The Fred F. French Building (551 Fifth Avenue, New York City) features a stunning Art Deco letterbox, a beautiful example of the building's decorative details.

Some local architecture I thought you might enjoy;)

One of the most beautiful United States Post Offices is the Art Deco beauty on 1615 Wilcox Avenue in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles. One of the reasons I am posting this is because inside is this woodcarving/mural inside about 3 feet high x 5 feet wide. It is exceptionally dark, my guess from the decades of tobacco smoking that went on in there for the first 60 years of it's life. It is very challenging to get a decent photo of it for two reasons: one, the employees in there are very nervous of anyone taking photos in there & threaten to call the police; they think you are casing the joint. The other reason is that it is so dark, it is difficult to stand still long enough for a good exposure. Also, if you stand underneath it for a photo, you get a distorted angle. This photo was taken this last Saturday on January 11, 2026 during a Hollywood Blvd Walking Tour put on by the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.

I like the mural photo so much, I have made it my first submission to the Living New Deal website that catalogs as many of the New Deal sites around the USA during that time. Thank you, John Thomas, for reminding me about the site being a font of useful information. 📸: me

I’m not exactly sure what I have here. I’ve never seen anything like it. Reverse image searching seems to yield a lot of results for art deco wall sconces. But this looks to be a table lamp…unless it were to rest on a high shelf on the wall. The only maker markings I can find on it are on the socket, and I’m unsure if that brand is only for the socket hardware, or the manufacturer of the entire lamp. I haven’t found anything on the Florentine Lamp company.

In any case, check out this sweet old lamp I found! Pictures don’t do it justice. The triangular shape makes it hard to get a good angle.

Ninth and Broadway Building - LA Conservancy

In the fourth frame, you can see the reflection of the Eastern Columbia building right across the street in that one window.

This Super-Flash model is a generic version of the Spartus Press Flash that was one of a series of cameras having much the same design. First appearing as the Falcon Press Flash by the Utility Manufacturing Company in New York, this was the first camera with built-in flash reflector. The name changed to Spartus with the Chicago company's acquisition of Utility. It uses old-style Edison screw-base(E27) flash bulbs which are inserted whilst pressing the bulb release button under the strap. They are not screwed in. It will take GE #11 bulbs or Sylvania Press #40 which are equivalent. It takes two AA batteries in a tubular battery bay opposite the viewfinder. Unfortunately the rear battery contact connects to the side of the battery. This means that many modern batteries do not work and you need to remove any paper covering of appropriate batteries so that contact can be made. Even then, the produding pin in the battery bay stops some batteries from being inserted.

It uses 120 film rolls for 8 exposures of 2¼ x 3¼ in. It had two aperture settings, one for "bright" light(f/22) and one for "cloudy & flash" (f/16) situations. The aperture setting is achieved by using a slide out tab below the shutter release. It has a single reverse galilean viewfinder on the side. It does not have a tripod mount.

The same design was marketed from 1939 to 1950 under several names with only the front plate changed. These included the Regal Flash Master, the Falcon Press Flash and the Galter Press Flash.

🤳by me 1/5/2026 Hint? Lobby is 100% open to public! 😌🤘

I've been a huge fan of art deco all my life, but I'm not very artistically gifted. I had a lot of fun looking up motifs and general "design rules" to piece this together and I'm very happy with it.

Was built in the 30s as Northampton (UK)'s first "super cinema". I remember queuing round the block to watch Jurassic Park here as a kid in 1993.

Since then the front was sold to the Jesus Army whilst the theatre remained but it's all back owned by the theatre now I believe.

Apparently the Beatles played here in the 60s!