11 Comments

I think it might have said "LADIES" instead of "AND". I was googling "VFW Post 107 Marine Park" and found this Facebook post from last fall: https://www.facebook.com/NYPD61PCT/posts/yesterday-we-had-the-honor-to-help-assist-vfw-post-107-on-their-annual-veterans-/743053311182393/

Since the sign and building looked so different, I realized the VFW must extend to the other side of the building. Sure enough, on the opposite side there is that sign: https://maps.app.goo.gl/XWvqoYPBXos2c5qYA . Then if you use Google Streetview's "see more dates" feature, you can go back in time and see that between 2013 and 2017, the sign was changed from "LADIES" to "&": https://maps.app.goo.gl/duzaTkZVw7tRR79w5 (there is no streetview imagery before 2022 on the side with the colorful sign). In that Facebook post, there are some very faint ghosts of where it used to say "LADIES" on the blue sign; the side of the building with the red, white, and blue lettering doesn't show that, but it also looks pretty freshly painted.

The last bit of support for LADIES has to do with the pattern of the red, white, and blue lettering. On the top line, they clearly continue the RWB pattern across words. Since the "7" in "107" is red, we can check how the pattern would fit with LADIES into AUXILIARY. So 107 LADIES AUX... would be WBR WBRWBR WBR...and sure enough, AUX starts as white, blue, red. So I think it works!

Expand full comment

Great sleuthing, Ryan!

Expand full comment

Forgive my ignorance... why "LADIES"? I've never heard of or seen that before!

Expand full comment

Love it! VFW (and American Legion) buildings are odd, too. This one looks like it used to be a Days Inn. An American Legion lodge near me looks like a converted shed for farm equipment.

Expand full comment

Pretty neat. We will sometimes listen to a friend's band play at the local VFW Hall and that building is very nondescript. As a toddler I lived in Midwood, not far from the building E is in front of. Lots of nice memories of my grandfather taking me to the Coney Island Boardwalk and fishing in Sheepshead Bay.

Expand full comment

Regarding the periods: I’d agree that no periods at all would look fine. Given the periods indeed exist, I like how it looks. Different colors might provide a visual accent, but would more likely just look odd in my opinion.

Expand full comment

That ampersand gives me a surprising amount of pleasure. Well done, unknown Marine Park sign painter.

Expand full comment

I also noticed that they used red, white and blue in that order when spelling out the entirety of the sign. Kinda bugs me that the last letter didn't end in blue but whatcha gonna do.

Expand full comment

Says “and son” instead of “and so on” in the parens at the bottom

Expand full comment

Thx. Fixed.

Expand full comment