Ghost signs

[Dinerman]

hey all- who's got pics of ghost signs?

y'know- the ones painted up on buildings back in the golden era that have faded to almost nothing.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Here's a flickr group I ran across once on that subject.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/10285999@N00/

 

[Dinerman]

I just saw so many in Richmond. It really blew my mind.

 

[Twitch]

A search on your Google or Yahoo using "antique signs" or "antique road signs" "vintage signs" "vintage neon signs". "old brick building" gets better results than "vintage." Substituting the word antique for vintage produces a few different images, but some cross over. For some more fun look up vintage, old or antique gas stations and there'll be those and associated road signage. "Old" and "vintage motel sign" gets lots of neat images. "faded sign" gets some as well as "ghost sign."

Old, vintage and antique work well with singluar of sign, building instaed of plural. Get more hits with "...sign" than with "...signs."

My screensaver/wallpaper utility is a freebee from webshots.com and I have all sorts of categories with 1000s of pics including "Places" where I have old buildings, signs and landscapes.

Have fun looking!

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

I've seen a couple around various buildings around Downtown LA and Hollywood. I'm glad to know they've survived for so long

 

[CharlieH.]

Here's a somewhat vast gallery of ghost signs in New York:

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/ADS/ADS HOME PAGE/adhome.html

(And you might want to poke around the rest of the site for more NYC archaeology)

 

[Twitch]

And if you like old brick buildings with a history check out http://www.detroityes.com/

 

[The Wolf]

An old ad was uncovered then re-covered too soon.

A while ago some siding was removed from a San Francisco office building. it uncovered a 1950s Shasta soft drink ad painted on the side. Someone from the building told Shasta's headquarters. Representatives came out to find that it had been painted over almost immediately.

Sincerely,
The WOLF

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ghost signs have been a passion of mine since I was a little girl!

We used to have a lovely specimen downtown here -- the slowly-fading remains of a Coca-Cola sign on the side of a drugstore that had been on the same corner for at least 80 years. I used to use it as a landmark when telling people how to find me ("turn left at the Coke sign..."), but this summer a local bank bought that entire block and evicted the drugstore and the other tenants in order to turn it into their corporate headquarters. Before I had a chance to run down with my camera to get a last shot, they'd sandblasted every bit of the old paint off the wall. I'm still fuming over that.

When the theatre where I work was being restored a couple years back, they took off some awful aluminum siding to reveal a brick wall with the barely-visible traces of a Socony gasoline sign from the "Fireproof Garage" that used to be next door. Those bricks, alas, were too far gone to save -- and the restoration didn't go so far as to repaint the sign!

In Lewiston, Maine, about two hours from here, there's an absolutely gorgeous Uneeda Biscuit wall -- it's facing away from the sun most of the time, so it's faded very little -- and the colors still pop.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Have to remember to take a picture of these when I get a camera:
OLIVER CHILLED PLOW WORKS along the top of an old building
TOPPER BEER with the hat, painted ad on a brick wall
I love ghost signs, too, I never knew what to call them.

 

[Johnny Dollar]

i remember when living down in charlottesville, virginia, i would see ghost signs all the time when buildings were torn down or renovated.

here in baltimore, the place is lousy with ghost signs. there are flickr groups as mentioned above. the best one by far is the one in fell's point to vote against prohibition:

this is my other favorite:

 

[Feraud]

Those are two great examples!
NYC had some great ghost signs. Due to the recent building boom we've lost a lot of great old paintings.

 

[Johnny Dollar]

thanks!

here is another one - it was recently "restored," i.e. painted to look like new, but i loved the old version so much better.

you can see this on the west side of 83 north as you are driving through baltimore.

 

[PADDY]

Near to where I work. Isn't that a great name for matches...PUCK!! like Puck of Shakespeare fame
And a long gone Cafe of the 30's / 40's on the side of the Art Deco Co-operative Building.

 

[rue]

They have a couple left in Delaware, Ohio (where I used to live).

The Brown Jug sign was "restored", but the restaurant closed in 2008 after being open since 1946, so I don't know if it's still there.

 

[59KUSTOM]

Man, I love this stuff.

 

[Chas]

About half way between Mohave and Barstow, California there is a sign - an old neon one that at one time spelled out "Rock's....Cafe".

Well, Rock's burned down many years ago, judging from the grass that has grown over the foundation, but the sign is still there, pointing at an empty space. Absolutely wonderful.

 

[HadleyH]

Sydney, Australia

 

[Argee]

Here's a couple I took in New Orleans

 

[HadleyH]

Pitt Street, Sydney downtown.