I haven’t been able to get outside NYC much… unemployment gives me the time, but not the money. However, I have ambitions of expanding Forgotten New York to include the general metropolitan area. Not having a car, I depend on the local transit network, and the NJ Transit weekend schedule on the Pascack Valley Line, which runs through Hackensack, county seat of Bergen County, is particularly parsimonious, with just one train every two hours. I was in Hackensack to visit the White Manna hamburger joint, and I had a little time to wander around Hackensack a bit. I intend to go back because I missed the domed country courthouse and the Reformed Cemetery with its ancient headstones, but I did notice the street signs.
Now, these are, without a doubt, the handsomest street signs I’ve seen in quite awhile. I have always enjoyed the black and gold color combination anyway, and these signs are still found on selected corners around town. They’re an older design–some are in better condition than others. The type font resembles and old font named Erbar (but it isn’t) while on others the lettering is in Highway Gothic. In most other parts of town you see regulation green and white and blue and white signs.
Berry Street and Berry’s Creek recall Major John Berry, a Colonial-era Deputy governor of New Jersey in the early 1700s.
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9/12/18