BILLBOARDS AND SIGNS
Flatbush Avenue between State Street and Ashland Place, Fort Greene
OCTOBER 29, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 181

On the same day she worked at Cropsey Avenue in Bensonhurst, Abbott made two photographs in downtown Brooklyn. Like a ready-made sculpture, the building on this triangular lot displayed advertisements for cigars, haircuts, tuxedos, and a loan service. The profusion of signs and billboards drew the attention of thousands who commuted by the Long Island Railroad, subways, elevated trains, and trolleys that converged on, over, and under this six-street intersection. To Abbott's immediate right was the Williamburg Savings Bank (1929), Brooklyn's tallest building, and within a block was the Brooklyn Academy of Music (1907), its cultural center. Ignoring these conventional landmarks, she chose to photograph this commercial montage.

In 1973, the buildings in Abbott's photograph were razed and the intersection was reconfigured to form Hanson Place Park, a small pedestrian area within the web of busy streets.

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