 These corner streetsigns
were once beige and blue. Birds and weather have beaten them
black and blue. Corner signs of this style were installed in
the late 60's, with each borough getting a distinctive color,
much as their much smaller predecessors had. |
The Bronx signs were white against navy blue, Brooklyn's
were white against black, Queens' were blue against beige, Manhattan's
were black against yellow and Staten Island had black, or blue
against orange.
In the mid 80's, NYC decided to unify the color schemes with the
national standard, white letters against green. Today, the older
pre-greenies are exceedingly rare. Careful lookers, however, will
not just spot them, but some of their even rarer predecessors,
from the late 40's to the early 60's.
POSTSCRIPT 11/97: Incredibly, this city continues to annihilate it's skimpy historical infrastructure remains. The 2 signs above, along with their cattycorner brothers across the street, have since been replaced, with the politically correct and nationally conformist green corner signs. I photographed these signs not 4 months ago. Could my featuring them here have drawn unwanted attention to their existance, resulting in their removal?