Antique Porcelain Street Sign BROADWAY CONCORD ST Cast Iron Humpback Corner

Here's a great early-1900s porcelain street sign in the classic "humpback" two-tier format, with a cast iron frame and porcelain enamel panels in deep cobalt blue with cream/off-white lettering. The upper, smaller curved section reads "BROADWAY" and the larger lower panel reads "CONCORD ST." — a genuine corner marker that would have hung at an intersection. This style was common from roughly the 1910s through the 1930s, made by stamping or casting an iron body and firing porcelain enamel panels into the recessed sections for durability.

Condition-wise, this is an honest, well-aged piece with plenty of character. The cast iron frame has heavy overall surface rust and oxidation, consistent with decades of outdoor exposure — no active flaking beyond surface rust, but it has that deep brown patina throughout. The porcelain itself has good color retention on both panels, with the lettering still crisp and legible. There is notable porcelain loss/chipping on the lower right corner of the "CONCORD ST." panel, where the enamel has flaked away down to the metal substrate, showing rust bleed-through in that area.

The intersection of Broadway and Concord Street in Brooklyn no longer exists today, erased by one of the most consequential — and controversial — infrastructure projects in New York City history. Designed by Robert Moses, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway cut a nearly 15-mile gash through some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city, ripping the core out of several communities while displacing tens of thousands of residents. In Williamsburg, where Broadway ran as a major commercial corridor, demolition began in 1948 and the expressway opened to traffic in 1952, slashing directly through the business district along Broadway and forever altering the neighborhood's fabric. This sign is a rare surviving artifact from that lost streetscape — a tangible piece of a Brooklyn that Robert Moses paved over.