A new Street SIgn I got today + Some SIgnage Info from Huntsville

[freebrickproductions]

I got a new street sign today. This is a street sign from the city of Huntsville, AL and I believe it originally served at the intersection of Queens Place and Excalibur Drive in the Camelot subdivision. I actually lived on the nearby street of Gawain Road shortly after I was born before my family moved up to Virginia for a year.

This one is an older "first print" sign (I'll explain what that means later on in the post), interestingly enough.

This sign is a bit beat up, and it is also slightly bent, but it's in pretty great shape!

My New Street Sign by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
My New Street Sign by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

Here's it compared to my other street signs:
All of my street signs by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
From top to bottom: Huntsville, AL; 1960s/1970s NYC; and ALDOT.

Here's a bit of information about these signs:

First off, there are a few different types of sign around Huntsville, but I break most of them all up into two categories for three different traits: "first print" and "reprint", all-caps and mixed-case, and large or small.

"First print" and "reprint" are terms I came up with to describe if a sign was re-used or not.
"First print" signs are street signs that were printed onto a blank that didn't have a street name on it before. Older ones, such as mine, have the letters applied on top of the green sticker, rather than cut out of the green sticker with a white sticker underneath like how they do it now. The older ones also have a silver border rather than a white one.
"Reprint" signs are street signs that have had the current street name printed over the old one. You can generally tell a "reprint" from a "first print" as there will either be small bumps or indents on the sign from where the letters for the previous street name are.
Here are some examples of newer "first print" signs:
Foxfire Dr & Deans Dr by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
Interestingly enough, these leave out the block numbers on them:
Foxfire Dr & Donegal Dr by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

All-caps street signs are street signs where the letters are all capital letters. Mixed-case street signs are street signs where the letters are mixed case, as the first letter of each word is the only one that it capitalized. This is done as it is believed that mixed-case street signs have a greater readability at larger distances. The mixed case ones also feature the street suffix with the same font size as the street name and the cardinal direction being placed above the block number, where the street suffixes used to be located.
Last year, after the death of the former head of the Huntsville Traffic Engineering Department, the city started installing mixed-case street signs. These have been steadily replacing the older all-caps street signs around the city.
Here are some examples of the mixed-case street signs here in Huntsville:
Deans Dr & Treeline Dr by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
Quietdale Dr & Christian Ln by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
If you look closely on both of them, you can make out the letters from the old street names, as most of those signs are reprints. It's the easiest them on the Tree Line Drive sign in the first picture. However, the Deans Drive sign in the first picture also appears to be a first-print. I'll have to go back out and check to see if it truly is.

The city of Huntsville also uses two sizes of street signs, which I like to call small and large.
The large street signs made their debut sometime around 2010, often replacing older, smaller ones on streets where the speed limit is at least 40 MPH, though several 35 MPH roads have them as well. These were installed to improve readability at higher speeds because the city didn't want to transition to mixed-case street signs at the time, though they now produce these with the mixed-case lettering on them.
Hunstville Hills Dr by freebrickproductions, on Flickr
Here's a newer mixed-case one:
Franklin St & Saint Clair Ave by freebrickproductions, on Flickr

[SignGeek101]

I've thought about getting a street sign. How much did it cost?

[freebrickproductions]

I've thought about getting a street sign. How much did it cost?

This one was for sale at $80 at the antique store I bought it at, but it was on sale for 50% off. So I'd say that they are usually priced around or below $100.

[peterj920]

Howard, WI is selling their old street signs for $10/sign

http://www.villageofhoward.com/DocumentCenter/View/1937

[Rothman]

I've thought about getting a street sign. How much did it cost?

This one was for sale at $80 at the antique store I bought it at, but it was on sale for 50% off. So I'd say that they are usually priced around or below $100.

That sounds very high nonetheless.