Know the source? Looks like it was inscribed by hand, not metal type. Lots of building lettering like this, with the ultra high waisted ’A’ and slope-legged ’R’.

Closest I can come is Classic Roman,

The lettering was a scan of a photocopy from a city development plan, and it has been hand-colored to show off the letterforms betters (by the person who sent it to me.) There was no statement about the age of the document.

I have been scanning through the McGrew book and Post Oldstyle Roman seems the closest I could find so far.

- Mike Yanega

I also have a sample of Post Oldstyle Roman. The cap R and S are similar, but the cap A and E are way off plus my sample seems much heavier (bookplate from T.J. Lyons collection of antique types).

Mike, since the lettering comes from a set of city development plans, isn’t it likely that an old Varigraph or LeRoy Mechanical Lettering system was used by engineers? Especially since it was originally in outline form?

The Leroy Lettering stuff I have seen was monoline sans style, but it makes sense they must have had other styles. You’ve seen ones that were outline lettering?

I agree about the Post Old Style E, but I thought the A was similar. It wasn’t that I thought that was the answer, just that it was the closest I had found so far.

- Mike Yanega

I never used the LeRoy system, but I did use a Varigraph and another mechanical pantograph system whose name I can’t recall.

The Varigraph had several sets of templates with several lettering styles. I can remember using Stymie Bold and Franklin Gothic(ish) styles. You traced using a stylus in the template (metal), the pen nibs were connected to the other end of a pantograph arm. You could size and slant of desired lettering by adjusting dials near fulcrum of arm.

After outlining in ink, I had to fill in the characters by hand with India ink. These kind of lettering devices were very common with architects and engineers.

As for the Post Old Style, on closer look the “A” is somewhat similar.
(Sorry about poor repro... quick snapshot. I could scan tomorrow if you’d like.)
Obviously my sample is the bold weight (Post Old Style Roman No. 2), but notice the difference in the cap S treatment between 10 pt. (slightly slanted) and the 24 pt. (upright). Also note the 24 pt. lowercase “y”... I love this old stuff!!!

(edit-a-bit): There are 2 cap “S” in the 10 pt. sample. One is roman (POST) and one is italic??? (STYLE)!

I am the one that sent the sample to Mike. The sample is from a city development plan that is from a current document. I will try to post a better sample today. I’ll leave it in its original outlined form. Thanks for everyone’s help! I am certainly learning a lot about type!

Trina

This Leroy Specialty Lettering Template (Item 665.9) is one of the only pics I could find online showing that more than monoline styles were used.

Yes, Norbert, I have also been looking for samples of other template lettering, but only found Old English. I agree that using manual lettering tools would make sense, since it lets anyone make professional-looking letterforms on any size drawing. However, when Trina said that she thought these were current drawings, it raises the possibility of using a plotter-printer with computer fonts.

Still, it surprises me that they would use such an archaic-looking style on modern documents.The only digital versions I can think of right away of typefaces that I think have a similar antique feel are Windsor and Musketeer. I think Stephen’s suggestion is a bit too formal looking.

- Mike Yanega

P22’s Pan-Am also has similar letterforms, except for the R and E.

- Mike Yanega

I apologize to Mike, but the sample I sent in was extremely old, as he originally thought! I didn’t see the whole thing in context so assumed it was fairly recent. We do get in a lot of plans from various firms still using old fashioned/outdated lettering systems, believe it or not! So I am attaching a larger sample and am waiting to receive the book that contained the full plan where I can get a better scan. I eventually want to mimic this lettering for an upcoming project. Thanks again for all your knowledge; it has been interesting reading.

Trina

Seeing more of the lettering makes it look like this might have been hand lettered, although I realize that the details of different type sizes would often vary within a typeface. In this sample, notice how the smaller E’s are not the same as the large one in ’CHARLES’. It’s not even clear that the identical letters in the same size are actually identical.

Two questions Trina:

1) Can you see variation in the identical letters in the original, or is that just the scan? (To me, the S’s for example, do not look identical, even though the shapes are about the same.)

2) What is the actual date of the document? (This could help rule out certain styles, although if you just want to look like this it may not matter.)

A problem may be finding digital types that will be close enough for your purposes, but making any font into an outline is the easy part.

- Mike Yanega