March 2019 marks Forgotten New York’s 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, I’ve re-scanned about 150 key images from the early days of FNY from 35MM prints. In the early days, when people including me were accessing FNY with dial-up modems, I had to save photos really small — in some cases, just 4″ across. I couldn’t find all those early photos — I think I foolishly discarded some along the way — but all month, and into April, I’ll be picking out some and showing the newly scanned versions.
The border of the Bronx and Yonkers is undefended by barriers, electric fences, Checkpoint Charlies, or any other encumbrances, which means that the likes of me can enter Yonkers at any time, and denizens of Yonkers can cross over into the Bronx. Periodically I do breach that barrier and enter Yonkers or its neighbor, Mount Vernon.
One one of these forays into Yonkers in 1999, I found myself on Caryl Avenue, a tributary of the main east-west drag in Yonkers closest to the Bronx line, McLean Avenue. And, I espied this rare pair of blue and white enamel signs at Caryl and Euclid Avenues. (Euclid is a dead end street.)
On subsequent voyages, I checked on the old pair, but they were gone within a few years. Yonkers has gotten as manic as NYC’s Department of Transportation in rooting out old or nonstandard signage and likely discarding them in the trash pile; a similar pair at Spencer and Leighton Avenues has also vanished, though in that case Yonkers did leave the rusted post that held the signs.
Moreover, Yonkers hasn’t replaced these old signs with new ones, so Euclid Avenue goes unmarked. That’s progress!
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
3/11/19