2011

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,…

The Cheyenne Diner began as the Market Diner at 9th Avenue and 33rd Street sometime in the early 1940s. The diner manufacturer was Paramount Modular Concepts of Oakland, NJ, in business…

Famed horror fiction writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft, usually associated with Providence, Rhode Island, lived in two residences in Brooklyn from 1924-1926. His first was in an apartment (I don’t know…

Mobil ad, Flatbush Avenue near 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The word “mobile” comes from the Latin mobilis, movable and movere, to move. Mobil Oil is a descendant of…

The broad building with the defunct clock tower on the east side of Flatbush Avenue just south of the Prospect Park entrance at Ocean Avenue is the former Bond Bread…

William Poole, street fighter, political kingmaker, meat cutter and pugilist (1821-1855). More than six feet tall and weighing 200 pounds, William Poole stood out in an age of small men.…

It appears as if the discount furniture stores that mostly  line the north side of Surf Avenue from Stillwell Avenue to West 8th Street will be moving out soon. At…

With one fast food joint or franchise every other block, it’s hard to remember a time when there weren’t a lot of them in New York. I had a meal…

Terra cotta frieze from the original South Ferry station, in use for over 90 years until it was closed in 2009. All service now runs to the modern yet bland…

Though the official name of the station is Willets Point Boulevard (for the LIRR, it’s Mets-Willets Point) Shea Stadium lives on in leftover 1964-era signage. Shea Stadium, of course, was…

Above: Triborough Bridge at dusk, seen from the platform of the Astoria Blvd. station on the N/Q elevated Astoria Line. The  station, since the mid-1930s, has been positioned over the…

Between about 1964 and 1985 all street signs in Queens looked like this, with an off-white background and blue lettering. In 1964 the city installed large vinyl and metal street…