Forgotten New York is in Association with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, a non-profit organization supported by the Long Island City community.
This faces the Holland Tunnel ramps on Broome east of Varick. The painted sign has held up fairly well over the decades. The company supplied power plant equipment such as boilers and pumping systems to the ships in the now-vanished Hudson River port in Manhattan, and also serviced pumps and other equipment. There were branches [...]
This Beekman Paper ad is familiar to motorists, at least those paying attention, traveling south on Varick Street on the way to the Holland Tunnel. The company was founded by Max and Ida Greenbaum on Beekman Street in 1907, moving to Varick Street in 1926. The Indispensable Walter Grutchfield has a photo of the ad [...]
In February 2010 I wrote about the Type 1 BC bishop crook post at Centre and Grand Streets in SoHo and its accumulated rust. King of NYC Lampposts Bob Mulero reports that the rust problem hasn’t really been alleviated, and the near-century-old post, with its gaslamp ladder rest hommage, seems to be listing a bit [...]
Categorized in: One Shots Street Lamps Tagged with: Manhattan Soho
At the very beginnings of Forgotten NY in 1998, I went around Manhattan, as well as the other boroughs, taking pictures of obscure alleyways, which have been a favorite subject of mine for decades. You never know what kind of obscurities might be lurking in alleys, from ancient signage or illumination to an out-of-the -way [...]
Categorized in: One Shots Subways & Trains Tagged with: Manhattan Soho
Spring Street, which runs in Soho from the Bowery west to West and Canal Streets, is named for an actual spring that has been contained in the sewer system for the past couple of centuries. Like the rest of NYC, some interesting signs and buildings can be found along its length. A peculiar attribute [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Signs Tagged with: Manhattan Soho
There was a time in this fair city when Sixth Avenue did not run all the way south to Tribeca. In fact, for about the first century of its existence, until about 1928, Sixth Avenue ran north from the obscure intersection of Carmine Street and Minetta Lane in Greenwich Village. The coming of subway lines [...]
Categorized in: Street Scenes Tagged with: 6th Avenue Soho
Wooster Street runs from Canal Street north to West Houston, just east of West Broadway. Its northern reaches from W. Houston to Washington Square were aken over by New York University in the 1960s, which built residential housing towers, but the old path of the street can be easily discerned. It was named for Revolutionary-era General David [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Manhattan Soho Wooster Street
Soho’s Prince Street runs west from the Bowery to 6th Avenue at Macdougal and Charlton Streets. In the pre-Revolutionary era, there were a number of streets named for the British royalty, such as Queen, Duke, etc, and most eventually were renamed– but not Prince, making this street an interesting pre-Revolutionary relic. (King Street is named for [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Manhattan Soho
Mer’ • cer [Middle English, from Old French mercier, trader, frommerz, merchandise, from Latin merx, merc-, merchandise.] A dealer in textiles, especially silks. Soho’s Mercer Street, which runs for 12 blocks from Canal St. north to East 8th just west of Broadway, was actually named for Revolutionary War general Hugh Mercer (as was New Jersey’s Mercer County, seat of its capital, Trenton) [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Manhattan Mercer Soho
Unfortunately, most of NYC’s beautiful buildings date to between 1850 and 1940, the castiron, Beaux Arts and Art Deco-Art Moderne periods. Thereafter, minimalism took hold with the International Style’s glass boxes, which have become the rage now in tall residential towers. Ironically I’ve always loved Frank Lloyd Wright’s streamlined designs that looked toward the mid-century [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Broadway Manhattan Noho Soho
Howard Street is something of an anomaly as far as Soho east-west cross streets go. It’s the shortest of them all, running only 4 blocks, from Mercer east to Lafayette just north of Canal. At its eastern end, it ventures into Chinatown’s northern edge. If you look at the map, it seems as if it should extend [...]
Categorized in: Forgotten Slices Tagged with: Manhattan Soho
In January 2005 I walked the Bowery and documented the remains of its old-time flophouse – and wholesale lamp and kitchen supplies ambience. I don’t lament its demise; though I’d rather affordable housing built in a style commensurate with previous traditions take the flophouses’ place, modern-day realities dictate that only the well to do will [...]
Categorized in: Street Scenes Tagged with: Bowery Manhattan Noho Soho
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
For much of its history, it’s been an avenue without a number, ever since it was proclaimed the Avenue of the Americas in 1945. New Yorkers have always referred to it as Sixth, however, and in the 1980s the Department of Transportation finally gave in and installed new “6 AVE” green-and-whites along its entire length. Sixth [...]
Categorized in: Street Scenes Tagged with: Greenwich Village Manhattan Midtown Soho
You’re not supposed to call it 6th Avenue, you know. 6th Avenue has a rather involved history. It has been extended both northward and southward and has been renamed twice! In 1945, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia renamed Sixth Avenue along its entire length south of Central Park “Avenue of the Americas.” Some histories indicate it was done in [...]
Categorized in: Signs Tagged with: 6th Avenue Greenwich Village Manhattan Midtown Soho
Before the days when the New York City Department of Transportation began to install replicas of classic bishop-crook, “Corvington” long-armed lamps and twinlamp designs, they defaced still-standing classic lampposts that were installed anywhere from 1892 to 1940 with bright sodium “bucket light” fixtures. They were put there in the early 1980s to replace incandescent bulbs in [...]
Categorized in: Street Lamps Tagged with: 6th Avenue Bishop Crooks Chinatown Jackson Heights Manhattan Queens Soho
The Soho Building, on Greene Street between Spring and Prince Streets, is home to NYC’s most unusual subway map…despite the fact that no subways run underneath it and that the nearest subway station is two blocks away on Prince Street and Broadway (N/R). So where’s the subway map? … It’s embedded in the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I [...]
Categorized in: Subways & Trains Tagged with: Manhattan maps Soho
While poking around the streets of Soho (South of Houston) and Noho (North of Houston) you can find several hidden and not-so-hidden alleyways that contain a few surprises here and there. Extra Place CBGB, the capital of underground NYC rock and roll in the 1970s, was instrumental in introducing bands like Blondie, Talking Heads and the [...]
Categorized in: Alleys Neighborhoods Tagged with: Extra Place Freeman Manhattan Noho Shinbone Soho
