In the early 1920s, in addition to assigning the majority of streets numbers and creating a unique hyphenated house numbering method, the Queens Topographical Bureau also designated several major routes…

I always liked the song “I’ve Been Everywhere”; its most famous versions are by Johnny Cash and Hank Snow. More than 131 versions exist adapted from the Australian original with…

MIDAFTERNOON shadows make it tough to get a good picture of the old St. Ann’s Parochial School on East 11th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues. One of two reminders of…

In the colonial era, the neighborhood now known as Maspeth, Queens was the site of the home of a prominent canal builder, De Witt Clinton, who held nearly every available…

THIS auto collision repair shop at #1552 McDonald Avenue near Avenue M in Midwood likely does not have a proprietor named Culver. Instead, it is found under the only elevated…

IT’S been awhile since I’ve mentioned the Seaman Estate Arch in Inwood, or even been in Inwood, so I’ll just feature it today for those who are some what new…

I have always been a fan of the original formula pedestrian lampposts on expressways built in NYC during the 1950s. To me they are simplified versions of Bishop Crooks that…

I resided in eastern Flushing, or western Auburndale, depending where you draw the border, between 1993 and 2007 at 43rd Avenue and 159th Street. It was a 4th floor apartment…

PARKED outside #167 Concord Street in Brooklyn is owner Frank Didik’s car,  a hybrid gasoline/electric powered vehicle called the Didik Long Ranger designed in the mid-1980s. It’s 96 inches long, 65 inches…

FRONT Street in Clifton, Staten Island runs along Upper New York Bay and past the now nearly abandoned Bayley-Seton Hospital. Here we see it with the Staten Island Railway in…

In the complicated Greenwich Village street layout, Jones Street, along with Cornelia, is a one-block street between West 4th and Bleecker west of 6th Avenue. It was named for Dr.…

IT’S not mentioned often but Astoria and its neighbor Ravenswood were once a hotbed for silk manufacture and production. Several remaining buildings scattered over the region are former silk production…