A great technological leap forward for those who prefer their drinking water straight from the hydrant.

This church (not to be confused with the church of the same name in Brooklyn that I mentioned a few posts back) was built in the 1920s on the site of an old Quaker burial ground.

This is the backside of the city DOT's Maspeth Central Shop, where most of the city's traffic and street signs are made.

They're growing in the same tiny, paved front yard as the cinder-block peppers in the previous photo. Not a bad harvest for a couple dozen square feet of concrete!

Maspeth Central is home to the city DOT's sign shop, which makes traffic and street signs for all five boroughs — some 9,000 to 12,000 signs per month, according to this video. (There was a much cooler sign out front here during the Bloomberg administration.)

Located behind Holy Cross Church. A plaque, dated 1961, reads:

THIS GROTTO IS DEDICATED TO ALL THOSE WHOSE LOVE FOR THE BLESSED MOTHER PROMPTS THEM TO SPEND A MOMENT HERE IN PRAYER AND MEDITATION

Commemorating the future pope's overnight visit to Holy Cross Church in 1969, the block of 56th Road where the church is located was co-named Pope John Paul II Way in 2014. You can find about a dozen replicas of the street sign on display outside different houses on the block — a show of pride unique among the hundreds of co-named streets I've walked so far.

In 1969, nine years before he became the first Polish pope (and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years), the future John Paul II spent the night here at Holy Cross Church during a trip around Canada and the US. (As we previously learned, he also visited St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Brooklyn while he was in town.)

Built for the Polish community of Maspeth, this church was dedicated in 1913 and still maintains its Polish identity today.

Here's what the AIA Guide to New York City has to say about the building: "The voluptuous curvilinear verdigris copper steeple makes this church extraordinary. Disney must be jealous."

UPDATE (Oct. 11, 2017): Holy Cross is in the NY Times today: "23 Women Accuse Former Queens Priest of Abusing Them as Children".

Looking out through the fence of Mount Olivet Cemetery