I am not yet ready to inaugurate a “Street Art” category in FNY, my first new category in a couple of years. Most of the best art you will find on walls around town are by professionals such as Kobra, hired by the businesses that own the buildings. This is the case at a new gym on Greenpoint and Manhattan Avenues, the crossroads of Greenpoint, where Vibe, opened in January 2025, hired muralist AJ Lavilla to create an artwork that would get attention on the wide wall facing above the one-story McDonalds on the corner. It adds color to the corner since the brilliant mural on the NW corner of the intersection was recently painted over.
The McDonalds on the corner is one of the oldest in the city: it was here when I was making frequent trips to Greenpoint beginning in 1982 when a number of friends lived in the area and I myself briefly rented an apartment on Green Street; the rent was affordable, but it was primitive in every respect, including a bathtub in the kitchen.
Next door is the present iteration of what was built in the early 20th Century as the American Theatre, seen here in 1940. The movie palace was later renamed the Chopin in honor of Poland’s greatest classical composer. It may or may not have been named for a local Greenpoint business, the American Manufacturing Company, which maderopes and other shipping supplies; Greenpoint once had a lively dockside and numerous manufacturers and factories, including Eberhard Faber, which made its pencils there.
The theater can still be recognized by the eagle on the roofline, but it has been used for a number of different businesses since the theater closed, including a Burger King right next to the McDonalds (did fights break out?) and presently, Starbucks Coffee.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
9/15/25