Wednesday, October 9, 2013

street signs - Islington

I can't imagine what possessed the good people of Kleinburg into thinking that this script was a good choice for their street signs.
Kleinburg is an unincorporated village within the City of Vaughan. The village is in a narrow section of hilly landscape between two branches of the Humber River with a population of about 950, The City of Vaughan, with all the surrounding communities, has a population of over 4,500.

This sign is on the main street in the Kleinburg-Nashville Heritage Conservation District.

Islington Avenue is named for the village it passed at Dundas Street in the west end of Toronto. The name was chosen in 1858 by the wife of innkeeper Thomas Montgomery, Elizabeth Smith, in honour of her birthplace in England. It runs roughly north-south from Lake Shore Blvd W to the uppermost border of Toronto at Steeles Ave and continues in a NW direction where it ends in Kleinburg at Hwy 27.

Ninth in a series of street signs for signs,signs

14 comments:

  1. Interesting history. The fonts would be difficult to read from a distance.

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  2. Maybe they thought it would make for good traffic control...people would have to slow down to read the signs.

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    1. maybe. though Kleinburg is awfully small - I think most people were looking for parking spots!

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  3. I like their signage, I think it gives an oldtime feel to the place but it would be very hard to read if you were looking for a particular street.
    Cheri

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    1. and it is a very old-timey looking village (downtown)

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  4. Attractive sign. However, I can only imagine how difficult it might be for a foreign visitor to interpret.

    ~Lindy

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  5. Oh no, I don't like this font at all. I also didn't realize it was the same Islington Av - I guess I was confused by the change in direction (even though I should know better!)

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  6. Definitely original, nowadays folks try to make their signs legible, which is so boring :)

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  7. Perhaps they thought that this font went with traditional German heritage given the name of the town. You are correct about it being hard to read. But then everyone from there already knows the streets.

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  8. It certainly isn't easy to read, that's for sure! One does wonder what they were thinking....It is a pretty Script, but.....

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  9. It looks like Old English....definitely hard to read for a street sign!

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