Forgotten New York is in Association with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, a non-profit organization supported by the Long Island City community.
The station on the Brighton Line (Q train) on Gravesend Neck Road has been named simply Neck Road since its inception nearly 100 years ago. It’s one of the only cases in which the MTA succumbs to local colloquy, since I gather that neighborhood denizens shorten the name almost unanimously, though official street signs dutifully [...]
Categorized in: One Shots Subways & Trains Tagged with: Brooklyn Gravesend
After a bracing walk in the “new” Coney Island boardwalk area in March 2013, my fears that the Brooklyn Riviera would be starbucked, mcdonaldsed and condo’d into a comatose state were somewhat allayed. Stalwarts like Cha Cha’s and Shoot The Freak were gone but longtime mainstays like Ruby’s Bar, Lola Star and Paul’s Daughter had [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Brooklyn Coney Island Gravesend
One of Brooklyn’s abiding mysteries (probably for me and no one else) is the presence of Highlawn Avenue, which runs in the northern edge of Gravesend, from Stillwell Avenue east to West 3rd Street. It stands in the place of Avenue R, which begins at Kings Highway and East 5th Street and runs east and [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Brooklyn Gravesend
When NYC had a more rural character and was dotted with farms a couple of centuries ago, grist mills, in which grain is ground into flour, were primary engines of commerce. Though none are left within the five boroughs, maps nonetheless are stocked with lanes and roads called Mill, some major, some minor — Manhattan (1), [...]
Categorized in: Alleys Tagged with: Bath Beach Brooklyn Gravesend
Has it really been ten years since I did my first survey of Gravesend in Brooklyn for Forgotten NY? It has been, and although ForgottenTour 33 explored Gravesend in 2008 I really haven’t been back to give it real justice. Now that local historian Joseph Ditta’s new book Gravesend Then and Now has hit the shelves, [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Tagged with: Brooklyn Gravesend
In early 2009, in a real estate environment that has seen home prices and rents drop precipitously and sales slow to a crawl, battle to maintain New York City’s character is still being waged, it seems, neighborhood by neighborhood and house by house. The second week of 2009 saw designations given to several buildings by the [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Brooklyn Gravesend Manhattan Penn Station
ForgottenFans at Lady Moody House, Gravesend Neck Road, Gravesend, Brooklyn April 20, 2008: With a turnout that rivalled FNY’s most-attended tour, Brooklyn Between the Bridges in October 2003, over 50 ForgottenFans turned out on an overcast day with drizzle expected (after an extraordinary run of good weather for early ForgottenTours, clouds and rain have become an inevitability the [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Tours Tagged with: Brooklyn Gravesend
“Well it winds from Bensonhurst to Brownsville…” Even though Bobby Troup never got around to writing about Kings Highway in Brooklyn, in many ways it is every bit the mother road that Route 66 is! The road we know today as Kings Highway has a rather inauspicious beginning in Bensonhurst, where it starts as a two-lane [...]
Categorized in: Street Scenes Tagged with: Brooklyn East Flatbush Flatbush Gravesend Midwood
More than any other borough, Brooklyn pretty much adheres to the strict checkerboard grid system that was devised when its six towns coalesced into one city in the late 1800s. That’s why it’s all the more interesting when the occasional lane or alley breaks the mold and strikes off on its own. And, as in [...]
Categorized in: Alleys Tagged with: Brooklyn Crown Heights Cypress Hills East Flatbush Flatbush Gravesend Windsor Terrace
Gravesend, located in Brooklyn between Bensonhurst and Coney Island, is one of the oldest populated areas on Long Island and in the nation itself. It contains numerous historic homes, and even its street plan is the original one first adopted after the area was first settled in 1643. Unfortunately, some folks disagree with the premise that [...]
Categorized in: Neighborhoods Tagged with: Brooklyn Gravesend
