I arrived in Little Neck on July 1, 2007, although, living in Flushing since 1993, I was quite aware of the Queens neighborhood tucked into its northeast quadrant just west of Nassau. In fact, I looked at an apartment in Little Neck before taking the one in Flushing where I lived 14 years before moving to Little Neck, where I’be now lived for almost 11 years now.
When I moved into Westmoreland Gardens in 2007, I noticed two streetlamp fixtures dating from the 1960s were still holding firm and illuminating Marathon Parkway and 40th Avenue, respectively. (I know…I know. Me and streetlamps.) The one shown above is a General Electric M400 mercury, with a full glass reflector dish. This particular model battled the Westinghouse OV-25 Silverliner for supremacy on NYC streets from about 1962 until 1972 — just 10 short years, not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. Mercury lamps shown greenish white and were mostly replaced by yellow sodium lamps in NYC in various makes. In the 1970s, though, the Department of Traffic was not nearly as fastidious in wiping out everything that had come before, so a few hundred mercuries were left in place, like this one.
I was very happy to find this GE M100 on 40th Avenue, right outside my apartment complex. In the 1960s, and before that, NYC had a pecking order or an order of importance for streetlamps. The fixtures with glass reflector bowls must have been more expensive because they were assigned main routes in the boroughs and built-up areas, while the fixtures without them went on side streets, for the most part. This model dueled with the Westinghouse MO-8 on the side streets.
In 2009, 99% of them were wiped off the streets by the DOT, which installed Cooper Lighting model OVZ on all streets, both main routes and side streets; the old hierarchy was gone. After a reign of just 6 years, the DOT again replaced most NYC streetlamp with bright white LED fixtures in various makes such as Cooper and Leotek. There are some pockets of Coopers hanging on, but they’ll succumb eventually.
But I miss the mercs.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
2/4/19
5 comments
I grew up in the middle house on LNP between 40th and 41st Ave. across the street from your complex. Is this lamp on the corner?
I can see your building from my bedroom. The scoop was on 40th between Little Neck and Westmoreland.
Correction on the luminaire type. The luminaire installed under the 2007-2011 relighting program was the Cooper Lighting model OVZ, equipped with a solid state ballast and a stray voltage indicator. Except for the test installation of GE Evolve led luminaires on Steinway Street between Broadway and 34th Avenue ( with integral surveillance cameras), I don’t believe that GE luminaires have been installed by NYC for many years. The 1991 energy conservation program (that replaced 60,000 existing 400 watt
high pressure sodium vapor luminaires with 250 watt luminaires) utilized the American Electric Lighting model 113 ( or 115).
Got it, revised the page
Miss the old mercs, too. BTW, Its Westinghouse MO-8 , not OV-8.