Brooklyn

THERE was a time when Blimpie ruled the roost as far as fast food submarine sandwiches (known by a variety of names elsewhere in the country) in the New York…

LEHIGH Valley Barge Number 79, a 30’x90’ railroad barge built in 1914 with a wood exterior, is the last of its kind still in existence. During New York’s era as…

In New York City, the smallest possible number you can get when adding the numbers of both cross streets that have numbers is two, in the East Village, where First…

THERE’S a curious diagonal road, in two separate pieces, in Borough Park called Old New Utrecht Road. Shown above is the two-block piece between 14th Avenue and 36th Street that…

On a recent jaunt in Borough Park, I strolled over to Alben Square, where New Utrecht Avenue meets 11th Avenue and 46th Street, to check out the old Loew’s 46th…

THIS one stumped me for quite a long time. This painted ad on the north side of Fulton, across from Macy’s, stumped me for years, but Of New York has scooped me…

I have written before about Beverly Road in Brooklyn, which runs from Kensington all the way east through Flatbush to the border of Brownsville, since the city really can’t decide…

UNLIKE the late, great Lou Rawls, I’m not a “natural” man. By that I mean that in my walks around NYC, I much prefer the more urban areas, as the…

PICTURED here is the annual Transit Museum subway trivia quiz held in downtown Brooklyn each January, which attracted hundreds of participants every year for several years, with the last one…

THE Gil Hodges Community Garden is a green spot in gritty Gowanus, at Carroll Street and Denton Place. It was founded as early as 1982, but over 30 years later…

GLENMORE Avenue is a narrow, one-way route (running east to west) a block south of Liberty Avenue; it formerly was continuous to auto traffic, but in 1955 the Howard Houses,…

In the days before central plumbing, you had to attend to the necessities somehow. New York City used to feature dozens of public baths. A remaining one, on 268 East…