The low-rise, mostly commercial stretch of Brooklyn’s 18th Avenue running through Bensonhurst has a historic feel. That’s due in part to the circa-1829 New Utrecht Reformed Church and replica Liberty Pole facing the avenue. But a pocket park a few blocks away at 18th Avenue and 82nd Street contains an even more curious artifact from the former colonial town of New Utrecht’s pre-Revolutionary War backstory. In the center of the park is a replica of New York City’s oldest mile marker. The original sandstone marker was erected on this corner in 1741 to help guide travelers on Kings County’s few ..read more

Before Best Buy, before Circuit City, before the Wiz, and even before Crazy Eddie’s, there was Friendly Frost. Never heard of Friendly Frost? I hadn’t either. Then I saw this wonderful two-story faded ad, which is still advertising appliance brands that no longer exist on the side of a graffiti-covered red brick warehouse at Fifth Avenue and 19th Street in Brooklyn. I’m not sure when Friendly Frost got its start. But by 1951 the chain was operating seven stores in New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area. Friendly Frost outlets popped up at 89-58 165th Street in Jamaica, Queens, on ..read more

Ephemeral New York has been inviting the public to join in on walking tours of historic Riverside Drive for a few years now, and tickets are still available for the upcoming tour this Sunday, July 21, at 1 p.m. What makes a tour of Riverside Drive unlike any other in New York City? The Drive is one of Manhattan’s most scenic and dramatic avenues. It’s also a place of legend and mystery, especially during the Drive’s early decades in the Gilded Age. Which mansion built in the early 1900s has a tunnel leading to the Hudson River? Who was the famous stage star who lived in a Beaux-Arts townhouse ..read more

Artist John Sloan enjoyed depicting the outside world of the Greenwich Village neighborhoods where he made his home and studio—painting women on rooftops, a flower vendor selling his wares, and a cat streaking across pristine snow in his apartment backyard, among others. In 1912 he lent his talents to an indoor scene. Sloan lived on Perry Street at the time, and he was a frequent visitor of Renganeschi’s, an Italian restaurant inside an 1830s brick dwelling at 139 West Tenth Street. Unlike many of the other Italian restaurants opening in the Village at the time, Renganeschi’s was described as ..read more

The Bowery is many things, but first and foremost it’s New York City’s oldest road. This former Native American footpath once spanned Manhattan from the Harlem River almost to the southern end of the island. When the Dutch arrived in the 17th century, they used this dirt trail as a carriage drive so the burghers running New Amsterdam could tend to business downtown and then escape to the rural expanses of their bouweries, or farm estates. These bouweries lined “Bowry Lane,” as it became known, for several miles. (Director-General Peter Stuyvesant’s bouwerie was in today’s East Village.) After ..read more

The only thing more delightful than coming across a faint faded advertisement on the side of a building is looking closely and realizing there might be two ads, one painted over the other. This kind of signage is known as a palimpsest—writing that’s been altered or covered by fresher writing, with traces of the original still remaining. This ad was spotted at one end of the Bowery near Chatham Square. “Turkish” can be clearly deciphered; this was an ad for a cigarette brand called Turkish Trophies, which were available to New Yorkers at least since the turn of the century. Enticing ads in new ..read more

Reginald Marsh was a true street artist—painting colorful, exaggerated images of New York City’s commuters, lovers, barflies, sailors, bargain shoppers, Coney Island thrill seekers, and Bowery bums, mostly through the 1920s and 1940s. His depictions of the urban masses—inspired by his study of the Great Masters of the Renaissance during a trip to Europe in 1925—conveyed the energy and excitement (and sometimes despair) of early 20th century life in Gotham. Marsh tended to focus on crowds and not individuals, which is why one notable painting in particular seems out of step. “H. Dummeyer Bar ..read more

New York City has always loved a party, and that’s never more true than on Independence Day. Since the early 19th century, Gotham has held official July Fourth celebrations filled with artillery firings, parades, boat races, and massive fireworks displays. But in the pockets of every neighborhood, more informal Fourth of July festivities take place, as the richly detailed illustration above reveals. This is July 4, 1834, looking south at Broadway and Cortlandt Street. Modest wood and brick buildings are festooned with American flags (with only 24 stars at this point). Military men head north ..read more

Three years ago, a post popped up on Reddit that caught my attention. It contained an image (below) shot from Roosevelt Island of a pretty, candy-pink house on the roof of an East Side apartment building. “Anyone know what this pink house on top of a building is?” the Redditor asked. I knew I had to find out. Turns out this storybook-like, brightly colored house with two chimneys and a greenish peaked roof is the penthouse on top of 434 East 52nd Street, a prewar Bing & Bing apartment residence designed by Emery Roth that opened in 1930. The house, which looks like it belongs on a suburba ..read more

The marker is not easy to see. Gray, rough, and chipped, this rectangular block sits in the ground behind a chain-link fence just inside Sea Gate—the gated community at the end of Coney Island at West 37th Street. Affixed to each side of the marker is what looks like a copper plaque that reads “Railroad Property: Use by Public Not Authorized.” It’s a strange find at Sea Gate, a waterside community of 850 homes, per the New York Times. Sea Gate began in 1899 as a private summer retreat for members of the Vanderbilt family as well as the Dodges, Morgans, and other wealthy Gilded Age clans. Toda ..read more