Amazing traces

ARCH ENEMIES Time and graffiti have taken a toll on the Seaman Arch, shown here in 1910 (above left) and, opposite, this month.

New York, being the American capital of commerce, insists on constantly renewing and reinventing itself. The old Metropolitan Opera House, at West 39th Street and Broadway, and the original Pennsylvania Station were knocked down without a great deal of protest until after the fact. History is wiped off the map in all five boroughs continuously; recently, residents of the Middle Village neighborhood in Queens were horrified when Niederstein’s, a Metropolitan Avenue roadhouse dating to the 1850s, was razed to make way for an Arby’s. In nearby Maspeth, locals have been battling to rescue St. Saviour’s Church—designed in 1847 by Richard Upjohn, the architect of Trinity Church—from developers looking to demolish it.

Yes, much of New York’s distinctive architecture from the 19th and early 20th centuries is disappearing. Yet history still pokes through in innumerable ways. On Sixth Avenue sits a building that houses Burlington Coat Factory and Staples; the facade is ornamented with terra-cotta letter Ks, remnants of the J.L. Kesner Company,the tenant from 1911 to 1913. A couple of blocks north, at 24th Street, the corner edifice home to the late (and for some, lamented) Billy’s Topless still bears signage for the much older Koster & Bial’s vaudeville theater. A twin-towered Pizza Hut on Northern Boulevard in Woodside is the former New York and Queens County Railway Company trolley terminal. 

Have a good look around on your next stroll. The designs that don’t fit their context, the lettering that seems unfashionable, the fading iconography—these elements tell us stories about our city’s prior inhabitants, how they did their business and what mattered to them. The following pages proffer five out-of-the-way itineraries—one in each borough—for visiting some of New York’s egregiously overlooked treasures. See them before they’re obliterated by the city’s perpetually swinging wrecking ball.

Forgotten New York is in stores Tuesday 26 (HarperCollins; hardcover $29.95, paperback $19.95). Kevin Walsh will be signing books and leading tours around the city from October 14–21; for details, go to forgotten-ny.com.

Choose a neighborhood:

• Inwood
• Astoria/Long Island City
• Flatbush
• Parkchester
• Rosemount

Also in this article:

• And you are...?: Many New Yorkers who dominated the cocktail chatter of their day soon faded out of view.
• Off the tracks: The trains don't stop anymore at these shadowy subway stations.