Erected in 1940 atop the Pepsi-Cola Long Island City bottling plant, the 50-foot neon sign was once New York state’s longest electric sign. The “5¢” once shown beside the bottle was removed in the mid-1940s after a price hike, and the bottle graphic was updated in the 1970s. The LPC first considered the sign for landmark status in April 1988, and Queens Borough President Claire Shulman proposed relocating it to make way for Queens West development in the early 1990’s. PepsiCo objected, insisting it alone controlled the sign’s fate. Pepsi sold the plant in 2003 but kept ownership of the sign, insisting it stay on the waterfront. The plant closed for good and was demolished in 2004, and the sign was reassembled in its current spot in Gantry Plaza State Park in 2009. It was landmarked in 2016 after a decades-long designation fight.
Photo by Kevin Rajaram.
