This is the last, or at least among the last, Lawrence Street signs on the BMT platform I’ve always known as Lawrence Street. The station name was wiped from the MTA subway maps last year, when a connection to the IND A/C/F trains at the Jay Street/Metrotech station was opened. (And that station had for years been known as just plain Jay Street; until 1969, a transfer was available from the first stop of the Myrtle Avenue El there). Lawrence Street is now also called Jay Street/Metrotech.
Here’s a little mind blower for you. Whenever I’d go by this station on the train as a kid, I’d notice the remarkable station signs, which featured a large L and the rest of the word, awrence, in much smaller type. Of course the standard black and white signs came in much later.
So, pretty much the only claim to fame this small street had, which runs for 3 or 4 blocks in downtown Brooklyn, has been taken away from it. When I was a kid, my father and I would visit a camera shop on Lawrence and Willoughby. It could have been a Willoughby’s.
This sign looks like someone’s been using it for target practice! I wonder what the story is behind the apparent bullet damage?
It’s not bullet damage. Someone tried to pry it off the girder (probably for a souvenir), and the enamel tends to chip like that when you do. Interestingly enough, all of the signs that said “World Trade Center” were stolen from the Chambers street “E” train terminal platform. The few that weren’t stolen immediately, had similar chipping…. Until they disappeared too.
My stop when I was in college at NYC Technical College.
Yes, I remember the signs with the big L too (anyone have a photo?).
It was also unique because the station walls were never tiled, as if no one ever cared.
My stop when I attended Polytechnic Institute of NY (formerly Brooklyn Poly).
I can still remember shopping at A&S (now Macy’s) in downtown Brooklyn and using this subway station. Also buying penny candies (Walnettos) from the vending machines that were wedged into the station posts.
I remember when i went to City Tech also getting off there, i would ride the M train all the way around the bend from Fresh Pond to Lawrence.
Yes – I remember using the Lawrence St stop after shopping at A&S. All seems so long ago – downtown was so special once. The department stores on Fulton St – anyone remember Martin’s – somehow represented quality.
Oh my gosh, A&S, Martin’s, McCrory’s and Korvette’s!
I remember when A&S had elevator operators. As a young girl in the 50′s it seemed like the grandest store in the world at Christmas time! There was a little ice cream bar in the basement level where I’d buy strawberry parfaits.
And of course there was the Automat right nearby. The best Mac and cheese!