I haven’t yet devoted a page to this genre of streetlamps that appeared in NYC in large numbers in the 1970s. I don’t know the manufacturer (help me out in Comments, lamp mavens!) They’re characterized by square or rectangular green shafts (I haven’t measured them to determine which) and I call them “shoebox lamps” because of the lamp housing, which supports a yellow sodium lamp.
When first introduced these lamps had strongholds such as a few blocks on 5th Avenue south of Madison Square; the “other” 5th Avenue in Brooklyn’s Park Slope; it survives for several blocks on Church Avenue and Avenue D, both in East Flatbush; and I have found isolated specimens in Fordham in the Bronx. On Avenue D, the shoeboxes had a modular design accompanied by street signs and stoplights (see Google Street View). That style was also employed on Jamaica Avenue in downtown Jamaica until about a decade ago when they were replaced with retro-Triboro poles.
In Williamsburg, one and only one specimen remains from a former flock on Bedford Avenue, in the very heart of the neighborhood at North 7th Street. Perhaps I shouldn’t show this one since it’s a prime candidate for replacement one the DOT is tipped off about its location.
Like the Donald Deskeys, the Shoeboxes haven’t been manufactured in decades and when one fails, it’s gone.
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4/10/23
3 comments
They look homemade like they were put together by the professor on Gilligan’s Island.
Look like the streetlights that come with a LEGO set
I’m surprised the DoT hasn’t converted or changed them into LED’s.