Bay Ridge

March 2019 marks Forgotten New York’s 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, I’ve re-scanned about 150 key images from the early days of FNY from 35MM prints. In the early…

Here’s what was the Loew’s Alpine Theatre at 5th Avenue and Bay Ridge Avenue (69th Street) in 1941. The Alpine was opened in 1921 and was a movie theater from…

I set my H.G. Wells model time machine for 1965, not too long ago this time, and so was not overly dizzy from whizzing through the years. After awhile you…

I make no apologies for being a nostalgist. I spent my first 35 years in Bay Ridge and return often, first to visit my father, who passed away in 2003,…

A consequence of the construction of various bridges connecting Staten Island to surrounding territories has been the end of its myriad of ferry services. The empire of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt…

There are a pair of dead-end streets, Ridge and Bennett Courts, on 72nd Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues in Bay Ridge, my old hometown, so I’ve always been aware…

Were you aware the MTA makes street maps? They certainly do and they are available for perusal at every subway station. Now, the MTA’s version of New York City is…

Lampposts  nearly completely made of wood in various styles (hence my nickname for them), first appeared in the 1930s in use on the series of parkways spearheaded by Robert Moses in…

Bay Ridge’s Adelphi Academy was founded in 1863 by two teachers from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, Aaron Chadwick and Dr. Edward S. Bunker, and opened on Fort Greene’s Adelphi Street, a…

At the unusual intersection of 6th Avenue and 66th Street in Bay Ridge, a couple of doors from the Antenna King, sat an important part of my boyhood and young…

The Antenna King, Henry Langan, ruled the rooftops of Brooklyn from founding the store in 1967 at 6th Avenue and 65th Street on through the rooftop satellite dish era in…

Fort Hamilton is the crown jewel of Bay Ridge, an active fort on the southwest tip of Long Island since it was completed in 1831. It is situated on the…