The 4-way adjustable traffic signal you see above was photographed at the corner of Washington and 5th Streets in Hoboken. The signal was made by Marbelite, and dates back to approximately 1947. The aluminum mast suspending the light is much newer. Presumably, the original steel guy-wired mast was damaged and replaced at some point.

I acquired one of the four signals from this cluster in October 2018, soon after the City of Hoboken completed their upgrade of Washington Street’s curbs and signals. This project retired two of the oldest signals left in the entire state at the time. Chris McNally, Randy Trezak, Mike Natale and I installed the older of the two lights, a 1930s Horni Signal from 1st Street, in the Hoboken Historical Museum. In their gratitude for having the city’s oldest surviving signal added to their museum’s display, the museum staff graciously gave us this 4-way Marbelite – the city’s second oldest signal. I was very excited to add this well-preserved and rare classic to my collection!

After more than 70 years of outdoor service, this signal still had all of its original parts, except for the sockets: The Kopp #66 lenses, the door-mounted glass reflectors, the 7″ tunnel visors, and the big brass wing nuts were all in good shape. The replacement sockets that it had did not fit well, so I replaced them with 3D-printed reproduction sockets made by members of the Highway Divides forum. Ed Tapanes extracted one broken visor screw and re-tapped the hole – Thanks for the hands-on tutorial, Ed!

Houzex Lens Swap

The purist in me always thinks twice about replacing the original parts in an old signal, but I made an exception in this case when I found a set of branded Marbelite No. 6540 lenses made by Houze-Convex, “Houzex” Glass in Point Marion, PA. These lenses, which I believe were primarily or exclusively used in Marbelites in Philadelphia circa 1950, are not easy to find. They have a neat “Space Invaders” bead pattern, and non-standard colors. The green lens is “true green”, not the typical cyan of most green signal lenses. The amber lenses were made to at least two different color specs. My signal has the dark amber.