A few weeks ago, I was working on a shoot in an amazing 100+ year-old mansion in Long Island. In the hallway leading from the dining room into the kitchen, I noticed something on the wall near the butler’s pantry… This glass-covered box: Later, I was in the living room… …And noticed this button on…
I was scouting recently in northern Long Island and happened to drive by this old moving/storage company garage… I love the vintage sign, complete with the old telephone interchange – in this case, ORiole refering to OysteR Bay, NY. Confirming the sign’s authenticity, the company’s telephone number still ends in 6-0114 to this day. However,…
One of the more tedious aspects of film locations work is writing up directions to set. You have to do them from multiple starting positions, include return directions, give “Commercial route” versions for trucks and make sure the bridge clearances are high enough, only to ultimately have every Hollywood-type call you frantically on the morning…
Almost a year ago, I wrote a post about my favorite building in midtown, this chopped-in-half brownstone at 19 W 46th Street. The other day, I got a note that a Lego fan had built a Lego version of the building based on my pictures! Great job! Most of the time, a building this quirky…
I received a very unexpected email last week asking if I’d like to check out a hidden prohibition-era bowling alley in Queens. Uh, yes, definitely interested. I took a trip to see it today – Just incredible: According to the owner, the bowling lanes were hidden under boxes and boxes of junk. After researching the property,…
By the time I got there, it was gone. The World’s Fair, you ask? Nope. I am referring to something far more unbelievable… That’s right: Queens once had an honest-to-God Parks Department-approved fountain named “Fountain of the Planet of the Apes.” And if that’s not odd enough, an identical fountain on the opposite side of…
Staring down 54th Street from 31st Ave in Woodside, Queens, a street lined with boxy brick apartments and a scant bit of foliage, one would not expect to find one of the oldest cemeteries in New York nestled in amongst the buildings… But there it is, halfway down the block: the Moore-Jackson Cemetery, founded in…
I must have walked past the entrance to Marble Cemetery on Second Ave (btw. 2nd & 3rd Sts.) countless times before I first noticed its existence (and I’m guessing I’m not the only one). Sandwiched between two buildings is this iron gate (technically 41 1/2 Second Ave), which is locked 99% of the year. Even…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about PS 110, an elementary school located just south of the Williamsburg Bridge… …whose roof is lined with a number of really great stone owls (a parliament of owls, to use the correct phrasing!). I notice the owls every time I cross the Williamsburg Bridge, and I mentioned in…
Halloween is the only time of the year that I actually pay attention to store window displays, and I’m always impressed by the offerings on Bleecker Street in the West Village. I took a bike ride down Bleecker today to take some pictures (I’m convinced there’s some sort of secret neighborhood association that spreads extra…