Here’s a bit of trivia. The Amazing Mets once traded Royce Ring and Heath Bell in the same deal. I have been working in the Madison Square area for a…

Hungarian immigrant Alexander Samuel Beck opened a shoe store with his brother Samuel on Fulton Street in Brooklyn in 1909. After the partnership with his brother dissolved he opened a…

I rarely find myself on the BMT Broadway-Myrtle Avenue el (J, M) and it was with a shrug of resignation that I once again passed by a Forgotten NY talisman…

The ghost of the Garvin Machine Company, Spring and Varick Streets, is seen on the Spring Street side in this view from near Hudson in July 2013. Garvin Machine has…

As we press further into the 2010s, “painted ads” from the 1960s can join their elders in the ranks of NYC’s antique, faded signage, in addition to all the remaining…

By GARY FONVILLE Forgotten New York correspondent Signs featuring “Rex Cole” have appeared previously in FNY. They were installed around the time that a newfangled technology for the home kitchen appeared…

College Point has always been a  rubber town. The village in northwest Queens, still very much isolated by the Whitestone Expressway and the old Flushing Airport grounds, was founded by…

US Representative Paul Fino (1913-2009) was elected to the State Senate from 1946-1950 and elected to Congress in 1952, where he served 8 terms, and then the State Supreme Court in…

So how come I’m showing some blank walls on this “one shot” page? It’s all in what used to be there. I’m at the corner of 8th Avenue and West…

This faces the Holland Tunnel ramps on Broome east of Varick. The painted sign has held up fairly well over the decades. The company supplied power plant equipment such as…

This Beekman Paper ad is familiar to motorists, at least those paying attention, traveling south on Varick Street on the way to the Holland Tunnel. The company was founded by…

Despite the rigors of over a century’s worth of wind, rain and storms, the painted sign identifying Middendorf & Rohrs Grocers is still identifiable at #1 Little West 12th Street.…