Forgotten New York is in Association with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, a non-profit organization supported by the Long Island City community.
Sometimes, you can walk past something a hundred times and never know it’s Forgottenworthy. That’s what happened this week [March 19-25, 2006] when news broke that the Tunnel Garage, a venerable edifice (as the late great Lindsey Nelson would put it) at Thompson and Broome Streets in Tribeca may not be long for the world. Workers began dismantling [...]
Categorized in: Street Scenes Tagged with: Manhattan Soho
Paralyzing inertia is my archenemy. Despite accumulating a wealth of knowledge about the relics and remnants of the NYC of the past throughout my teens, 20s and 30s, I didn’t begin to amass a library of photographs of these kinds of things until I was 40 years old, and while over the next few years [...]
Categorized in: Street Lamps Tagged with: Bridges Queens Sunnyside
The Hempstead Swamp once occupied a vast area of land that sits just east of present-day St. John’s Cemetery in Queens. The greater area was first settled in 1653 as ‘Whitepot’ by English and Dutch farmers, including the Remsen, Furman, Springsteen and Morrell families. They found the land good for growing hay, straw, rye, corn, oats [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Tagged with: Queens Rego Park
A lonely outpost even by Staten Island standards is Travis, a small village of about two thousand at the western end of Victory Boulevard. In the colonial period, it was an important crossing point (New Blazing Star Ferry) over the Arthur Kill to Carteret, New Jersey, from whence horses and carriages could continue on to [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Tagged with: Staten Island Travis
I have never had even a whiff of that peculiar romance most American men feel about their automobiles. When I was a teenager, my fear and apprehensiveness when attempting to learn to drive baffled and amused my teachers: the driving school instructor as well as my cousin Jim, and soon enough the lessons were shelved as [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Tagged with: Fresh Meadows Queens
