This is an early version of the Type F reverse-scroll NYC streetlamp at Elm and Pearl Streets in, I’d say, 1910 or so. The Type F was used on side streets in a smaller version with less ornamentation, and could sometimes be used on north-south avenues like 7th (though it was replaced by Twinlamps fairly early on there).
NYC has returned to larger versions of the Type F and installed them on East and West 8th Street in Greenwich Village and Wyckoff Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn, though they’re sparingly used.
Another interesting aspect of this photo is that this corner no longer exists, as it is now smack in the middle of the heavily guarded Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building and Court of International Trade, which went up in the 1970s. Elm Street itself no longer exists: the southern portion became Elk Street, while the northern end became Lafayette.
And that’s not all: the subway entrance kiosk in the distance allowed entrance to the Worth Street station on the Lex IRT, which was closed in 1962.
The buildings in the left advertise printing supplies and typewriter ribbons.
It is an ever-changing city.
11/26/12