Hiding in plain sight in the city’s tenement districts are the names of streets that intersect at certain corners.
Chiseled into a cement plate, they’re the 19th and early 20th century solution to figuring out where you were a 100 or so years before the GPS on your phone could do it for you.
Not always in the best condition, like this East Harlem example above, these corner carvings are charming and fun to come across.
The best neighborhoods to find them: the Lower East Side, East Village, Hell’s Kitchen, East Harlem, and the brownstone enclaves of Brooklyn.
Sometimes you only find one street name—Like Mott Street here at Broome Street, with a tiny T that looks like it was added by hand!
Tags: Corner street carvings, Hell's Kitchen street, Lower East Side Street, Mott Street, New York tenements, old New York street signs, Old street signs, street addresses carved into buildings, tenement neighborhoods
Ephemeral New York 
December 5, 2012 at 2:48 am |
Brooklyn has a few too. I think Williamsburg and Bushwick have some corners like these.
August 26, 2019 at 4:47 am |
[…] could also exist just to give these drab tenements a little pizzaz. In any event, more of these street addresses in Manhattan and Brooklyn can be found […]