Long Island City

The recent installation of JetBlue's new roof sign over its LIC headquarters is a very slight return to glory for what could aptly be called the cradle of New York's neon industry.  LIC's sprawling wonderland of early 20th century industrial lofts has been home to some of the city's most important neon shops – including Claude Neon's original neon plant, opened in 1924.  And more visibly, for most of the 20th century, these buildings hosted New York's greatest concentration of rooftop spectaculars outside of Times Square. 

The new JetBlue sign presides over the Queensboro Plaza subway station. (T.Rinaldi)

Picture the view from an east-facing office in the Chrysler Building on a dusky midcentury evening.  The Long Island City skyline must have looked like a glowing garden of great roof signs, some beaming out steadily, others blinking in animated sequence, in a range of colors.  When some proposed removing the signs with the opening of the new United Nations headquarters across the East River in the late 1940s, the Queens Chamber of Commerce protested that "the signs serve a useful purpose to the manufacturers and merchants of Queens, and, as such, are quite necessary."   
 

Map showing locations of Long Island City roof signs, past and present. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

 
Ultimately, however, the anti-sign interests won out when the city enacted restrictive zoning in the 1960s that prevented the installation of large new roof signs.  One by one, almost all of the old signs disappeared, sometimes leaving just their massive empty steel framework behind. 

Empty steel skeletons remain like husks to mark the locations of Long Island City's bygone rooftop spectaculars.  (T.Rinaldi)

The JetBlue sign appeared here only after the airline worked with the Department of City Planning and the City Council to change the zoning regulations.  (The City Council eventually approved an amendment that allows large roof signs in a delineated area of Long Island City, with some caveats.)  Unlike the giant LED billboards that crowd over the Long Island Expressway like oversized flatscreen TVs, the JetBlue sign looks more like the signs that once typified the skyline here, with giant channel letters mounted to an open steel armature.  Though the new sign uses no neon (it's all LED), it is a stirring evocation of LIC's mostly-lost landmark spectaculars, some of which are memorialized here below. (See the map above for locations of the signs described in this post.)


1: PEPSI-COLA

(T.Rinaldi)

(Vera Lutter / Whitney)

Erected 1938 by Artkraft Strauss.  Refurbished 1997 by Artkraft Strauss.  Relocated to park after Pepsi bottling plant demolished 2004-2005.  Relocated again subsequently. 

2: SILVERCUP / 42-02 22nd Street

(T.Rinaldi)

Original construction drawings for the Silvercup sign are preserved in the Artkraft Strauss papers at the New York Public Library.  (NYPL)

Erected 1961-62 by Artkraft Strauss.  Originally lettered to read SILVERCUP BREAD.  Copy altered after building taken over by Silvercup Studios around 1982.  Tubes removed, sign floodlit at night.

3: EAGLE ELECTRIC / 23-10 Queens Plaza South

(Pamela Talese)

(T.Rinaldi)

Faced west toward Manhattan over vehicular ramps serving Queensboro Bridge and elevated subway trains, just behind the Silvercup sign.  A particularly memorable sign ("Perfection Is Not An Accident").  Steel framework now used for ordinary billboard.

4: PAN AM / 41-43 41st Ave.

(www.nycsubway.org / Doug Grotjahn / Testagrose Collection)

(T.Rinaldi)

Erected c. 1960 to face south-west over Queensboro Plaza.  A lesser-known sister to the famous sign over Pan Am's Park Avenue headquarters, erected around the same time.  Massive steel framework now empty.

5: LOCKHEED CONSTELLATION / 41-15 29th Street (?)

The Lockheed Constellation sign's animation sequence, re-created from a series of photos printed in Signs of the Times magazine in 1946.  (Signs of the Times, May 1946 / Used with permission)

The Chatham-Phenix building today. (T.Rinaldi)

Debuted March 9, 1946, "to hit automobile and limousine traffic to and from La Guardia Airport." Positioned over the Chatham-Phenix building facing west towards Manhattan.   Designed by Elwood Whitney of Foote, Cone & Belding, advertising agency for Lockheed; built by Continental Signs Inc. in connection with A.H. Villepigue, Inc.     Sign and framework gone.  (See Signs of the Times, May 1946).

6: MAGIC CHEF GAS RANGES / Queensboro Plaza

View east from the Queensboro Plaza subway station, with the Lockheed sign visible to the left of the clocktower, and the Magic Chef spectacular seen in the distance over the train.  (nycsubway.org / David Pirmann collection)

Faced east over Sunnyside Yards, visible to commuters on the IRT Flushing Subway (the 7 train) and the LIRR. Sign and framework gone.

7: APPLE TAG AND LABEL / 30-30 Northern Blvd.

