This town's not big enough for two towers marked 'State Street'

By adamg on Mon, 07/24/2023 - 3:31pm

Ricky D. Wright looked up this morning and noticed the "State Street" was gone from the top of the bank's former headquarters as it moves to new digs in a less angular building on Congress Street.

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Downtown

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Business

Development

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Comments

A favorite Boston thing of

By blues_lead on Mon, 07/24/2023 - 3:51pm.

A favorite Boston thing of mine is the giant sign that says "State Street" is nowhere near State St

While we're at it

By anon on Mon, 07/24/2023 - 4:10pm.

"SoWa" is actually east of Washington St.

Sign

By John on Mon, 07/24/2023 - 4:29pm.

And we have a giant Citgo sign with no gas station!

Transferrable sign

By Charles Bahne on Mon, 07/24/2023 - 5:25pm.

For years State Street and Prudential were the only two Boston skyscrapers that were allowed to put their name at the top. Both built mid 1960s, first two real high-rises in the city. After those two, the BRA wouldn't allow similar signs on other buildings. When State Street moved from Franklin St. to Lincoln St., they had to put up quite a fuss to be able to move the sign, or, rather, to substitute a new sign for the old one.

Same logic probably applies here, moving from Lincoln St. to Haymarket.

More recently, though, BRA/BPDA has been allowing other high-up signs, such as Verizon and some in the Seaport.

Up to the 1960s, many shorter buildings had bright neon signs on top, sometimes advertising the business below the sign (Citgo/Cities Service, once; or Boston Edison on Tremont), or sometimes a paid ad for someone else (White Fuel atop the Hotel Buckminster).

Yes, State Street Bank used to be on State St., until they moved to Franklin St. in 1965. State St., the street, was the banking center of New England for about 150 years.