The white-brick residence at 155 East 38th Street doesn’t appear to be any different than the hundreds of others like it in Manhattan.
Except for one thing: the north side of the building sports a super old-school ad for apartment vacancies—air-conditioned, from 1 to 4.5 rooms!
The old OR exchange stood for ORchard, indicating a Lower East Side realty office ORegon.
This one was spotted on an apartment building in Manhattan’s East teens. ST is for Stuyvesant; Peter Stuyvesant’s bouwerie occupied today’s East Village and Gramercy Park neighborhoods.
Hidden behind a contemporary banner is this swinging 1960s sign, for Frenchman, an air conditioner business on First Avenue and 19th Street.
OR for Orchard? Oregon? Both Manhattan exchanges spanned the East Side below midtown.
Ephemeral New York 