Forgotten New York is in Association with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, a non-profit organization supported by the Long Island City community.
It’s never hip or cool to be a nostalgist. I’ve always been a nostalgist, and have never cared about being hip. I return to Bay Ridge frequently. But when I lived in Bay Ridge I was tortured by the nuns and students of St. Anselm’s School; I later worked nights and made very little money; the [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Bay Ridge Brooklyn
Coney Island Avenue is among Brooklyn’s lengthiest routes, extending from Ocean Parkway and Parkside Avenue where Prospect Park meets the Parade Grounds and runs generally straight south all the way to the Coney Island boardwalk (officially called the Riegelmann Boardwalk for the borough president when it was completed in the 1920s). As this 1873 map [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Brooklyn Coney Island Sheepshead Bay
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Neighborhoods Tagged with: Bedford Park Bronx
Categorized in: Alleys Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Bay Ridge Brooklyn
Categorized in: Roads Street Scenes Walks Tagged with: Brooklyn Bushwick Queens Ridgewood Wyckoff Avenue
Making up somewhat for previous oversights, I invaded Chinatown in February in search of ancient laneways that contain hidden architectural “Easter eggs” and traces of long-vanished neighborhoods. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out perhaps the Deskey post’s most distinctive NYC contribution: in 1965 several of them were outfitted with luminaires resembling traditional Chinese [...]
Categorized in: Alleys Forgotten Slices
I had gone past Claremont Terrace thousands of times — literally –without giving it a second thought about what it was. It’s an alley that is hidden along another dead end in the heart of Elmhurst, one of Queens’ busiest, most populated and diverse neighborhoods — it’s buzzing with energy day and evening. I would [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Elmhurst Queens
For such a huge city, NYC is short on roadside oddities. You know, like the World’s Biggest Lightbulb in Menlo Park NJ, or the Big Duck of Flanders, NY in Suffolk County, or the Paul Bunyan Muffler Man of Elmsford in Westchester County. Sure, we’ve got that statue of Vladimir Lenin on the rooftop at East Houston and Avenue A, along with the [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Queens Woodside
Continued from West Broadway Part 2 West Broadway and Grand Street. Once north of Canal Street, West Broadway enters Soho (no longer below Canal but now south of Houston) and changes character completely, becoming the main shopping and restaurant strip in a neighborhood jampacked with them… Prior to about 1840 the stretch of West Broadway between Canal [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Roads Street Scenes Walks Tagged with: Manhattan Tribeca West Broadway
Continued from West Broadway Part 1 Here’s the scene on West Broadway between Duane and Thomas Streets. All the buildings are from 1860-1875, and two have “Easter eggs” that give clues about them. “Standard Scale & Supply Co.” former business 1871, date of construction. With a 6-star shield; one star has fallen off. Duane Street east [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Roads Street Scenes Walks Tagged with: Manhattan Tribeca West Broadway
Those who live in or who’ve been to Atlanta say that an inordinate amount of streets are called Peachtree; in Manhattan, meanwhile, there are 6 streets called Broadway, and all five boroughs, for that matter, have a Broadway. In NYC, all Broadways are a hommage to the original that begins at Bowling Green and runs [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Roads Street Scenes Walks Tagged with: Manhattan Tribeca West Broadway
Continued from Highland Park, Part 1 Turning the corner on to the vestigal path known as Robert Place and striding back to Highland Boulevard, we find an answer familar to all Nick Cave fans, and numerous others: God is in the house. This facility is home to the Discalced (i.e., barefoot or with just sandals) Carmelite Sisters. According to [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Tagged with: Brooklyn Highland Park
By BRIAN BERGER whowalkinBrooklyn.com In the world of lesser-known Brooklyn neighborhoods, none is more obscure, or more mysterious, than Highland Park. This is partly the result of geography, nestled as it is in the borough’s northeast corner and partly bad luck: nobody famous enough to represent the area’s hills and history has come from Highland [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Tagged with: Brooklyn Highland Park
ForgottenFan Victoria and I were on Cherokee Place (I’ll let you rack your brains for a minute to figure out where that is) and East 77th and 78th Streets in spring 1978 to take a look at the Shively Sanitary Apartments, now known as simply the Cherokee. It’s a magnificent building constructed with plenty of light [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Manhattan Upper East Side
