signs homepage

These days, New York City has settled into a uniform (and fairly boring) method of marking its streets: green signs with white reflective lettering. There was a time though, not too long ago, when the city employed quite a few different ways of telling you what street you're on. On this page are just a few of these methods.

NEW! BROADWAY HOUSE NUMBERS in Noho

NEW! SEE THE USA but first see some ancient signage in the Bronx and Brooklyn

NEW! WRITING ON THE WALL. Street signs on buildings.

NEW! RUNNING THE NUMBERS NYC telephone exchanges

COMMIES AND FASCISTS. Their governments may be dead, but some of the remains can be found in NYC

SCHRAFFT'S. Can you dig it? Schrafft's and other signs from Gary Fonville and your webmaster.

NEON NOODLINGS. Neon ghosts from Gary Fonville.

CONEY SIGNS. Before 'renewal' eliminates them here are some strange and wonderful signs around Coney Island..

DIXON CAFETERIA. Briefly in the light, November 2006.

NEON NIGHTS. NYC's classic neon alight.

WALK, DONT RUN. Possibly the final DONT WALK/WALK signals in NYC.

OLD SCHOOL. More ancient or otherwise distinctive business signage.

BRING ME EDELWEISS! Forgotten dairies around town.

MEET ME AT... Those mysterious names over apartment building entrances.

MEDALLIONS OF THE HEMISPHERE . Avenue of the Americas country signs.

BANK YANKIN'. Former banks around town have left their signs.

HAND MADE. 1940s hand-lettered and neon signs from around town.

PLASTERED. 1950s-vintage wall posters exposed at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

BULLETIN POLES. Got a new band or want to start a rally? Stick it on a pole.

CHICKEN SHACKS. Ken-clucky-fried imitators around town. By Mike Epstein of satanslaundromat.

LOWER EAST SIGNS. Decades old signs in a now-vanishing Manhattan milieu.

ETCHINGS OF BETHESDA Scratchiti from long ago at a Central park icon.

BICENTENNIAL JOHNNY PUMPS. The remnants of the Spirit of '76.

HISTORY COLLECTOR. Attorney Lawrence Rogak's eclectic collection of NYC signage.

THE ALSO RANS. They ran for office too...and if they run again, their campaign stickers are still there!

NO BUSINESS LIKE OLD BUSINESS. A look at decades-old signage around town. We'll discuss barber poles, The Matrix and the Mod Squad along the way.

O BROTHER, WHERE "R" THOU? Neon billboards along the Gowanus Canal.

COLOR CODED SIGNS OF THE 60s. The late, lamented DOT street signs get their own page.

TAKE A LIQ-IN' AND KEEP ON TICKIN'. New York's ancient neon liquor store signs.

ONE-WAY EVOLUTION. One-way signs through the years.

THE CORNER. Why is there an old sign called "The Corner" chiseled into a building home to a Manhatan topless joint? We'll strip away the mystery and expose the truth.

PORCELAIN SIGNS. These signs predated today's vinyl/rubber signs. They were made of a porcelain-like material, with raised white letters on a color background. I remember them in Brooklyn, where thye were black, and Staten Island, where they were gold. Here is a survivor.

SIGNPOSTS. These were used to mark the boundaries of real estate developments. Some were constructed when their neighborhoods were new, and the names chiseled into them have been wrong for decades due to street name changes.

STREET SIGNS. The "humpback" design, used in Manhattan for decades beginning in the teens, is gain coming into vogue. On this page, I'll show you an old one and a new one, as well as several old sign designs you'll find scattered around the city.

CLIFTON AVENUE. A sign that marks not only a vanished design, but also a vanishing neighborhood.

PARTITION STREET. A barely visible sign on an abandoned building gives away its street's former name.

EREWHON. A 19th Century British novel , a long-lost Brooklyn bus route, and ancient expressway signs.

Email me at erpietri@earthlink.net!

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