I love spotting these on random New York corners. But I’ve never seen one designed like the sign carved into a brick walkup at Hudson Street and St. Luke’s Place, with house numbers in the mix.
East Harlem has lots of century-old tenements—and lots of corner carvings. Too bad “109th Street” was obliterated from this one at Third Avenue.
A corner sign in Chelsea features stately lettering. It’s at Ninth Avenue and 19th Street and is in bad shape, but still doing its job of letting passersby know where they are—at least in part.
Tags: addresses carved into buildings, Corner street signs New York City, Cross Streets on Buildings, New York City buildings, New York street, Tenement buildings, tenement Chelsea, tenement East Harlem, tenement West Village
Ephemeral New York 
January 25, 2013 at 2:32 am |
Good eyes!
Thanks for providing these.
January 25, 2013 at 3:45 pm |
There are a bunch of these in the east 90’s as well, makes sense as the el’s used to run on 2nd and 3rd aves. 94th and 3rd has a great one that I thought may be obliterated soon as the building was being repainted but the current owners made sure it was touched up to look brand new.
January 25, 2013 at 3:54 pm |
I just love these. Keep up the good work.. These articles get forwarded all over the US
January 25, 2013 at 6:09 pm |
Thanks, I love them too! I’ll have to check out the one at 94th and 3rd. Yorkville is a great neighborhood for corner signs.
January 27, 2013 at 4:22 am |
Have you seen any in Washington Heights? I think I have but I haven’t been around there since summertime.
January 27, 2013 at 5:53 pm |
I don’t think I have seen any in Washington Heights. I’m on the hunt!
July 19, 2021 at 3:55 am |
[…] early 20th century address markers can be found on many tenement corners throughout New York City. In some cases, they may have served to let elevated train riders know […]