Brooklyn

Amazingly this faded sign on Hewes Street between Broadway and South 5th Streets is pretty much unchanged since I first surveyed it in 1999. Apparently it’s a palimpsest, or one…

So, where were we? In Part 1 I had gotten from the Bergen Street F line station by meandering down Smith and 3rd Streets, over the noxious and noisome Gowanus…

I’m fascinated with Rex Cole apartment building signs. He was a 1930s refrigerator designer. Gary Fonville has the scoop here. 5/27/14

There’s about a 2-week window in the spring and another in the fall when New York City is tolerably walkable. Of course, I will walk in all weather except below…

While Green-Wood and perhaps Evergreens get all the Brooklyn cemetery publicity, there’s another one smack in the center of the borough that’s fairly unnoticed, except if you are looking out…

There was a time when banks were considered to be impenetrable fortresses where our hard-earned savings were kept, insured against robberies, eminently trustworthy and impregnable. Bank architecture reflected that belief…

I was wavering down Dean Street in December 2011 when I noticed its rock collection. For an unknown reason, at least to me, large boulders can be found on the…

After my annual spring visit to Coney Island and its boardwalk Nathans, I decided to have a look around Brighton Beach and its latticework of laneways between what is now…

Gary Fonville sends this sign pointing the way to the Marine Parkway Bridge at Utica and East New York Avenue. If you take Utica Avenue south all the way to…

Once upon a time there was a short Place called Glenada in the  heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant. It’s now known by another name. In the crudely Photoshopped title card (do I…

Once again, Forgotten New York avoided the deluge as a 5-inch rainstorm that Noah would have trouble navigating descended on New York — but two days before the scheduled tour.…

In August 2013, a modest Coney Island landmark bit the dust. The iron pedestrian bridge that had connected the West 8th Street elevated train station to the Coney Island Aquarium…