Forgotten New York is in Association with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, a non-profit organization supported by the Long Island City community.
These ‘newfangled’ fire alarm stanchions are among the newest in a series of such posts that go back all the way to 1887. Incredibly, a number of models that go back all the way to 1912 can still be seen on NYC streets, and many fire alarms going back to the Roaring Twenties, recognizable by [...]
Categorized in: One Shots Tagged with: Fire Alarms Queens Whitestone
Allow me a litle FNY esoterica. (You can argue the whole website is esoterica but I would disagree with you). Over the past few years, the NYC Department of Transportation and the FDNY have been removing fire call boxes (or decommissioning them) in an era of mobile wireless call devices. There has also been a misguided, [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Street Lamps Tagged with: Fire Alarms
BY THE THOUSANDS they came, back in the early 1960s, replacing the picturesque castiron Corvington longarms… It was a strange, exhilarating, depressing yet exciting time to be a six-year-old lamppost fan back in 1963. My street, Sixth Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, was lined with the Victorian-era chocolate-colored “Corvington” long-armed mast poles (similar to the one [...]
Categorized in: Street Lamps Tagged with: 5th Avenue Bay Ridge Belt Parkway Brooklyn Cadman Plaza Donald Deskey Fire Alarms Manhattan Queens Ridgewood Riverside Drive
