Brooklyn

This magnificent specimen, albeit missing its glass reflector bowl, is one of thousands that formerly lit downtown Brooklyn’s side streets. Before and just after Brooklyn’s consolidation with Greater New York…

This was one of my periodic walks where I pick out a street and wander as far as my preference goes, seeking out Forgotten material along the way. The group…

Who is that guy, seemingly waiting for the bus, on Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue? General Edward “Ned” Fowler led Brooklyn’s 14th Regiment in many Civil War battles. “The Red-Legged…

Here’s a photo looking south over the Cropsey Avenue Bridge in 1936. The bridge was constructed in 1931.  A bascule bridge, it can lift in the center to allow boats to…

BY GARY FONVILLE Forgotten NY correspondent Remember video stores, record shops, beeper outlets, shoe repair shops and ice cream/ fountain soda stands? These types of businesses once were ubiquitous in…

photo: Rachel Dahill-fuchel Came across this just recently, on Marcy Avenue and Madison Street across from the old Boys’ High in Bed-Stuy. Has an ancient ad recently been uncovered?   Sadly,…

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…