Apple Tag and Label, looking towards Manhattan with the Ravenswood power plant beyond.  (T.Rinaldi)

Roof sign mounted to four sides of the plant's water tower, visible from LIRR and the Astoria subway.  Future uncertain as the warehouse below seems to be in the midst of a suspended conversion.


8: PIERCE-ARROW / 34-01 38th Ave.

(Period Paper / amazon.com)

An early 20th Century sign that sat atop the works of automaker Pierce-Arrow.  The sign is long gone but the building survives.

9: BREYERS ICE CREAM / 34-09 Queens Blvd.

The Breyers Ice Cream sign over Queens Boulevard. (nycsubway.org / Joe Testagrose Collection)

Remains of the Breyers sign today.  (T.Rinaldi)

Oddly shaped framework over the Manhattan-bound platform at the 33rd Street Station echoes the handsome leaf-shaped logo of Breyer's Ice Cream.  According to Fabulous Philly Foods: "The leaf logo was designed by Henry Breyer [founder William Breyer's son].  Most people think it's a mint leaf but really it's a briar-bush leaf."

10: PACKARD / 32-02 Queens Blvd.

(Signs of the Times magazine, Jan. 15, 1914, used with permission)

The Packard plant today.  (T.Rinaldi)

Erected c. 1910 by National Electric Sign Co.  Sign 100’ long with letters 24', 17' and 12' high, "visible for four miles".  As at Pierce-Arrow, the sign is gone but the building remains. (See Signs of the Times, Jan. 15, 1914.)

11: SWINGLINE STAPLES / 32-07 VanDam Street

(Signs of the Times Magazine, April 1952 / Used with permission)

(T. Rinaldi)

Unused steel armature over the CapitalOne bank sign recalls the giant Swingline Stapler that previously occupied this rooftop.  Swingline sign was built by Artkraft Strauss, around 1952. Original dimension 110' long by 58' high, featuring animated "stapling machine" 3600 times actual size. (See Signs of the Times, April 1952.) 

12: DENTYNE CHICLETS / 30-30 Thomson Ave.

(Greater Astoria Historical Society)

The old Adams Gum plant today, sans-signs.  (T. Rinaldi)

A tryptych of roof signs advertised products of the Adams Chewing Gum Co. from the roof of its plant on Thomson Ave., which is still one of LIC's more noteworthy industrial buildings (though Adams has long since decamped).  The center portion of the sign was updated to advertise Certs mints in later years, before all three signs vanished completely.

13: EVEREADY FLASHLIGHT & RADIO BATTERIES / 30-20 Thomson Ave.

(Signs of the Times magazine, Feb. 1928, used with permission)

A Claude Neon installation first illuminated on May 14, 1925, making it one of the first neon signs in the city.  (See Signs of the Times, February 1928.)


14: LOOSE-WILES SUNSHINE BISCUITS (ET.AL) / 
29-10 Thomson Ave.

The Sunshine Biscuits sign in its original configuration, c. 1914.  (Signs of the Times magazine, Nov. 1914, Used with permission)

Long Island City's ICDNY sign still uses Sunshine's original steel framework.  (T.Rinaldi)

"The tens of thousands of travelers on the busy highways and on the Long Island Railroad trains, as well as many residents of Manhattan, might easily wonder about the identity of this monster industrial building, if on the roof there did not appear an electric sign of unequaled proportions with the words, 'LOOSE-WILES SUNSHINE BISCUITS'" (See Signs of the Times, Nov. 1914). Built c. 1914 by the National Electric Sign Co with the George Patten Co.  Original dimensions 591 feet long, each letter 20 feet wide, lit with 3,928 ten-watt tungsten lamps.  Retrofitted with neon tubes by Rainbow Lights, Inc, 1926 (see Signs of the Times, October 1926).  Later re-lettered for Executone Intercoms after the mid-1950s.  Re-lettered again in 1985 when the building was made-over as the International Design Center New York, featuring the center's Massimo Vignelli-designed IDCNY logo.

15: THYPIN STEEL / 49-49 Hunters Point Ave.

Thypin Steel.  Stone tabet identifies the company's founder as Abraham Thypin.  (T.Rinaldi)

A modest sign facing Manhattan from a low-slung industrial building just north of the Long Island Expressway.  Stone tablet on the building dates Thypin's founding to 1910, and the building (along with the sign perhaps?) to 1950. 

16: PARAGON OILS / 29-02 49th Ave.

(R. McEnery / trainsarefun.com)

Paragon signs, then-and-now.  (T.Rinaldi)

Faded painted signs on the walls of this old building sandwiched between the railroad tracks and the Long Island Expressway recall the Paragon Oils spectacular that once stood on the rooftop of the Queens Subway Building.  The sign advertised Paragon heating oils on one side, and Texaco (which apparently owned Paragon) on the other.  The steel framework remains, still in use for ordinary billboards that occupy Paragon's perch today. (See the Newtown Pentacle for more on Paragon and the Queens Subway Building.) 

