The political leader of the area between World War I and World War II, McGuinness was beloved both for his kindness and great sense of humor. He was honored when Oakland Street was widened and named McGuinness Boulevard. Though McGuinness lived in an apartment in the building, he never owned it. This political power broker remained a renter all his life. Longtime local physician Doctor Smith had his office on the block. Smith was an old-fashioned general practitioner who delivered many local babies until a heart attack prevented him from doing it. A thing of the past, he often made home visits to treat severely sick patients.
One of the greatest actors ever was born on the corner of Meserole Avenue and Leonard Street, Oscar award winning actor Mickey Rooney, whose parents were local Vaudeville actors. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era. He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941, becoming one of the best-paid actors of that era. 678 Leonard Street is the home of the Polish National Church, which differs from the Catholic Church, to which the vast majority of Poles belong.
Heading north, one sees the rear of the Saint Anthony of Padua church, whose school educated many local children. Sister Francis Kress, a nun , taught in the parish school, while also becoming the first community member to alert the local community about the many environmental dangers posed by our long history of industrialization. At the very end of the street, one finds my favorite local watering Hole Tempkins, where a beer is the perfect way to end this little journey up Leonard Street.
