I recall a great discussion thread on Detroityes about Detroit's historic street lamp styles. Today the New York Times has a nice rview of NYC's street lamps over the years. Readers may want to compare.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/201...ml?ref=opinion

I am always wanting to lobby for matching streetlights on Junction, which has old cast iron lamps on one side and aluminum masts on the other - bad fung shui for the neighborhood, if you ask me.