Forgotten New York is in Association with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, a non-profit organization supported by the Long Island City community.
One-block long Martin Luther King, Jr. Place, which runs from Marcy to Tompkins Avenues a block south of Flushing Avenue in Bedford-Suyvesant, might seem inconsequential, but it was the first street in NYC named for the famed civil rights titan, who was murdered on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN. It was renamed in 1974. [...]
Categorized in: One Shots Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn
There had indeed been a Lexington Avenue Line in Brooklyn — an el that shrouded the entire length of the Bedford-Stuyvesant avenue that runs from Grand Avenue east to Broadway. Seen on this 1920s map, the Lexington el split from the Myrtle Avenue El at Grand Avenue and then ran south and east, over Grand [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Subways & Trains Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn
Cul de sacs and alleyways have always held a fascination for me. However they are rather scarce in New York City, which has a grid system of streets not only in Manhattan, but in many locales in the other boroughs; service alleys behind buildings are rare as well, which means trash and refuse has to [...]
Categorized in: Alleys Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Crown Heights
Forgotten NY has blazed a trail of urban web photography and commentary for over a decade but sometimes I shudder when I think of the opportunities I missed out on. In 1998 Times Square was a wasteland in transition from the sleazy porn era to the shined up, Disneyfied tourist mecca that it became. They [...]
Categorized in: Walks Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Williamsburg
So there I was, meandering around in the cold dead Brooklyn winter, when I spotted a lamppost remnant on Nostrand Avenue and Macon Street. I have a radar for these kind of things, and can spot promising lamppost stubs and remnants quite easily. This one stumped me because it didn’t look like the usual base that [...]
Categorized in: Street Lamps Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Fort Greene
Continued from Part 2 Metropolitan Forgive the blur on the image above: it was blown up from a smaller picture I obtained in 2005 on a previous walk. This is Metropolitan Avenue looking east. Some structures in the photo have been torn down, and new construction has appeared elswhere on the street. Metropolitan Avenue runs [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Roads Street Scenes Walks Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Williamsburg
Continued from Page 1 Con Dead Time has proven the enemy for our magnificent brick power plants in recent years. The Long Island City Penn Station powerhouse, with its four iconic smokestacks, has been converted to residential use, minus the smokestacks, and the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit (BMT) powerhouse on 500 Kent and Division Avenues, shown [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Roads Street Scenes Walks Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Williamsburg
Kent Avenue runs from the eastern end of Clinton Hill to the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border. Because of Brooklyn’s topography along the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Wallabout Channel and the East River, the route resembles a giant question mark in reverse without the dot. It’s unusual among Williamsburg’s north-south avenues like Wythe Avenue, Berry Street, and Driggs Avenue [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Roads Street Scenes Walks Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Williamsburg
ATTENTION has been paid, and rightly so, to the NYC subway system on its 100th anniversary in 2004, but there’s an even older transit system in New York existing alongside the subways,whose stations are neglected somewhat by the agency that’s in charge of running it. Truth be told, the 171-year-old (in 2005) Long Island Rail Road, [...]
THERE ain’t no Starbucks, fancy chocolate makers, chi-chi restaurants, velvet-rope nightclubs with 300-pound bouncers, 2-million-dollar condos, Fairways, Ikeas, hardly any IPods…just a lot of jewelry stores. Must be two to a block. Just a lot of NYC’s most intriguing architecture alternating with some of the most godawfulest you can imagine, and sprinkle in some items left [...]
Categorized in: Street Scenes Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant East New York Fort Greene
The Long Island Rail Road, celebrating its 170th anniversary in 2004, crosses Flushing Avenue in style at 56th Street in Maspeth The first thing to remember about Flushing Avenue is that it doesn’t go to Flushing; in fact, it doesn’t approach within five miles of it. Flushing Avenue takes its unusual name because of the relative isolation of [...]
Categorized in: Street Scenes Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Fort Greene Maspeth Queens Ridgewood
We’re going to Broadway today. We’re also going to Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Wall Street, Canal Street and several other well-known New York City locales. But since this website is called Forgotten NY, things aren’t always as obvious as they can appear. Get your Brooks Brothers suit on and bring your portfolio… Wall Street is [...]
Categorized in: Roads Street Scenes Tagged with: Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Fort Greene New Brighton Port Richmond St. George Stapleton Staten Island
