950 Sedgwick Avenue, ca. 1934. The 8-story building with the lighthouse is the home of the H.W. Wilson Company, a publishing firm that has been in business for over a century. Halsey William Wilson, who originally founded the company in Minneapolis, produced an old book that explained how he had the lighthouse built in 1929, after moving the business to New York. He wrote that the lighthouse was meant to symbolize the company's mission: “To give guidance to those seeking their way through the maze of books and periodicals, without which they would be lost.” In 1998, the lighthouse was relit after being out of commission for many years to celebrate the company's centennial.

"Construction of subway cut on West 162nd Street, just west of Anderson Avenue, November 1915. 68 West 162nd Street is the building at left." The tunnel was constructed as part of a project to extend the Ninth Avenue El service from 155th Street in Manhattan to Bronx points, while providing a connection to the New York and Putnam Railroad’s new Sedgwick Avenue terminus (the line had previously ended at 155th Street, after crossing the Putnam Bridge). The project was completed in 1918. Though part of an elevated line, transit engineers decided to tunnel through the West Bronx hillside in order to connect the Sedgwick Avenue station with the IRT Jerome Avenue Line (today’s 4 train) to the east. Ninth Avenue El service was discontinued in 1940, but the newer Bronx stations remained in service for the Polo Grounds Shuttle to 155th Street, Manhattan, until 1958.

Entrance to the Park Plaza Apartments, ca. 1995. The Park Plaza, built in 1931, is an early example of Art Deco apartment building architecture in the Bronx. Situated on the west side of Jerome Avenue at 164th Street, the Park Plaza entrance used to face Macombs Dam Park. Today, the southern section of that parkland has been replaced by the new Yankee Stadium. This black and white photo doesn’t do justice to the intricate polychrome terra cotta details that surround the entranceway and enliven the building’s facade.

The 159th Street Yard, ca. 1945. Just north of the Polo Grounds, the 159th Street Yard served the Ninth Avenue El until its closure in 1940. By 1942, the city was accepting bids for the yard to be dismantled, and for its scrap metal to be salvaged for the war effort. Eventually, the yard was cleared for the construction of the Colonial Park Houses (now the NYCHA Ralph Rangel Houses) between 1948-51.

While New York does not have the real estate to devote to massive roadside attractions (think Palm Springs' dinosaurs, the Long Island's Big Duck, or a picnic basket-shaped building), it does have the perfect architectural feature for displaying weird and quirky attractions and advertisements: ROOFS. For more than a century New York building owner have looked up to their highest points as not just unusable real estate, but as the perfect location for signage, fabulous rooftop gardens, theatres, and the occasional giant jug of milk!

FDNY Engine 68, Mack truck from 1978.

Both the building at center (behind the trees) and the large boulder outcropping at right remain today. Just past the edge of the photograph on the right is where the new Yankee Stadium stands.