THE influence of Charles R. Ruegger can be found on 6th Avenue between West 20th and 21st Streets decades after his brief dominance. That’s what happens when you install quality…

AFTER concluding my Crescent Street walk in late September 2024 I decided to head east on 23rd Avenue toward the Astoria el to get the N train back to Queensboro…

HERE’S a vintage shot that didn’t make “the cut” in the images shown during FNY’s 25th Anniversary “tours,” a series of live and Zoom presentations I have given during 2024.…

WHERE can this tiled sign pointing the way to Pennsylvania Station, the 7th Avenue Subway and the “Statler Hilton” be found? It’s in an 800-foot long pedestrian corridor beneath West…

In a 1940s Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny cartoon, a mad scientist infuses carrots with super juice, turning Bugs into “Super Rabbit.” In one of the gags, Bugs is in flight…

WHEN in Bay Ridge in spring 2024 I was inching my way down 3rd Avenue when I spotted this venerable sign for the Metropolitan Society of Kardamylians at #7919. According…

WORD comes that Smith’s Bar, the longtime dive with the fantastical neon signs on 8th Avenue and West 44th has gone the way of the dodo and will soon be…

HERE’S a shot from the descending staircase at 31st Street and Astoria Boulevard at the elevated train serving the N and sometimes W. The elevated was built and opened in…

PRIOR to my visit to the NY Sign Museum, I found a good one at the beginning of a walk that took me into Borough Park, Windsor Terrace and Park…

FOR years, one of my ambitions has been to visit Cincinnati. Not for the strange chili or to take in a Reds or Bengals game. It was to visit Todd…

WHEN I stepped outdoors for a bit of fresh air in this October of perpetual sunshine and 75 degrees, I didn’t expect to get the pleasant surprise that I got.…

GENOVESE was formerly a big name in the pharmacy world, operating over 100 drugstores in the NY metropolitan area. The company was founded by Joseph Genovese in Astoria in 1924,…