The original Greenwich Village was a Canarsee Indian fishing village called Seppanikan (some accounts spell it Sapokanican), centered around a stream they called Manetta, meaning ‘devil water’. Later it became…

Some parts of New York City closely resemble the way they did in the 1920s or 1930s; 7th Avenue in the Garment Center, from Macy’s north to about West 40th, comes…

One of the hallmarks of Greenwich Village is that it is filled with odd streets angles and intersections as well as a number of named alleys, Patchin Place, Grove Court,…

At Post Avenue and Driprock Street in Port Richmond you will find this formerly grand brick structure, with Corinthian columns and arched windows, most of which have had plywood affixed…

While NYC’s last remaining gaslight post (now equipped with an electric bulb) in Patchen Place across the street is perhaps better known, this modified (missing ladder rest) Type 1 Bishop…

A couple of remaining original West Side Highway lamp stanchions can still be spotted on a cutoff elevated portion of the existing elevated highway, just south of West 72nd Street…

The oldest house on Jamaica Avenue is at #494, between Elton and Linwood Streets. The house was built a short time after 1800 and was located on the farm belonging…

Deep in the streets of Woodhaven are a couple of remnants of Union Course, the racetrack that dominated the area before it was fully developed and streets laid out. Woodhaven and…

Few neighborhoods in NYC have been changing as quickly as the Hunters Point and Dutch Kills neighborhoods near Queensboro Plaza in LIC, where a Glass House Gang of supertall residential…

I was surprised to find a remaining ITT Model 25 in Woodlawn during the week. Most 1970s-era lights were purged for new sodium vapor models in 2009, only to be…

I was knocking around Woodlawn (some call it Woodlawn Heights) in the dead dog 76-dew point heat on the 4th of July when, instead of  indulging at a Carvel, I…

While most of NYC’s Jews belong to the Ashkenazim (German) or the Sephardim (Spain-Portugal) there is a third faction, the Romaniotes, whose roots go back to Greece. This, the only Romaniote…