May 2013
10 posts
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Death of Brooklyn's New St. Clair Restaurant...
I’ve longed been intrigued by the New St. Clair Diner, which was at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street in Boerum Hill. The name was slightly evocative of something sophisticated — it had a whiff of old New York — and the fact that the sign said it had been there since 1920 made it all the more intriguing.
But for one reason or another, I never got around to going....
We're all still connected to New York Telephone
The New York Telephone Company. The name still carries nostalgic heft for New Yorkers of a certain age. The Bell company that served New York has taken on many names in the past couple of decades, including NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, and since 2000, Verizon. But at the end of the day, the DNA of New York Telephone is etched into the network that operates under the Verizon name these days.
Every so...
Far out! Suburban New York train schedules...
Grand Central Terminal is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. A remarkable exhibit on the station’s history recently closed at the terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall. From time to time, I’ll post some photos from the show.
My first stop is these trains schedules. They’re sure trippy — pun intended! They are for two of the three lines that would become Metro-North in 1983, and...
Pre-9/11 Manhattan skyline turns up on a truck
Longtime readers of The Retrologist know I have undertaken a years-long effort to document surviving depictions in signage of the pre-9/11 skyline.
Delivery trucks are a reliable source for these tributes of sorts to the Twin Towers. I found this one Friday morning, parked outside another New York icon that is thankfully very much still with us: The Chrysler Building.
READ MORE of my WTC...
Lincoln Highway gem: A single-arch McDonald's...
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Highway, America’s first transcontinental, paved highway that was dedicated in 1913, The Retrologist will be posting occasional posts inspired by my travels along and near this pioneering road.
Last weekend, some friends and I set off from Times Square, where the Lincoln Highway begins, and explored as much of the road as we could until we...
Albanese Meats & Poultry keeps the old-school...
On Elizabeth Street in Nolita, on a block that is filled with nouveau chi-chi shops, bars and boutiques, sits the 90-year-old Albanese Meats & Poultry.
Opened by Vincenzo Albanese in 1923, the store, originally located directly across the street, is a slice of old New York in the gentrified neighborhood. — Jefferson Siegel
Jefferson Siegel is a New York-based photographer and a...
'Bates Motel' haunts Houston Street
I’m certainly a fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” but hadn’t been terribly excited about the new A&E series “Bates Motel.”
That is, until I saw this sign a few months back on Houston Street. If you read this blog with any regularity, you know I’m entranced by the glow of neon. The older the better, but anyone making a smart use of the tubing...
A Lower East Side building is showing its...
At 155 Rivington St. on the Lower East Side, an “underwear” sign is still visible behind a roll-down gate.
Records show the building was built in 1910. According to a comment posted on the Forgotten NY web site, a man named Sam Berlin, along with his two brothers, once sold fancy underwear at this location.
Most recently the space was home to a bar called St. Jerome’s,...
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April 2013
9 posts
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Graffiti encroaches on Twin Towers mural in East...
On East 9th Street at Avenue A, graffiti slowly encroaches onto another reminder of the original World Trade Center. The mural has been there for years.
Text and photo: Jefferson Siegel
Jefferson Siegel is a New York-based photographer and a contributor to The Retrologist.
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March 2013
12 posts
Thank you Easter Bunny and other Retrologist...
I published the following in amNY five years ago, but it never gets old.
We’re easy marks for holiday sentimentalism on Urbanite, so when Easter comes around, we expect to turn on the tube and get some retro comfort. Here’s a look at some of the holiday goodies Urbanite craves:
1.) That M&M commercial with the kids
This commercial for M&Ms is warmly remembered as the...
Ghost sign for disco-O-mat, home of cheap records
A “ghost sign” for the disc-O-mat record store haunts 7th Avenue at 36th Street.
The store was once part of a small chain of record stores around the city.
An article in Billboard magazine from January 29, 1977 noted that this location was planning to reopen following a January 16, 1977 fire that caused serious damage to the upper three floors of the six-story building.
The...
An old OTB is becoming a Wendy's in Turtle Bay
From horse legs to pigtails: The old OTB logo was still on the window recently. (Rolando Pujol)
The closing of the city’s Off Track Betting locations in December 2010 stripped another layer from the old-school gritty New York that went from being demonized to fetishized in the space of a generation.
The beloved Winner’s Circle OTB on West 38th Street recently had its gorgeous neon...
Starbucks' New York coffee mug features 1 World...
The Starbucks mug with the new World Trade Center
Last summer, The Retrologist broke some “news:” A depiction of 1 WTC was spotted in the wild, on the side of a plumbing company truck. The Retrologist post got picked up by a few places and was one of this site’s most retweeted stories.
The use of 1 World Trade Center’s image as just another symbol of New York —...
Extra! Extra! A rock climber's paradise in...
The other day, I was roped (pun intended) into doing some rock climbing at Brooklyn Boulders in Gowanus. This is not exactly a Retrologist sort of place, but I quickly discovered that the building that houses the colorful rock walls was once home to something that also involved movement — the delivery trucks of the New York Daily News.
The eagle-eyed rock climber is more likely to be...
At a Greenwich Village McDonald's, the Twin Towers...
The Retrologist will turn one on April 10, and one thing longtime readers know about me is that I like to document surviving images of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the way they were depicted BEFORE the horrors of 9/11.
You know, when the Twins were just a reflexive way to represent New York in a work of art, or an advertising campaign, or a mom-and-pop’s logo emblazoned on...
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February 2013
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