Brooklyn

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…

Sunset Park’s boundaries are under dispute (like any other Brooklyn neighborhood) but to me it’s rather simple: Upper New York Bay waterfront, 39th Street, 9th Avenue, the Bay Ridge Branch…

By GARY FONVILLE Forgotten NY correspondent Since the advent of home PCs, Facebook, Text Messaging,  Email, Cell Phones and many other technologies, communication has changed greatly as a result.  Who would’ve thought…

I admit it — I have been quite bullish about the subway lately in light of the three new 2nd avenue Subway stations that opened January 1, 2017, and the new Hudson Yards western terminus of the #7 train that opened in September 2015. Let me clarify by saying I’m bullish about subway station design.

Some of the buildings on Franklin Street in Greenpoint bear the stamp of the old C.A. Friberg Iron Foundry, #2 to 8 Driggs Street. There is no Driggs Street at…

There’s a certain small percentage of FNY readers who will recognize what this is right off the bat. I wouldn’t blame the rest of you, since you’re not lamppost fanatics.…

Remember the stories you read about the 49er goldpanners sifting gold nuggets out of rubble? I suspect not as much gold was found that way as the stories would have…

I found an American flag and a Norwegian flag flying by a seemingly empty yard on 62nd Street between 8th and 9th Avenue. I knew I had come upon one…

Today I once again wind the clock back into the past with a look at my newly acquired Hagstrom Queens map from 1922. The border of Brooklyn and Queens is…

I was recently tipped off to the downloadable presence of some 1922 Hagstrom maps of NYC, at least 4 boroughs minus Staten Island, on the New York Public Library website…

Brooklyn once had a cast-iron lamppost design to call its very own.    Lamps that looked like this, known as the Old Edison Post No. 4, once dominated the downtown…

A café on the corner of Van Brunt and Dikeman Streets in Red Hook carries the name of one of New York’s forgotten forts.  At old Pier 39 facing Upper…