The McKim, Mead and White architectural firm designed the enormous James Farley post office, which opened in 1913, as a companion to Pennsylvania Station, just across 8th Avenue. A monumental…

Just barely readable on this peak-roofed brick building on Steuben Street, across from Steuben Park at the BQE, are the words “Wm.B.A. Jurgens” and above it “Brooklyn 1898” which is…

Today I was all set to write about Trimble Road, a little spit of a street running for one block along the Woodside Long Island Rail Road platform between 63rd…

There are quite a few ancient signs displaying former letter telephone exchanges around town used with dial rotary phones, which displayed letters as well as numbers; the first two characters…

Work continues — albeit at what seems to be a snail’s pace — at rehabilitating the landmarked Weir Greenhouse at 5th Avenue and 25th Street, opposite Green-Wood Cemetery’s main entrance;…

I was wandering around in that nebulous area of Brooklyn between the waterfront and Green-Wood Cemetery, between about 24th and 36th Streets. This area had never been identified as part…

In a neighborhood chockablock with rich architectural forms, Public School 39, at 6th Avenue and 8th Street in Park Slope, is a standout even among such nearby treasures as the…

I’ve been impressed by the size and design of several high schools built in the early 20th Century. There’s Fort Hamilton High in Bay Ridge, Franklin K. Lane in Cypress…

I hadn’t been to Captain Tilly Park lately, which occupies an irregular plot on the border of Briarwood and Jamaica Hills. Much of it isn’t bordered by streets, but by…

Change is coming to elevated train platform lamps, and for me, esthetically at least, not for the better. Here’s a decades-old view of the Myrtle Avenue elevated platform on the…

I have no idea how I missed this one, since I’ve walked East Gun Hill Road a couple of times in the last five years… RUN & GUN: WALKING GUN…

Last November (2019) I was staggering around in the South Bronx, through Mott Haven, Morrisania, and Longwood, enjoying myself thoroughly since I don’t get into the Bronx as often as…