Why Chicago Street Signs were changed from Black on Yellow to White on Green.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's "Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices" (MUTCD) is a constantly evolving guidebook showing cities the standard in street signage since 1935.

In the 1970s, the MUTCD began a national effort to help foreign visitors navigate the United States by adopting a color-coded sign system similar to Europe's. Chicago adopted the white-on-green street signs as part of that effort in 1975.

Many Chicagoans remember the yellow street signs that Chicago used.

The MUTCD's revised guidelines restricted yellow in signage to warning signs. It also mandated white backgrounds with black and red lettering or symbols for use as regulatory signs (for instance, "No U-Turn" signs were replaced with a black U with a red slash on a white background).

The guidelines recommended phasing out words on signs where possible and relying instead on universally understood symbols, like a red circle broken by a white line to indicate "Do Not Enter." Under that scheme, the color symbols for guidance were green and white – so "reflectorized" white-on-green street name signs became the new standard.

No official system was in place during the city's early years, making wayfinding pretty tough in our fast-growing city. A public call for street identification signs began around the turn of the 20th century when street names were often simply painted onto poles at neighborhood corners (if they were indicated at all).

Later, black-and-white or brown-and-white signs appeared
around the city, particularly downtown.

Finally, in 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt approved a grant for Chicago to hang 64,000 black-on-yellow steel street signs as a Public Works Administration project – but those signs didn't stick around very long. Most were removed for metal drives during World War II.

Not long after the war ended, the city began to examine new sign designs, testing out various lettering styles in the Loop. Once a style was settled, Chicago ordered new porcelain-coated steel street signs, again in the black-on-yellow color scheme, beginning in 1950. The signs were installed over the next few years, starting at the city's edges and working their way into the Loop. This time, rather than attaching the signs to the poles with straps that would rust and break, the signs were secured with bolts going into the poles.

When Chicago moved to the white-on-green signs in 1975, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) again gradually installed thousands of signs throughout the city's more than 800 streets. But this time, the city had the brilliant idea of selling the beloved yellow signs to residents, so occasionally, you'll see a yellow sign decorating a home or business.

In my personal collection, West Arthur Avenue is the street I grew up on.

In 2009, the Federal Highway Administration announced in its MUTCD that all cities should use the upper and lowercase format for their street signs because upper/lowercase words are easier to read than all uppercase. 

According to research performed by the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, people read all-uppercase words one letter at a time but recognize upper/lowercase formatted words as a whole, making reading "MICHIGAN AVENUE" slower and more complex than reading "Michigan Avenue" while driving past. The upper/lower format also leaves more space around each letter, making the letters easier to distinguish for aging eyes.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

"The Spirit of the Fighting Yank," WWII Memorial on Devon Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.

"The Spirit of the Fighting Yank" by E.M. Viquesney is a life-sized figure cast in bronze-plated zinc, on a high pedestal protected by an iron picket fence. It is located at 2720 West Devon at the corner of Fairfield Avenue in Chicago's West Ridge community in West Rogers Park neighborhood.

I lived two blocks away from "The Spirit of the Fighting Yank" monument for thirty-plus years. I walked past it, peddled my Schwinn Orange Krate Stingray bicycle by it, and watched it pass by from the window on the CTA 155 bus a million times. The statue captures movement, frozen in bronzed zinc.

It is outside of the Republic Bank, originally named Cook County Federal Savings and Loan, then the First Cook Community Bank, which is in a brick colonial-style building inspired by Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the original home of the Liberty Bell.

The statue was modeled by E.M. Viquesney (1876-1946). An early version of the "Fighting Yank" was carved in limestone and dedicated in 1944 at the Monroe County Courthouse in Bloomington, Indiana.

After Viquesney's death, Ralph Gropp reproduced the statue in bronze-plated zinc at his Chicago Studio in 1951.

The statue has been recoated and refurbished, including
repairs to the Tommy-gun, by Jane Foley.

The figure, a fully geared army soldier, is striding forward, about to lob a live grenade with his taut right arm, staring out intently at his target.

The plaque on the black granite base reads "Lest We Forget They Died...That We Can Live in Independence. Independence Hall, Dedicated May 30, 1958. Presented and Created By Harry A. Cooper.

The dedication date of May 30, 1958, is the same date that unidentified veterans from WWII and the Korean War were interred at the 'Tomb of the Unknowns' in Arlington National Cemetery.

Unlike most other memorials to war veterans, this figure is frozen in a perpetual pose of impending defense, suggests that even in death, soldiers endeavor to protect the democratic way of life.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.