I’ve likely shown this one before, but it’s an amazing survivor on 7th Avenue and 1st Street in Park Slope. In 1964 the Department of Traffic, as it was then known, began installing a new species of street sign on NYC streets, made of flexible vinyl attached with metal braces. The first generation of this type sign was color-coded by borough, with Brooklyn receiving black signs with white type in Highway Gothic.
9/18/14
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There should be an article some time on the evolution of these color-coded street signs, as they were installed in spits and spurts: 1964-65 (apparently all of them 24″ long, including a ‘BROADWAY’ sign on the northwest corner at West 52nd Street in mid-Manhattan that didn’t last too long; and a ‘NASSAU ST’ sign in lower Manhattan – it wasn’t until about 1965 or ’66 that they started using 36″ long signs for long street names). The ‘7 AV’ variation seen here (which, with different color scheme, was also in evidence on some Manhattan streets within that avenue below West 23rd Street) would apparently date to c.1970, as such sign variants were top-heavy with the ‘Series D’ weight of Highway Gothic for ‘AV’, ‘ST’, ‘BLVD’ etc in 3″ character height. Original 1960’s signs would have had ‘AVE’ in 3″ high ‘Series C’, and c.1965-66 signs would have also had 5″ high characters which hadn’t been used before (and wouldn’t afterwards).
The black and white 7 Av sign has survived. Today is July 22, 2019 and the sign is still there. I hope it remains there forever.