THERE aren’t that many “original” Type F lampposts remaining in New York City. In fact, off the top of my head, I can rattle off the locations where you can still find them “in situ.” There are two or three at the pedestrian bridges over the Belt Parkway in Bensonhurst (which are being demolished in 2022 and 2023); there’s one on West 13th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue in Greenwich Village; there’s one on the pedestrian walkway at 53rd Avenue west of 65th Place in Maspeth, Queens; and that’s about it. There are retro versions aplenty, on West 8th Street again in the Village, on Metropolitan Avenue in Glendale, and on Wyckoff Avenue in Ridgewood. The retros have been deployed sparingly.
However this model was used to illuminate side streets by the hundreds, especially in Manhattan and the Bronx, and in the early 20th Century taller versions were used on main routes and avenues. They were scrapped beginning in the 1950s when NYC’s iconic octagonal poles gradually eased them out.
And then there’s this one, illuminating the walkway in front of 269 Clinton Avenue north of DeKalb Avenue in tony Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. I haven’t been by at night and have no idea if it works (if you live in the area, fill me in). How it got here, who knows by now…it’s likely that even if I knocked on the door and asked, the current owner wouldn’t know. It’s outfitted with a Westinghouse “cuplight” introduced around 1950, and is short even for a Type F.
Proof that the post does indeed light up at night, courtesy Forgotten Fan Rachel A.
Again…an abiding mystery.
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3/30/23