IT’S one of a kind…but it used to be two of a kind. Back in 1998, I (nearly) panicked when this copper-clad, vertigris’ed lamppost at the eastbound Queensboro Bridge entrance on 2nd Avenue disappeared. I wasn’t sure it had been landmarked. As it turned out I had nothing to worry about. It was being restored and renovated.
As it turns out, the renovations done in the 40s or 50s to this light stanchion were a hasty, slapdash job, as the masts were actually turned upside down and incandescent ‘cuplights’ were grafted incongruously on. The new restoration, installed in 2001, it must be assumed, adheres more closely to the original 1907 Gustav Lindenthal/Henry Hornbostel design, with 4 opaque globular lamps surrounding one mounted on the central shaft.
However, one mystery remained…the post used to have a partner on the north side of the Queensboro which had been missing since the mid-1970s. As it turns out that lamp, too, has been found. At least, the base has. It was found by none other than Mitch Waxman of the Newtown Pentacle, then of Queens and now of Pittsburgh, in the former Sunnyside Yards lamppost yard on 43rd Avenue awaiting restoration. The Roosevelt Island Historical Society restored the base and placed it near the tram entrance/exit Visitors Center in the island. Additionally, the RIHS also moved the former trolley entrance/exit kiosk a few yards away from the lamp, restored it, and madce it the Roosevelt Island Visitors Center a stone’s throw away from the tram exit/entrance.
An interesting feature of the Queensboro pole is that on its four-sided base, you can see four of the five NYC boroughs. We’ll give you a wild guess which one they left off! And, Staten Island was indeed a part of New York City when the bridge was constructed in the early 1900s; NYC consolidation happened in 1898. Celebrating over a century of existence, the pole is older than most New Yorkers. Not the oldest lamppost in the city (a couple of gaslight posts as well as a couple of 5th Avenue stanchions are older) but quite close.
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