THE early 1950s saw new lamppost designs appearing on New York City streets. The Art Deco, Machine Age and Art Moderne movements in architecture had given rise to new, streamlined forms with little to no extra ornamentation. Gone were the intricate wrought-iron scrollwork and filigree that had characterized such forms as the Bishop Crook and the longarmed Corvington lampposts that had dominated streets since the 1890s. New, octagonal-shafted posts painted silver gradually took over NYC streets beginning in 1950 and gradually replacing earlier forms.
Park Avenue north of Grand Central Terminal, though, gained its own exclusive design that, singularly, was used in Twin forms on the avenue sides and in single forms bordering the median. They were simply designed with brackets and a ziggurat-styled base. They also had “mini-me” fire alarm light brackets. Oddly enough, the Twin versions (Type 42S) were used to illuminate sidewalks as well as the roadway, with single versions (Type 41S) employed on either side of Park Avenue’s cenetr median. The poles coule be seen between Grand Central at East 46th north to East 96th, north of which the NY Central (later Metro North) rose to an elevated structure.
Also oddly enough, the poles were only used for about 15 years. By 1965 they were done, replaced by Donald Deskey poles (5th Avenue’s famed castiron Twins, used in one make or another since 1896, were replaced by Deskey specials the same year.)
A closeup look at a Park Ave. Special mastarm. I can’t ID the building: Comments are open.
1949 newspaper clipping’
1948 article from The American City.
A Park Avenue Special unveiled.
Do the Park Avenue Specials have any kind of legacy in NYC? Yes. The lampposts on the approach roads and plazas at the Brooklyn-Battery (Hugh Carey) Tunnel feature a slightly modified version of the Park Avenue Special.
Photos and clips from the Bob Mulero collection
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1/19/26