urbanSTL

Two or maybe four ghosts appeared to me this morning at the apartment building across from Hammerstone's on the NW corner of 9th and Russell. I think one was Carnation Milk. There on either ends of the building.

There are Ghost Signs on many of the buildings in Soulard. Mainly on the corner buildings.

Does the no painting ordinance cover rehabbing of old signs?

There is a cool old sign for Sugar (Domino?) on a house in Lafayette Square near the southeast corner of of Park and Mississippi. The only reason you can see it is that the actual corner lot is empty for some reason. That is such a great potential commerical corner - I see the sign and wonder why nothing is there.

A coworker took several photos of these old advertisements around the St. Louis area and posted them to http://www.stlwalls.com/

Saw a very cool ghost sign for Busch Bavarian at the corner of Russell and Oregon (or was it California?).

^Yeah, its at Ohio and Russell.

nicolankford wrote:what should be done is to get together an group to hunt down these signs (and gravois alone has a lot of them-comparitively) and figure out some way to get money out of people to light them up again. not very likely of course, but didn't metropolis do that for the knickerbocker sign on washington? oh if only.

The restoration of the Knickerbocker Jeans Factory neon sign was an excellent idea because it's also the current name of the lofts--Knickerbocker Lofts. If the name on an old broken neon sign no longer has any meaning, then it's probably not worth the expense to restore, light up, and maintain.





Photo on the left from Xing. I took the lower photo on the right on 01/06/07.

Framer wrote:I'm with Scrutinizer. I like the old faded look. If you re-paint the signs, they will lose the very character we all love.

I agree, the faded look is the desired look. Ghost signs are appreciated in the same way that we appreciate rustic antique furniture or faded and frayed jeans. Repainting all of the ghost signs in an attempt to "restore" them would be counterproductive.



Does anyone think that this looks good?

I think preserving what is there is best. Why can't other companies be allowed to paint on the sides of buildings? What about the brick wall of Rogers Townsend's new building in the Cupples complex? Ideal spot for an ad. These ads bring so much life and excitement-which should be a part of city living- to downtown areas. Look at old photos of Washington, huge vertical marqee signs along the entire stretch. What about the signs, which are now steel skeletons, atop buildings in Grand Center? Is there any attempt being made to restore these?

JCity wrote:I think preserving what is there is best. Why can't other companies be allowed to paint on the sides of buildings? What about the brick wall of Rogers Townsend's new building in the Cupples complex? Ideal spot for an ad. These ads bring so much life and excitement-which should be a part of city living- to downtown areas. Look at old photos of Washington, huge vertical marqee signs along the entire stretch. What about the signs, which are now steel skeletons, atop buildings in Grand Center? Is there any attempt being made to restore these?

I'd like to see a St. Louis version of Times Square. Let's get some digital billboards and video screens. Only problem is where could you put them? Also would love to see some oversized ad banners (like 4 or 5 stories tall) on some of these buildings that have one face that is mostly brick and no windows. Also, if these condo associations were smart they'd lease space and hang some oversized ads on their building (if they had a good spot for it) and generate some additional income for their building.

publiceye wrote:Not exactly a restoration. The Knickerbocker neon letters were orange, not blue. Call the new sign an appreciation of the original sign.

Oh. Neon blue looks better anyway.

JCity wrote:Why can't other companies be allowed to paint on the sides of buildings? What about the brick wall of Rogers Townsend's new building in the Cupples complex? Ideal spot for an ad.

Is this the area that you want to see a large painted-on ad? Painting an ad on that brick would be an abomination. I doubt that Rodgers Townsend, who is in the ad business, would paint that area even if it were permissible.





Photo from http://stlcin.missouri.org/history/.

irocktheparty2000 wrote:I'd like to see a St. Louis version of Times Square. Let's get some digital billboards and video screens. Only problem is where could you put them?

How about right in the center of the St. Louis Arch--similar to this Travelodge ad.

Allowing new, large-scale ads on buildings would be openning a 5-story-tall Pandora's Box. Some good things may come out of it, but boy, watch out for the bad ones!

My wife's cousins are brilliant developers in New Jersey, specifically Jersey City, they built some brand new condos off the back of an old Vaudville theater across from city hall. The theater lobby is the lobby of their condos and then the condos are all new directly behind. To try to make the new structure fit in better they hired a very expensive artist to come in and paint an old looking "ghost sign" on the side of the new building. The very first tenents mtg an older woman raised her hand and asked when they were going to update the sign.



http://www.majesticjerseycity.com/building.html

http://www.barmajestic.com/

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Interesting story stellar. Anyone can paint bold letters onto a wall, but it takes an artist to paint a ghost sign.

It's that kind of detail that takes them from above average to brilliant. One of her cousins was in town over the summer. Their current project is turning an old hospital into condos. They've got a 17 story tower on the grounds and the condos will be going for NYC prices (over a million each). I took him to the city hospital project since I thought he would see similarities. It was sad how dissappointed he was in the project. Noticing large and small things that he felt they were doing wrong. I've been trying to convince them to do a project in St. Louis. Their east coast dollars would go much further here. Maybe one day my sales techniques will work.

It's that kind of detail that takes them from above average to brilliant.

No, it's that kind of detail that makes a zillion dollars for Cracker Barrel selling phony Ozarks birdhouses and rocking chairs.

I came across another faux ghost sign last week while in the Abbott Kinney shopping district in L.A. It seemed appropriate since the entire business was revived from a name that went out of business in the 20's. The shop, The Stronghold, makes custom dungarees.

^ The faux ghost signs remind me of Old Navy, and pre-faded jeans, but I like the look of the new 'ghost' signs compared to fully restored signs.

publiceye wrote:No, it's that kind of detail that makes a zillion dollars for Cracker Barrel selling phony Ozarks birdhouses and rocking chairs.

No kidding.

Is this the area that you want to see a large painted-on ad

um, no. I would not advocate the front facade of a building to be painted on that looks like that (see photo). The west side of the rogers-towsend building is mostly brick, no windows. There is a ghost sign there now. I'm not opposed to a quality sign, or at least a temporary banner. Maybe R-T could come up with something creative.