The long-hidden ships at the 59th Street station

For years, they were hidden behind scaffolding and plastic tarps along the uptown 1 platform at the Columbus Circle subway station.

But now that construction is finishing up, the original terra cotta plaques depicting one of Christopher Columbus’ ships are back in full, unobstructed view—hopefully for good.

They’re lovely to look at while waiting for the 1 train to limp into the station: The ship is the Santa Maria, billowing on the ocean with seagulls flying beside her sails.

Though the plaques were there when the station opened in October 1904, they’re actually replacements for a 1901 mosaic that’s recently been unearthed. That one didn’t cut it with August Belmont, who financed the IRT. So subway designers buried it behind a wall and came up with something that pleased him.

Progress made building the “great cathedral”

“The great cathedral on Morningside Heights is nearing completion faster than most of us imagine,” states the opening sentence of this New York Times article from November 28, 1909.

Well, not exactly—the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is still unfinished more than a century later.

The cornerstone was laid in 1892, and workers instantly encountered problems.

First, geological snags had to be fixed before the foundation could be poured.

In 1905, controversy erupted when it was discovered that sculptor Gutzon Borglam had created female angels in one of the chapels. Four years later, the Byzantine-Romanesque design was shelved in favor of a Gothic look.

Some of the seven planned chapels were completed, as was the crypt and nave, by the 1930s. Then World War II halted construction, postwar efforts to get things going occurred in fits and starts, and a fire in 2001 destroyed part of the northern end.

But even at only three-fifths complete, it’s still breathtaking and beautiful.

Some cool vintage pizza and Italian food signs

There’s something so wonderful about seeing the word “Ravioli” in giant red letters, as it appears in this technicolor sign in Gravesend.

In the shadow of midtown skyscrapers, this vintage sign for the bland-sounding Park Italian Deli, on 45th Street, still hangs on.

The Espresso Pizza sign, in Bay Ridge, looks like it dates from the Tony Manero era.

I like the ZZ’s in Inwood’s Pizza Haven signage.

The best counterfeiter in 19th century New York

As a young man in the 1840s, William Brockway prepared well for his 50-year career as the most impressive counterfeiter the city has ever seen.

First he got a job working with an engraver who created legit bank notes; he then honed his skills by taking electrochemistry classes at Yale University.

His fake notes, from small bills to $200,000 government bonds, began appearing around 1850, startling the Treasury Department with their accuracy.

After plying his trade in Philadelphia, the now-wealthy Brockway set up shop in Brooklyn and later at 31/2 Division Street in Manhattan.

He was eventually nabbed in 1880, surrendering his plates, which he stored in Queens, in order to get a lighter sentence.

Released from prison in 1887 at age 65, Brockway just couldn’t resist the counterfeiting life. After producing $500,000 in fake notes, he got caught in a sting in Rockaway Beach and returned to prison until 1903.

In 1905, the NYPD arrested him as he walked down Fulton Street downtown, just to get an updated mugshot, perhaps the one above. The “noted old forger” as he was called died in 1920 at age 97.

Check out an example of his funny money here.

Remarkably preserved (yet still fading) ads

I love a catchy product tagline or slogan, like this one found on the side of a building at Sixth Avenue and White Street.

But what was the product? This vintage magazine ad sheds a little light.

This V. Ponte and Sons ad, a little farther south in Tribeca, looks like it was painted just weeks ago.

Here’s an interesting Daily News piece on Mr. Ponte’s empire.

Where was Manhattan’s lost town of Carmanville?

Carmanville was just another little hamlet, like Harsenville and the Piggery District, thriving on Manhattan’s West Side in the 19th century.

Named after its founder, a wealthy contractor named Richard Carman, Carmanville’s exact boundaries are a little unclear.

According to Phelps’ New-York City Guide, published in 1853:

“This is a pleasant village, situated upon the rising ground, on the Hudson River, in the vicinity of Fort Washington.”

Another reference, The Tree Bore Fruit, about nearby Manhattan College and published in 1953, puts Carmenville a good 28 blocks south at 155th Street.

[NYPL postcard of 155th and Amsterdam Avenue in 1917—the remains of Carmanville?]

And according to a 1914 New York Times article, a Carmanville Park once was located at Amsterdam Avenue and 152nd Street.

Still another Times article, published in 2004 to commemorate the opening of the New York City subway, has Carmanville at 125th Street.

A West Broadway building’s valves and hydrants

Lots of New York buildings are adorned with images: faces, animals, cherubs, wreaths, urns, even musical instruments.

But not many feature industrial equipment on its facade, as this little four-story, cream-colored gem in Tribeca does.

Tucked away midblock on West Broadway between Franklin and Whites Streets, the building originally served as the FDNY’s High Pressure Services Headquarters in 1912.

“. . . the iconography on this slender building’s glazed terra cotta facade includes representations of fire hydrants, hoses, valves, couplings, and other tools of the fireman’s trade,” states One Thousand New York Buildings by Jorg Brockman and Bill Harris.

“It is crowned in its central pediment by a fine rendering of the official seal of the City of New York.”