Beach and Hudson
This is my favorite New York street sign, at the corner of, well, Beach and Hudson in Tribeca.
The building was constructed in the late 1800’s, at which time it was common to chisel the main street name on the façade (so, this building at 135 Hudson might have read “Hudson Street”) or attach a sign with the building’s street address (below).
Attached metal sign
The builders went above and beyond and took an atypical approach by memorializing both cross streets in the structure’s brownstone tablets.
Beach Street, named for landowner Paul Bache who controlled much of the neighborhood in the early 1800’s (in other words, the 19th century Robert DeNiro), runs for just a few blocks. It used to be much more impressive, but it lost two blocks to Independence Plaza, a multifamily development, in the early 1970’s, and a block to Ericsson Place, named for inventor John Ericsson who lived in a three-story brick house at 36 Beach from 1841-1888.
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