In 2026, it’s easy to imagine how oddly modern and strange that modular Donald Deskey lampposts, named for their designer, a commercial artist who also designed the Gleem toothpaste tube,…

In the summer of 2010, I was immensely happy to be able to mount an exhibit at the City Reliquary in Williamsburg that I put together with MTA employee Robert…

SINCE the fabulous Fifties, the default streetlamp in New York City is an octagonal (8-sided) aluminum shaft of varying heights, topped with either a straight mast or a curving “cobra…

THERE are three separate styles of lampposts at the new-ish 72nd Street stationhouse at Verdi Square, where Broadway meets Amsterdam Avenue. Two I am familiar with, while the other one…

On February 14, 2026 cabin fever finally got to me and I tired of cooking in my own juice, and made my first camera foray of the year. As it…

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…

THE main branch of the Long Island Railroad runs east-west through the heart of Queens, exiting the borough into Nassau County in Bellerose. The railroad also diverges into two branches…

THROUGHOUT its 142-year (and counting) history, the Brooklyn Bridge has featured unique road and walkway lighting. I thought I’d show some historic black and white photos illustrating this, courtesy the…

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…

DURING my initial photography for Forgotten New York, sometime in 1998-1999, I stumbled on two or three “Woody” lampposts on the entrance road to the Clearview Park Golf Course, just…

A golden oldie from 1999, here’s a Twin Type F lamppost on Sutton Square at the east end of East 58th Street at the East River. The base of this…

THERE was a time when Staten Island had separate towns, as Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens had before consolidation into Greater New York in 1898. The island was divided into four…