These handsome red, white and blue signs, designed by artist Richard Deon, working with the cooperation of NYC’s Public Art Fund, first appeared in Astoria / Long Island City and Sunnyside in the…

In the Fab Fifties, there was a short-lived craze of drilling kids in school to hide under their desks if the Russkies ever Dropped the Big One. Never mind the…

NYC exploration never fails to surprise. I had just emerged from lunch at Zeke’s Roast Beef, once a weekly trip when I lived in Bay Ridge (Zeke’s was at 8th…

I was waiting for a dinner companion, furtively pacing around on Washington and 4th in the Sixth Borough recently when I happened upon a classic sidewalk sign for Hoboken Cleaners…

Here’s a photo of the station ID plaque on the 50th Street station on the elevated West End Line on New Utrecht Avenue. In 1949 all BMT trains were numbered,…

I was staggering down 91st Avenue in what was western Richmond Hill or eastern Woodhaven just past the old Long Island Rail Road Rockaway branch overpass that some wish to…

104-29 Jamaica Avenue is a long way from Austin Street, but there’s a reason for the name on this worn sign under the Jamaica elevated. In 1954, Bernard Titowsky opened a…

On a recent jaunt in Midwood, Brooklyn I made sure to check on a pair of classic neon drugstore signs I’ve been aware of for quite some time. Unfortunately the…

I admit, I learned cursive writing in grade school but I haven’t used it since, except to write my name (I am one of those people who try to make…

While staggering aimlessly on West Kingsbridge Road one afternoon in October 2011, delirious from unseasonable heat, I encountered this redundant yet evocative half-handpainted sign just east of University Avenue. More…

I’d say there are still  a few dozen of these clocks still in use in the subways, especially on the BMT and IND where countdown clocks have not been installed…

Who knows how long Bartunek Hardware has been on 23rd Avenue between 28th and 29th Streets in Astoria? A long time, judging by this plastic-lettered sign. As New Jersey DJ…