LARGE cast-iron stoplights I call “Wheelies” first began to show up in the late 1920s as wide boulevards began to appear and traffic got heavier. They appeared on narrower roads as well.
I initially thought that the wheel design in the ironwork was a nod to the nautical nature of NYC’s oceanside location, but many Forgotten Fans have written and said they believe it represents an automotive car wheel used in the 1910s-1920s.
These models were still somewhat common by the early 1960s, but by then, the guy-wired poles were supplanting them at a rapid rate.
Recently, Forgotten Fan Scott Swett passed along some photos of Main Street in Covington, Virginia, where in the 1990s, the Alleghany Historical Society (then Covington Historical Society) placed reproductions along Main Street to commemorate the town’s industrial history. Per the Historical Society, castiron streetlamps were produced by the thousands by the Covington Machine Company in the 1920s and shipped to major cities on the East Coast. This was easily accomplished as The Chesapeake & Ohio railroad ran through the city. It’s possible that all of NYC’s castirons were produced in and shipped from Covington.
Covington is Virginia’s second smallest city at under 6000 residents. It’s located in the northern part of the state on the Jackson River near the West Virginia border. I confess I had never heard of it previously, but that’s true of 98% of American towns.
Covington’s retro “Wheelies” are a near exact match of NYC’s fleeting few remains; but as you can see the mast is shorter and while the rest of the post is painted black, the actual wheels are green. Scott Swett also passed along a shot of an original Wheelie he found in his yard, placed there by the original owner when the house was built in 1924, when he purchased his property.
I wonder if the NYC Department of Transportation could acquire a batch and equip them with modern 3-color stoplights.
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2/26/25
6 comments
I remember seeing a few of those in Williamsburg, Brooklyn when I was a little boy. They always held traffic lights. I always thought they resembled the wood “artillery” wheels used by so many auto manufacturers back in the 1920s.
A wagon wheel, I would have guessed?
The streetlamp in my yard (in Covington, Virginia) was placed there by the original owner when the house was built in 1924. He was an attorney who did a lot of work for the big paper mill here and for other industries in town. One more badly rusted Wheelie sits in front of a house a couple of miles west of town. Other than those and the ones you found in NYC I’m not aware of any other surviving originals. Some may still exist in other East Coast cities.
Also, based on a web search I think the wheels represent a 1920s car wheel rather than a 1920s steering wheel.
I found a 1947 article in which the former manager of the Covington Machine Company stated that some 11,000 Wheelies were shipped to New York – 36 train carloads.
Also, do you know if the two damaged Wheelies near the Park Avenue Viaduct ramp at the Helmsley Building are still there?
Still there because they are landmarked. The DOT removed the stoplights and grudgingly uses them to hold signs.
Thanks.