Jackson Heights Life

I just read your post and agree. The sign was really charming and gave the corner a spark of historic interest. I'm also calling to make a request and hope everyone else does as well. I'd like to find out what the procedure is to have it replace.

After several months of telephone calls to CB 3 ( a complete waste) and Daniel Dromms office to inquire about the  missing Scrabble Street Sign designating the birthplace of "Scrabble", I was finally told that the sign was illegal and removed because it was  not approved by the D.O.T.  I found this to be so ironic given the fact that there is so much illegal signage throughout JH  especially in the Historic District. That they would choose to remove this particular sign which I felt to be rather charming and historically befitting is beyond reason.  I had thought that the sign was place there by the NYC Landmark Commission and had remembered it being congruent with the street signs placed by the Landmarks Commission. Anyway, I was told if we want it replaced that we should contact Daniels Dromm's office to request that the sign be put back up.  As with every thing, the more calls the better! 

I looked for my old picture ... certainly looked legit to me.

Maybe somebody moved it to a corner with a Triple Word Score.

This comment made it into the NY Times!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/nyregion/sign-in-queens-marking-birthplace-of-scrabble-is-coming-back.html

“I think everybody believes it was either stolen or removed intentionally,” said Daniel Karatzas, a member of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group and an author of a history of the neighborhood.

On a neighborhood blog, one person suggested it had been moved to a corner with a triple word score.

July 15, 2011
For a Bereft Street Corner in Queens, a Red-Letter Day
By SYDNEY EMBER
The dominant physical presence in Jackson Heights, Queens, is the elevated No. 7 train over Roosevelt Avenue, but many residents have become familiar with a couple of smaller, whimsical neighborhood features.

There is the bronze penguin sitting on a rock on the 75th Street median. And there is — or rather was — the street sign that commemorated Jackson Heights as the birthplace of Scrabble.

The brown street sign, in the style of signs in historic districts, used to mark the intersection of 35th Avenue and 81st Street, near where a former architect named Alfred Mosher Butts devised the crisscrossing word game in 1938.

The sign denoted the Scrabble values of its letters, like so: 35T1H4 A1V4E1N1U1E1.

People in the community were proud of the sign, erected in 1995, but it mysteriously disappeared in 2008.
(click link above for full article)

The Daily News has coverage too:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2011/07/21/2011-07-21_politician_aims_to_write_a_wrong_to_boro_icon.html
New 'Scrabble' street sign will go up in Queens to commemorate birthplace of board game
by Clare Trapasso

Jackson Heights residents may never know what became of a beloved Scrabble-inspired street sign that commemorated the genesis of the popular word game in the neighborhood.

The quirky marker adorned the corner of 35th Ave. and 81st St. for more than a decade then vanished without a trace three years ago.

Now, another Scrabble-themed street sign is slated to go up on the same spot this fall.

"The street sign is a Jackson Heights icon," said City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights). "It's a historical marker of something of importance that happened in Jackson Heights that future generations should know about."

The new one will spell out "35th Avenue," with each letter assigned a point value - as in the game. It was proposed by Dromm, who made installing another sign a campaign promise.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2011/07/21/2011-07-21_politician_aims_to_write_a_wrong_to_boro_icon.html#ixzz1SlA6UiQt

Well thanks from everyone for clearing that up

So happy the sign is coming back. Good work people!!!!