LOOKING through NYC scenes from the 1930s and 1940s available on 1940s.nyc, the Staten Island scenes occasionally exhibit lamppost varieties quite different from those seen in other boroughs, such as this one on Richmond Terrace, a telephone pole with a mastarm different from the scrolled ones used in Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens (Manhattan had mostly standalone lampposts without telephone poles, which were phased out after the Blizzard of 1888). The iron is wrought in a much different style. None of these mastarms have survived even in the island’s hidden backwaters. One item that is the same is the fire alarm indicator globe mounted above the acorn incandescent light, as was the practice until the 1960s.
Then I remembered I had seen an old rusted lamp I found on Street View in North Philly, North 5th and West Montgomery, in a factory district. This is probably the last old iron lamppost still surviving in Philly and it’s used now for sign installations.
Now look at the mastarm. It’s a duplicate of those long ago mastarms in Staten Island; the difference being, this is a standalone lamp, and Staten Island had mastams attached to telephone poles.
My guess is that the same manufacturer made both…
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3/17/26