Park Slope

In this preternaturally mild summer [2014] only the exorbitantly high transit fares and my volunteer work at Greater Astoria Historical Society are keeping me from roving all over town most…

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…

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…

I’ve wanted to get a picture of this lamppost for a long time. It’s on 17th Street and 3rd Avenue in Park Slope under the overpasses at the junction of…

Though I have been writing Forgotten New York for a long time — I started in 1998 — there are still adventures I haven’t yet considered, such as a simple…

457 12th Street, just off 8th Avenue in Park Slope, is an Italianate-style wood frame house constructed before 1869. When Park Slope began to be populated in the years just…

After my Park Slope, Brooklyn  9th Street exploration in August 2012 I turned north on 7th Avenue and discovered why one of Brooklyn’ old nicknames was the City of Churches,…

I return to Park Slope eagerly and often. When I resided in Bay Ridge (1957-1993), I would often hike in Prospect Park from the Park Slope end east to the…

One of the more mysterious practices that I’ve noticed, and have mulled over in in the back of my head for years, is some banks’ practice of installing their own…

One of Brooklyn’s oldest street signs is hiding in plain sight in Brooklyn’s premier residential neighborhood (or so the papers and magazines would have you believe). At the corner of…

From the ForgottenBook: The Montauk Club is a slice of Victoriana that would be pretentious if it weren’t so enjoyable and fun to view when walking past. The club itself…

Mobil ad, Flatbush Avenue near 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The word “mobile” comes from the Latin mobilis, movable and movere, to move. Mobil Oil is a descendant of…