In 1997 the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission did a survey of the remaining early 20th Century lampposts that were scattered around town. Your humble webmaster wishes I could’ve been involved, and if they ever do another one, I’m their boy. Anyone have an in with the LPC?
Unfortunately, there are plenty of landmarked posts that the Department of Transportation has seen fit to destroy. To their credit, some of these posts have been rehabilitated and replaced, good as new, but in most cases, they were summarily removed and destroyed.
The posts shown on this spread, taken from the document, are long gone. The LPC’s notes are incorrect about the post on the left. It indeed was the last Twin Type F on Manhattan island, but in 2005 I discovered another on the campus of SUNY Maritime College in Soundview, Bronx. However, that one, as well, has gone. The city has been populating selected streets with new retro-style Type Fs of late, but no twin versions.
The twins on the right, at A.C. Powell Boulevard (7th Avenue) and West 153rd, were finally taken down about three years ago. There are, however, some samples remaining on the Riverside Drive viaduct at West 158th Street.
1/21/14