Another Hotel Tudor Sign

This blog's obsession with Tudor City signs continues with the discovery of another Hotel Tudor sign, this one a painted version first spotted in the above circa-1950 photo (sign at far right center). Looking west from the corner of 42nd and Second, the picture shows a parked tour bus, whose driver is turning over his coin box to a colleague. 

In the background is the west wall of Hotel Tudor, and just above the bus is a two-story taxpayer. Taxpayers were modest structures erected during the Depression to house small shops and businesses. Their purpose was to provide enough rental income to pay the taxes on an otherwise vacant lot.

A later photo, circa 1953, showing the entire sign. The taxpayer is under renovation.

In 1954, a branch of the Harlem Savings Bank takes over the reconfigured taxpayer space, above. While some Hotel Tudor windows can be glimpsed in the background, the sign has vanished ‒ or at least it has in this artist's rendition.

The Harlem Savings Bank building was demolished in 1964 and replaced by 768 Second Avenue, the seventeen-story office building that stands there today.