Wild New York Has Moved!

We’re now Ephemeral New York, keeping track of all things thrown in this city’s collective remainder bin. Check us out at ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com.

The little smushed-in house

Looks like it belongs in the Midwest, not near the Gowanus Canal. 

The scrappiest Yankee of them all

Coverage of Billy Martin’s funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in March 1987, courtesy of News 12 Long Island. Billy and Richard Nixon were friends? Who knew? 

 

In honor of opening day

Reggie Jackson is scheduled to throw the first pitch today. I was never much of a Reggie fan, but I sure did like his candy bar. Amazingly, in the mid-90s, my local Gristedes on West 14th and 7th Avenue still had them for sale. 

We are the dead

This bronze World War II memorial sits in front of Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic church on Carroll Street between Third and Fourth Avenues. More than 2,000 names are listed—all men from one parish. They died that we might live, indeed.

Sunday afternoon at Smith and Ninth

Something glorious happens when the F train emerges from underground and rises to one of the highest points in Brooklyn.

A midtown hotel room for $2.50 a night?

Not a bad deal at the Hotel Irvin, at 308 West 30th Street. Opened in 1925, the Irvin started out as an apartment house for “business women,” according to a New York Times article from January 25, 1925. “Gayety and charm are the elements the decorators sought after,” the article states. Hopefully the “all night elevator service for girls who come home late” and the “tactful woman superintendent” were not eliminated when it switched over to a hotel…I’m guessing in the 1940s.

The man in the chair on West 14th Street

Above a doorway between a furniture store and a French restaurant is this hand-painted carving of a man writing by candlelight. What it once signified may be lost to the ages. Anyone feel like guessing?

Paddling down the Bronx River

On May 10, the Bronx River Alliance is hosting its ninth annual Amazing Bronx River Flotilla. Boat launch is on 219th Street and the Flotilla ends at Hunts Point River Park. Find out more info and register here.

Animals with jobs

Pulling a carriage full of tourists all day long is tough work. Time for this old boy to turn in to his stable on 38th Street and 12th Avenue.