From the ground, you’d never know there was anything special about the building at 409 East 60th Street… …but, as anyone who’s ever walked across the Queensboro Bridge knows, it has a pretty great rooftop secret… An abandoned rooftop greenhouse! And sadly, it won’t be around for much longer… The now-ruined skeleton covers the entire…
After watching the premiere of Boardwalk Empire last night, I was really excited to check out the Atlantic City set for myself, which was built in a parking lot in northern Greenpoint. A locations friend who lives in GP pointed me to a vacant lot on Commercial Street and Clay Street, and I hopped on…
Over the past few months, I’ve been getting letters from readers about an abandoned school in Garden City, Long Island, called St. Paul’s, on the verge of being demolished. Last Friday, I hopped the train with my bike and camera to have a look for myself. It took less than five minutes to bike to…
Is it just me, or does anyone else get creeped out by the bizarre knock-off Mickey rides often found outside bodegas around New York? I have no idea why it’s automatically delightful whenever Disney anthropomorphizes animals, and I know this is the exact same idea…but something just feels off about it. Also, the idea of…
Continuing my search for a usable elevator in Greenpoint, my boss had given me a few addresses to check out, and as I approached 61 Greenpoint, I noticed a really great building detail I’ve never seen before… Lining the top floor windows are rows… …of pencils! Why Pencils? 61 Greenpoint was once part of the…
Our 2010 roadtrip began where all the great expeditions of history have set out: White Plains, NY. You’re not going to get very far on a road trip without a car, and as neither I nor my girlfriend own one, we had no choice but to rent. I spent much of last week researching the…
Over the past three days, we’ve taken a look at the grounds of Hempstead House, the opulence of its first floor, and the decay of its basement. Today, I’m finishing off the series by taking you to the upper floors and beyond. We start by heading to the second floor via the master staircase… Though…
We’ve taken a look at the exterior of Hempstead House, as well as the beautifully restored rooms of the first floor. Heading down the hallway at the south end of the mansion, it’s time to go a little deeper… At first, you come to a series of more generic rooms: A parlor in the south-east…
This is Hempstead House today: In comparison, the below picture was taken in 1940, shortly after Hempstead became a home for refugee children from England, who had been sent to the US because of World World II. The caption reads: “Huntsmen three play safari in the jungle that once composed the formal garden. Pith helmets…
When you own an enormous castle like the one pictured below, and it’s only used to house your servants and horses… …you’re living in a world few of us can imagine. Castle Gould, based on Kilkenny Castle in Ireland, is located in Sands Point, NY (about 45 minutes from the city), on property once owned…