Fire alarm boxes of various shapes and sizes remain familiar sights on NYC streets. In general you can find a fire alarm on every other corner as you walk NYC…

Bronxites of a certain age who paid attention in their high school history classes might think that Webster Avenue was named for the famed Massachusetts Congressman and orator Daniel Webster. However,…

Several New York City neighborhoods come together in the triangle of territory opposite St. John’s Cemetery formed by Cooper Avenue, Metropolitan Avenue, and Woodhaven Boulevard. I have to pick one,…

At a confluence of roads (West 124th Street, Manhattan and St. Nicholas Avenues, and Hancock Place) we find a bust of Winfield Scott Hancock by James Wilson Alexander McDonald, dedicated in…

Barren Island, at one point, was an actual island, but was landfilled to create what is now the airfield. In the 19th Century and early 20th, Barren Island was home…

Writing this on July 27, 2020 on yet another 93-degree day, I looked back in the archives to December 2015 (which was a good 13 degrees above normal, but at…

Tenney Place may be the shortest street in the Bronx that isn’t a dead end, and there may be dead ends longer than Tenney Place. The street runs for a…

About 13 years ago, when I was looking around for a new place in Queens after 14 years on the Flushing-Auburndale border, I took a look at Parkway Village, which…

There’s a lot going on in this 1929 E.E. Rutter photo of Pitkin Avenue and Sitka Street. For example, note the stacked street signs. If you look carefully you can…

I never drink alone and I never eat ice cream alone. I am not and have never been an alcoholic: however, in years past, I have been known to polish…

John Jacob Astor, né Ashdor, was the richest man in the United States for a time in the early 1800s. He was originally a dealer of musical instruments as a young…

Why is there a wrought-iron rendering of a locomotive on the Kissena Park fence at KIssena Boulevard and Rose Avenue? There’s a reason it’s there. A lengthy gash of green…