SIGNS OF BAYONNE

by Kevin Walsh

I was loitering in Bayonne the other day and noticed, even as its streetlamp luminaires are being replaced with one new model, imparting a strangling uniformity, its street signs remain delightfully disparate.

Some corners have brand-new vinyl signs, with Helvetica or Cleartype, those fonts of bureaucracy, while other ones, made of stamped and pressed metal with the street names in pleasant bas relief that go back to the 1940s or 1950s, are still hanging around.

Why not? They do the job they were made to do after yea so many decades.

10/4/12

4 comments

Adele October 4, 2012 - 11:28 am

Nice to see you were in Bayonne, my current abode. There’s some great old gems hidden in Bayonne.

Reply
Kevin Walsh October 4, 2012 - 10:05 pm

Tell me where to track them down.

Reply
Bill Mangahas October 4, 2012 - 6:56 pm

“I was loitering in Bayonne the other day and noticed, even as its streetlamp luminaires are being replaced with one new model”

Looks like all of NJ is going the route of replacing high pressure sodium and mecury vapor streetlights with energy saving LED lights.

It seems with LED street lights, we’re returning to a white light that we first seen with the first mercury vapor “cobra heads” of the early 60’s.

Reply
pre war walt October 14, 2012 - 2:48 pm

I just got back from the huge annual antique car show in Hershey ,Pa. that was on for the past 5 days. Among the 9,000 (that is not a typo) flea market spaces with car bits, was a sign exactly as shown, but with different street names so I bought it, and brought it home. I googled the street names and it seems it could have come from Northport, N.Y. Great web site, thanks for your continued effort and devotion to the subject.

Reply

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