In Memory of the Broken Angel

Last summer, my friend Rachel and I watched a video entitled "Dave Chappelle's Block Party", it was the most boring flick I've ever seen. Dave Chappelle was having a block party on Downing Street in Brooklyn, New York right in front of a house called the Broken Angel. Rachel and I both became interested in the building's architecture which we thought was insane and it was just so funny to listen and watch the owners describe how they patched it together. On the video, they took Dave Chappelle on a tour of the house. You have to rent the video just to listen to them and go on the tour.

Last October, before Rachel moved to New York, we promised ourselves that if I ever come to visit her, our mission would be to find the Broken Angel in Brooklyn. In February this year, I went to visit Rachel and we made plans to go find the house. We got on the subway and went to Brooklyn and within 45 minutes we were standing in front of this masterpiece of junk. A building that violated every code in the book. It was such a treat for us to find it and to be standing right there in front of it.

The building seemed like it was under construction and the owners were no longer there when we came. The City had determined the house to be unsafe to live in when it caught on fire sometime last year.

A few weeks ago, I got a text from Rachel saying, "Fran, they're tearing down the Broken Angel"! I was sad to hear the news, but I'm happy that we were able to fulfill our mission in finding the house before it got torn down.