On a whim, I decided to walk the entire lengths of two Flushing roads for which I have always had some fascination, Station and Depot Roads in Flushing and Auburndale.…
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The Astoria Elevated runs from Queensboro Plaza north to Ditmars Boulevard on 31st Street; it has been here since 1917, and was originally run in an unusual joint operation by…
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Over on my Facebook page (you should try it — if you’re a Facebook subscriber, “friend me” — it’s 100% fun with no nastiness, politics and personal attacks) I occasionally…
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Central Flatbush, clustered around Flatbush and Church Avenues, boasts a number of historic buildings in a relatively small area, similar to other originally Dutch Colonial NYC towns like Flushing and…
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In Queens, Springfield Boulevard and Springfield Gardens are a bit misunderstood. The belief persists that the Springfields in these names originated from when Creedmoor State Hospital was a rifle range,…
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Danish-born crusading journalist and photographer Jacob Riis (1849-1914) made his home in Richmond Hill, Queens, beginning in 1886. In 1887, Riis photographed the squalid, inhumane conditions prevalent in New York City’s…
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I braved the ice floes in the first week of February 2021 and hit the 7 and G trains to the Broadway stop at Union Avenue. I had a desire…
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The Yorkville Clock at 1501 3rd Avenue and East 85th Street has been here since 1898 — lasting an entire century and parts of two others. Like many other sidewalk clocks it originally…
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Sergey’s recent piece on the Brooklyn Navy Yard reminded me of the street that I think has changed more than any other in New York City since the mid-20th Century.…
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Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko isn’t the only Polish Revolutionary-era patriot honored with a bridge across Newtown Creek. Manhattan Avenue formerly connected with Vernon Avenue (now Boulevard) in Long Island City via a…
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The intersection of 7th Avenue South and Christopher Street has existed only since the 1910s, when 7th Avenue was hammered south to connect 7th and Greenwich Avenues with Varick and…
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Concrete Plant Park, built along the Bronx River between 2004 and 2009 for about 10 million dollars (much of which was spent in removing petroleum-tainted soil from the site), runs…