The application of gold leaf on glass is becoming as lost an art as are painted ads on buildings. Nestled above #5 West 31st Street up until recently was an…

Every couple of years, when I’m in the neighborhood, I skulk around to a 5-story walkup apartment building at #287 West 147th Street between Adam Claton Powell and Frederick Douglass…

Usually, when an ancient ad starts fading that’s bad news because its legibility is ruined. But I’ve found a sign at 117 East 24th Street, a couple of blocks east…

A painted campaign ad for John Vliet Lindsay has been in view for a few years on Flatbush Avenue, visible as you are traveling south at the X-shaped intersection with…

While stumbling around Tribeca scouting the ForgottenTour that was held on October 4, 2015, I saw this painted ad at #77 Hudson Street just south of Harrison Street, and I…

51 East 42nd Street is an 18th Century Beaux Arts office tower at the NW corner of East 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue that runs all the way north to…

photo: Kyle DeMilo For aficionados of ancient painted signage, Fletcher’s Castoria ads have been a staple for decades: the mild children’s stomach remedy has been sold since 1871 and formerly…

By GARY FONVILLE Forgotten NY correspondent   This well preserved ad on 233rd Street, near Paulding Ave in Wakefield, the Bronx that extols the virtues of oil heat proclaims a…

I can’t say why but this “faded ad” combo on East 16th Street just east of Union Square has really faded away in recent years. On the left is part…

The southwest corner of Broadway and West 47th Street at Duffy Square was a very important spot for Forgotten NY in its very early days in March 1999 when the…

Ancient painted words on Freeman Street near West say “Pierce Steam” something. I’d say it was likely Pierce Steam Heating, founded by John B. Pierce and Joseph Bond in 1881.…

Proving that the art of the painted wall ad isn’t dead is this recently inscribed ad on 86th Street and Stillwell Avenue. Unless it’s repainted, succeeding generations will be poring…