THE NEW JETBLUE SPECTACULAR: SOME VITAL STATISTICS

• Overall Dimensions: 75' long by 45' high (from the roof)

• Largest Letter: 25'4" high

• Made By: Going Signs (as subcontractor to Turner Construction)

• Design: HLW International, MS Signs and Going Signs

• Components: Steel channel letters with acrylic faces

• Illumination: High efficiency LED light strips

SEE ALSO:

• YouTube video posted by Going Signs showing the JetBlue installation in fast motion.
• JetBlue sign coverage at the New York Times and DNAinfo.
• The signs in old photos at the Greater Astoria Historical Society, nycsubway.org and trainsarefun.com. 

SPECIAL THANKS to Ross Savedge and Jillian Perrius for moral support in the production of this post.

Sign Safari: Cross Bay Boulevard

On a recent Sunday before Thanksgiving I ventured out to a far away place I'd never really been before: Howard Beach.  Since December 2003 this place-name has been familiar to many as the southern terminus of the AirTrain serving JFK International Airport.  My accomplice and I, however, came for the neon.  So while most of our fellow disembarkees wheeled their suitcases off the A train and headed for the tarmac, we turned and headed toward Cross Bay Boulevard.


New Park Pizza, installed c. 1960. (T. Rinaldi) 

Joe Kunkel of Franklin Neon had tipped me off to three old signs here that he thought I'd like to see.  Joe thought right.  The short hike from the A train brought us first to New Park Pizza, at 156-71 Cross Bay Boulevard.  New Park has occupied this corner since 1956.   Its wonderful neon sign, I was excited to discover, is the work of the LaSalle Sign Corp. of Brooklyn, whose surviving works include the Papaya King sign at 86th and 3rd in Manhattan.  "Pizza pie is original," I am told by Justin Langsner, LaSalle's third-generation proprietor, of the big pizza pie with flashing plumes of steam at center.

LaSalle's other surviving works include the Papaya King sign on Manhattan's Upper East Side.  (T. Rinaldi)

New Park has the unfortunate distinction of having been the scene of the tragic hate crime that put Howard Beach on the map back in December 1986 - 25 years ago this month.  (Long story short: a racially-motivated scuffle between patrons resulted in the death of a 23-year-old black man, prompting a period of heightened racial tension throughout the city.)  The incident is recalled in director Spike Lee's 1989 film Do The Right Thing.  The film's dramatic climax takes place in the glow of a fictitious neon sign heralding Sal's Famous Pizza – a subtle reference, perhaps, to the New Park (though the sign in the movie bears a distinct resemblance to that of the V&T Pizzeria by Columbia University in Manhattan).   

Neon sign over Sal's Famous figured prominently in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. (T. Rinaldi)

The bad business of '86 is but a distant memory at the New Park today.  Maybe it was just my state of feverish hunger after a day spent gallivanting amid the ruinous splendor of the nearby Bayside Acacia cemetery, but I found the pizza at New Park to be exceptionally pleasurable. 

New Park Pizza. (T. Rinaldi)


Sufficiently fortified, we saddled up for the short march over to our next destination, the fabulous Lenny's Clam Bar.  Some readers may remember Lenny's for its charming televised advertisements that graced the late-night airwaves throughout the tri-state area back in the 1980s. Lenny's is easy to find, thanks to a force-multiplying assemblage of neon signs that make its presence known up and down the boulevard. The joint was jumping, valets busy shunting shiny cars in and out of the little parking lot next-door. I suggested a glass of wine at the bar, but my traveling companion complained of a late-onset hangover (5pm).  We decided to come back on a quieter night.

Full-tilt neon at Lenny's Clam Bar.  (T. Rinaldi)

From there it was on to the other Lenny's of Howard Beach: Lenny's Pizza, at 164-02 Cross Bay.  I had hoped to report on a New Park-versus-Lenny's taste test challenge; sadly, this was not to be, as Lenny's burned down just a few weeks before our visit.  We found the windows boarded, signs dark. Of the signs, there are two: one older, facing the side street, and a more recent number fronting the boulevard.  The newer (and I suspect the older) is (are) the work of Super Neon of Bensonhurst.  The good news is that both signs have survived the fire intact and will hopefully live to glow another night.  Meantime, we concluded our Howard Beach neon safari with some unfinished business on Cross Bay Boulevard.  

Get well soon, Lenny's Pizza!  (T. Rinaldi)

IN OTHER NEON NEWS:

• Cambridge Liquors' great vertical sign on 39^th and 8^th in Manhattan glows anew.

• Casa Oliveira Liquors' 80-year-old swing sign in Greenwich Village is wearing a new coat of paint.

• Mayfair Chemists' relic sign has vanished from Seventh Avenue South.

• Thanks to Project Neon for a great lecture at LandmarkWest! this Monday.