There are a great deal of relics to be found in Red Hook, including me when I am there, as well as rusting streetcars, waterfront bars, grain terminals and warehouses, and pictured here, classic metalworked wall lamps. These examples, which can be found on the Beard Street Warehouse as well as some of the buildings on nearby Pier 41, are lovingly detailed replicas of wall lamps that were formerly found in heavily urbanized areas where there was little room for a proper lamppost when the sidewalks were too narrow.
These lamps carried many different luminaires, from bare bulbs to radial wave lights (seen here) to “cuplight”, “acorn” or “bell” teardrop lights, up to the modern sodium lights popular since the 1980s. They may eventually support bright white LED lights.
Radial waves were so called because their metal diffusers”radiated” in a circle from the central incandescent bulb, and they were “wavy,” not flat. So-called radial waves used to be standard issue on side streets and in outer boroughs away from urban centers and most survived into the 1940s. By the time I came along in the 1960s they were rather rare. Today all the older examples are gone, but new installations like these have appeared in Red Hook.
1/31/14