The Mystery of the New York City Parks Department’s Chandelier

By MICHAEL POLLAK

Answering questions about the chandelier in the Arsenal; a renamed street in Queens; and the Bronx roots of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.

Q. I have heard that Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein grew up in the Bronx, within streets of each other. What section of the Bronx would that have been?

A. Both fashion designers grew up in working-class homes in the Norwood neighborhood, near Mosholu Parkway, according to a 2009 article by Joseph Berger in The New York Times. Both were talented sketch artists and spent some time about four years apart at Public School 80.

Calvin Klein was born in 1942; his father was a Hungarian immigrant, Leo Klein, who worked in his brother’s grocery. Calvin lived in an apartment house on Rochambeau Avenue and often went with his mother on shopping trips to Loehmann’s. His grandmother had a tailoring business. He attended the High School of Industrial Art, in Manhattan.