It started as a street-level window display in Dave Herman's former apartment: old bottles and a set of false teeth found on the banks of Dead Horse Bay; souvenir postcards from the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows; a subway placard from a retired No. 7 redbird; a jar of "devil nuts," an aquatic fruit found in the Hudson River—bits and pieces of New York history lovingly offered to the passing world. When Herman noticed a growing number of lost-looking visitors in Williamsburg, he painted a compass rose on the side of his landlord's one-story brick building, along with directions to several major intersections within walking distance. Passersby were invited to take a recorded audio tour of his artifacts by pressing a doorbell. Newcomers naturally assumed that Herman was an eccentric old pack rat with too much time on his hands; longtime residents of the area knew better but still considered Herman's grandly named City Reliquary as little more than sweet and improbable. They... More >>>