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The Joseph Brothers: Elder Statesmen of Fulton

The three brothers opened F + S Tires way back in 1985.

 

The Joseph Brothers opened F + S Tires in 1985, making their business one of the oldest on Fulton Street in Fort Greene.

The three brothers from Haiti, Fequiere, Cernol and Scern, endured many rough years repairing tires before the neighborhood rebounded into what it is today.

Now, F + S Tires seems somewhat out of place on the block between S. Oxford Street and S. Portland Avenue, which has the Aqualis Grill restaurant, the Green Grape wine store, and Der Schwarze Kölner beer garden nearby.

But the Josephs built a dedicated following over 26 years of business, and have no plans to move from their premium location at S. Oxford Street despite constant offers for their building.

“I’m proud when someone talks about Fulton because I know what it was like when it was bad,” Fequiere Joseph said.

He added that back in 1991, when he immigrated from Haiti to Brooklyn to help run the business, the neighborhood was so sketchy that cab drivers refused to drop passengers off there.

“It was a mess!” he said. “Anything you wanted you could get for $5 right at this corner. Women, crack — anything! You did not want to be here after 6 p.m.”

In the 1990s the brothers would begin the day by collecting 30 empty bottles of Colt 45 left there overnight.

“I’m glad the neighborhood became what it is today,” Fequiere Joseph said.

But he bristles at the suggestion — one that he says is often expressed to him — that F +S Tires business does not belong.

“We were the first here! But now they want us gone, say we don’t fit,” he said. “But I’m here, they can’t put me out.”

About this column: In honor of black history month, the <a href="http://www.historicfortgreene.org">Fort Greene Association</a> is celebrating 28 black men and women who made their mark on the neighborhood. Each day Fort Greene Patch will highlight one of those individuals' contributions.

EARLDINE JACKSON

10:27 am on Monday, February 28, 2011

Joseph Brothers go no you are one of the few original business in the area . Change is good but trying to rid the area of people who where there stayed throught the growth of the neighborhood is not the way.

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peter s.

7:04 pm on Monday, February 28, 2011

I am pleased to see that these brothers have endured. I have used their services several times throughout the 90's. They are fast and honest. I hope and pray that they are not harrassed by the new "gentry" because their business "seems out of place". The mere sight of hard working manly men with soiled hands doing manly things with the accursed automobile probably makes these lily livered cream puffs nauseous.

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Joe Gonzalez

2:02 pm on Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Congratulaations to the Joseph Brothers. Be careful and wary of the area real estate types who would love to get their hands on the building. Stay on that corner and fight them off and good luck to you.

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