From the Engineering News for July 6, 1916. Father Pitt knows of no such signs remaining in the city, but he would be delighted to have any remnants pointed out to him.
Concrete Street Signs
The use of concrete as material for constructing streetname signs is novel at the present time, but it has proved practicable. Two such signs are shown in Fig. 9. These were designed and installed recently by the Department of Public Works of Pittsburgh. Both post and signboard are of granite-finished concrete. The design shown at the left is modified as a Lincoln Highway marker. The signplates are separate from the post, being so constructed that they swing about a vertical axis and may be clamped at any desired angle. The letters, of a black cement composition of permanent color, are about ⅜ in. thick and dovetailed securely into the concrete of the background.
2 responses to “Concrete Street Signs”
Having just been at the Fort Necessity Battlefield and National Road Museum today, I’m pretty sure that the marker that they have on display there is one of the cast iron ones. However, I can say for certain that I have seen ones along Rt 40 damaged in a concrete manner, though I can’t say where for sure. Probably around Claysville.
There are a number of old road markers at the Lincoln Highway Experience (the exclamation point is implied) near Ligonier. I can’t recall if any are concrete, but a call to the museum staff might answer that.
Route 40 through Claysville is the old National Road, and the mile markers along it are much older and much more interesting. Many of them are still scrupulously maintained. Ten years ago we published a picture of one of them, which came from an 1894 book in which it was shown as one of the antique curiosities of the route.