A painted ad at #315 West 53rd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues has perplexed me since I first saw it when I worked in the area between June and December 2019. It’s either very old, as I suspect, or was painted to look that way for a movie set. Its worn condition indicates it’s the former. Just enough paint has worn off to make it tantalizingly difficult to make out.
We’ve got “Croton,” “Nights,” “From 100 to…”, “Discount for Cash,” “Electric Cars Pass Premises,” “To Depot,” “Commutation Grand Central,” “60 Rides for $7.00” (real money when this was painted), “Call For Map.”
The ad was revealed when a layer of whitewash was removed sometime in 2016, according to Street View. My guess it has something to do with streetcars; long ago, there was a streetcar depot a block north on West 54th. I should also add that between 1890-ish and 1942, en elevated train, a connection between the 6th and 9th Avenue Els, rumbled above the street and depending on the height of the tracks, this ad may have been visible from passing cars.
For more info, see #10 in this post from Untapped Cities.
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2/17/25