Astoria

I am always seeking out mass transit “missed opportunities.” I think one of these is at the north end of the elevated Astoria Line, which runs above 31st Street in…

At Astoria Square (Astoria Boulevard, 21st Street, 27th Avenue and Newtown Avenue) is one of Astoria’s more distinctive buildings, the former L. Gally Furniture store. In 1889 L. Gally established…

BETWEEN 2011 and 2018, before the Zoom era began in earnest, when I wasn’t working I would report two or three times a week to the The Quinn-Morisco Funeral Home,…

STEINWAY Village in northwest Queens was a small company town that was instituted by William Steinway, son of German immigrant Henry, who had moved his operations to Astoria on the…

At the Powhatan Democratic Club, 41-05 Newtown Road, the sign looks much the same as it did in 1940. The political club is now officially known as the Powhatan and Pocahontas Democratic…

Photo courtesy: Thomas Rinaldi, Facebook Cricket Wireless recently moved out of 30-29 Steinway Street in Astoria, a hop, skip and jump away from my former haunts at the Quinn Funeral…

WHILE in Astoria on a partly sunny Sunday, I found a pair of plastic-lettered signs on the corner of 44th Street and 25th Avenue for Gašpar’s Deli. First of all,…

I was stumbling around Astoria in September 2022 when I found something interesting on 45th Street just south of 31st Avenue. I have always found Astoria and Long Island City…

EARLIER in 2022, FNY discussed Cloverdale Boulevard, one of the “lesser” boulevards found in Queens, a borough in which quite a few main routes are known as “Boulevard.” In the…

It was a pleasant day in May and I had completed the Astoria Village leg of my planned excursion that included AV, the west end of Astoria Park, and then…

I’ve said repeatedly to watch carefully when walking under elevated trains. Not for falling debris (not that that can’t happen) but for outmoded or unusual signage or lamp fixtures, because…

SOMEDAY a definitive book, or even a webpage, will be written about the hundreds of war memorials that are scattered all over the five boroughs, ranging from tiny to massive.…