Historic Districts Without Terra-Cotta Street Signs: A Survey
The following correction appeared in today’s New York Times:
“NEW YORK A picture on Tuesday with an article about neighborhoods’ long wait for historic district street signs was published in error. (It was also published in error on Sept. 30, 2007, with an article about a proposed historic-district designation for Fiske Terrace and Midwood Park.) The photograph showed West Midwood, not the Midwood Park-Fiske Terrace historic district. The article on Tuesday, using information from the Historic Districts Council, also misstated the estimated number of districts that lacked signs. It is as many as 28 districts, not as many as 37.”
For clarity’s sake, here is the information we gathered about which districts do not have terra-cotta historic district street signs:
| Name | Date Designated | Signs? | Approx. Number of Blocks |
| Bronx | |||
| Grand Concourse | Calendared 2009 | No | 25 |
| Perry Avenue | 2009 | No | 1 |
| Brooklyn | |||
| Bedford Stuyvesant/
Expanded Stuyvesant Heights |
Calendared 1993 | n/a | 23 |
| Borough Hall Skyscraper | Calendared 2010 | n/a | 5 |
| Crown Heights North | 2007 | No | 13 |
| Crown Heights North II | 2011 | No | 15 |
| Crown Heights North III | Calendared 2011 | n/a | 18 |
| DUMBO | 2007 | No | 19 |
| Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory | 2007 | No | 2 |
| Fillmore Place | 2009 | No | 2 |
| Fiske Terrace/Midwood Park | 2008 | No | 12 |
| Ocean on the Park | 2009 | No | 1 |
| Park Place | Calendared 2010 | n/a | 1 |
| Park Slope Extension | Calendared 2010 | n/a | 24 |
| Wallabout | 2011 | n/a | 1 |
| Manhattan | |||
| Aubodon Park | 2009 | No | 4 |
| East 10th Street | Calendared 2011 | n/a | 1 |
| East Village/Lower East Side | Calendared 2011 | n/a | 13 |
| Greenwich Village Extension 2 | 2010 | No | 12 |
| La Martine Place | 2009 | No | 1 |
| Madison Square North | 2001 | No | 10 |
| Manhattan Avenue | 2007 | No | 2 |
| Murray Hill | 2002 | No | 5 |
| Murray Hill Extension | 2004 | No | 2 |
| NoHo Extension | 2008 | No | 4 |
| NoHo East | 2003 | No | 4 |
| Riverside – West End Extensions | Calendared 2010 | n/a | 53 |
| SoHo – Cast Iron Extension | 2010 | No | 12 |
| Tribeca South Extension | 2002 | No | 2 |
| Upper East Side Extension | 2010 | No | 7 |
| West Chelsea | 2008 | No | 7 |
| West End – Collegiate Extension | Calendared 2010 | n/a | 16 |
| Queens | |||
| Addisleigh Park | 2011 | No | 20 |
| Central Ridgewood | Calendared 2010 | n/a | 28 |
| Douglaston Extension | Calendared 2008 | n/a | 5 |
| Douglaston Hill | 2004 | No | 6 |
| Fort Totten | 1999 | No | 20 |
| Ridgewood North | 2009 | No | 4 |
| Ridgewood South | 2010 | No | 9 |
This works out to 27 historic districts and extensions without street signs with 12 more (possibly) coming up. This survey is not definitive – we have not visited each of these districts recently with the express purpose of checking on the signage. If there are errors, please let us know in the comment section. Once again, HDC believes that it is not the LPC’s responsibility to order, manufacture, or install these signs – THE CITY should be doing it and the agency who is most suited to the task is the Department of Transportation. They should know where the signs should go, they have the expertise in installing them, they have the manufacturing capacity to make signs and the crews on the streets replacing them every day. This is a project tailor-made for DOT and there is no obvious reason why they are not doing it.