Last week, I got an email from photographer Thanassi Karageorgiou about a really cool little find on Sixth Avenue at 43rd Street.

Grace Plaza, above the School at the International Center of Photography, is currently undergoing renovations. But, if you take a moment to look at the construction wall…

>>>Continue reading “Looking Through The Sixth Avenue Peepholes”

After way too long, I’m finally getting ready to do a new installment of New York, You’ve Changed, in which I compare shooting locations in an older NY movie to the NYC of today (Ghostbusters, Taxi Driver, Rosemary’s Baby). This is one of my favorite features for the site, but unfortunately, researching the locations, taking the pictures and writing the posts takes . . .

→ Read More: Weekend Homework: Help Me Find These Locations!!

First No Balloons in the Library, then You Can’t Stop Oprah…And now this:

Then again, why not? “Notice: Employees Only,” “Danger High Voltage Keep Out,” and while we’re at it, “Don’t Be So Bad Kids.” Works for me.

-SCOUT

From the 20′s-30′s, First Avenue is better known as Hospital Row. Lined with numerous medical facilities, including Bellevue and NYU Hospital, there are a lot of fascinating buildings to be found…

…but my favorite is the old Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital at 30th & 1st:

Bellevue Psych is one of those buildings that looks absolutely beautiful when the sun is shining, the bricks have been scrubbed, and the vines and trees are in full bloom. But in the colder months, when the skies are overcast, the grime begins to build up and the plant life dies, man does that tone change quickly.

In particular though, I’ve never seen anything in Manhattan quite like the old Bellevue Psych grounds, located through this gate off of 1st Ave. Visit in the colder months…

…and I swear, it feels like one of the most haunting places in New York:

Forgotten and dilapidated, it’s like a horror movie set designers dream come to life. I’m a huge H. P. Lovecraft fan, and this is pretty much what I picture the grounds of Arkham Sanitorium to look like:

>>>Continue reading “The Creepiest Hospital Grounds in Manhattan (Arkham Asylum in NYC?)”

For anyone new to the site, in January, my friend found a pit bull chained to the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, left to die overnight in a horrendous snowstorm. I posted her story here, and despite the fact that about 1 in 800 rescue pit bulls finds a home, she became a sensation, and I was inundated with offers to take her . . .

→ Read More: A Quick Check-In With Penelope, The Rescued Pit Bull