Wandering Greenpoint with Forgotten NY

We participated in what was officially known as Forgotten Tour 30 yesterday. It was Forgotten NY's walk around Greenpoint. Writer and Forgotten New Yorker Kevin Walsh led the tour with an assist from Miss Heather of newyorkshitty. Among the things we learned is that it impossible to walk the streets of Greenpoint in a large group without attracting a lot of attention from curious residents. Encounters ranged from the gentleman who hung out his window and shouted about about the need to get rid of the local drug dealers and the guy who (we are not making this up) humped his window to the woman that showed off and explained her handmade "Rot in Hell" sign directed at a thief and the elderly woman in her third floor window demanding to know why we were looking at her building and insisting that we make sure we called the place downstairs that had probably been closed for 40 years "a restaurant" rather than "a bar."

But we digress. Mr. Walsh, who is New York City's foremost expert on what once was and the interesting history of buildings we see and places we go every day, offered a running commentary during a marathon four-hour excursion. (Truth in advertising: We parted in McCarren Park to shoot some photos of Williamsburg as the group continued for another hour or so with a final destination being the Graham stop on the L Train.) "They just don't make this kind of thing anymore," Mr. Walsh said, for instance, pointing out the Ionic columns and the "Green Man" on the former St. John's Parish House. At another stop, Mr. Walsh noted that FNY deals in ephemera. "This is like a time warp from 1965," he said, pointing at an old storefront. "Enjoy it while it lasts."

FNY's pages on Greenpoint can be seen here and here. We will put more photos in a flickr album and will link them here when we do. We strongly recommend that you keep an eye out for future FNY tours. They're great fun, Mr. Walsh is an excellent tour guide and, at $5 per person, they may be NYC's best bargain.


Former St. John's Parish House with Ionic columns.


The "House within a House," an exterior built around an exterior.


Church said to undergoing a condo conversion.


The group, with Mr. Walsh holding megaphone.