Brooklyn

On a rare clear weekend day in February, I strolled through Williamsburg, a neighborhood I have had a hard time getting a handle on as it is ever-changing; when I…

BACK in April 2024, I walked 5th Avenue in Park Slope, since I haven’t done so in a few years. Recently, I’ve been more drawn to commercial strips because of…

I was tipped about a pair of vintage-looking Brooklyn street signs here at New Utrecht and 17th Avenues in Bensonhurst. They look real but were actually installed as movie props,…

SOMETIMES, the only thing that keeps ads painted on walls from fading into oblivion is the quality of paint used. Can it stand up to pollution and rain and can…

SADLY, the last time I was able to get a photo of this enamel and metal sign on Auburn Place in Fort Greene was in 2016. It was paired with…

HERE at the IND Fort Hamilton Parkway station on the IND serving the F and G lines, we have a case of unplanned redundancy in the fare control area. The…

AS the years pass, more and more of the “faded ads” that I encountered in Forgotten NY’s early days 25 years ago are disappearing or ravaged by the elements. And…

OFTEN, developers give names to apartment buildings that can be seen above the entrances. Family members, wives, husbands, children are often used; presidents or local politicians; but occasionally, developers will…

HERE’S the front doorway of #5-#7 Ten Eyck Street at Union Avenue. Ten Eyck Street runs in three pieces in East Williamsburg, through the Williamsburg Houses, where it’s reduced to…

BEFORE Brooklyn was a borough, it was a city; before that, it was a smaller city; before that, it was a small town; before that, a few huts by the…

FOR years I had hunted Margaret Court. No, not the famed Australian tennis champion in the 1960s and 1970s. I was seeking a short alley in Homecrest, a subdivision of…

In 1877, the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway was incorporated, opening the next year in 1878. It originally ran from the Prospect Park entrance at Flatbush and Ocean Avenues…