Noonan Plaza Apartments — Local services in New York

I lived in the Noonan from when I was born in 1937 until we reluctantly moved to the North East Bronx 16 years later. I wish my computer skills were better so i could upload some of my photos. The building was still gorgeous, still in its heyday. We had a spacious twe bedroom 2 bath apartment, with a huge foyer and a lovely "dinette" off the kitchen large enough to seat the whole family which included my parents, my older sister Harriet, my aunt and my grandmother. We all lived in this space and no one felt cramped. It was the way middle-class Jewish, Bronxites lived, taking care of relatives, making room, creating sub spaces within larger ones.

But the apartment was light and airy with lots of windows, two exposures, west and north, parquet floors, and a sense of elegance that was built into the walls. The western exposure in the large living room where I used to roller skate, once we took up the rungs in the summer (until the neighbor below "knocked up" which meant she banged the ceiling with a broom to tell me to stop it, not that anyone got pregnant.) faced Ogden Avenue's trolly tracks, where the kids put pennies on the tracks and delight in seeing them being squished into molten copper by the passing trollies (until my mom saw us through the window and put a stop to it, or so she thought). Our apartment (on the second floor of 125B at West 168th Street) also faced P.S. 11 where I went to school from kindergarden through 8th grade.

The Noonan was a world unto itself. It's where most of my friends lived. Where we had a pharmacy, a small market, a beauty shop, a shoe repair shop, and more that I can't quite recall, all right there on 168th Street with entrances from both the street and through the basement so we never had to go outside in bad weather. My beautiful sister went to dance classes there. I still recall her recitals, also held in the basement auditorium and the time step she tried to teach me but which I never mastered.

When I told friends at camp about the courtyard, the pond, the swans, the waterfall, the cedar bridge and the light house they called me a liar. It was too good to be true. They were right. It really was. . And our rent was $75 a month. The moms stayed at home. The dads worked. No one got divorced. Those were the days

I went back in 1982 to take a look. It was done for by then, had been converted into lower income coops, with no gardens, no pond, all cemented over. The neighborhood was downtrodden. What a loss. I miss it still

I may be moving to Takoma Park, Md/D.C. soon, and in my apartment search I discovered a building that brought me back. Art deco. With interior space like we had in the Noonan. A huge foyer, a gracious dining space. Space that was good for nothing except being spacious and gracious. Perhaps I'll move...

I live in Noonan Plaza and they don't do repairs apartments smells like died rats super does not respond management never pick up phone they don't want to deal with noise complaints they also take the Spanish people side let the say racist remarks the heat is not go when you live up on high floor the workers justed stand around or hangout in the basement need new workers and all the workers the work here or hire don't...

I love this building always clean, the apartments are spacious and afordable to live in. Have friends and family...