For a city that professes to love art and to love its history, ghost signs are disappearing
at an alarming rate.
On the left, there's the Davis Furniture building, which is about to be torn down. On the right, the new "Hanke Exchange" sign which covers up this:
I get it, Cincinnati. I really do. You own these buildings, and you don't want to advertise businesses that are no longer in existence, or aren't getting paid to advertise. But, can't you embrace the past? Can't you recognize these ghost signs as a tie to the past, and as their own artform?
I realize there are only two or, maybe three people in the Tri-State who see ghost signs as something worth preserving, but, just in the last year, there seems to be an acceleration of efforts to cover them up. And I'm disappointed.
Ugh, what?!? I guess I haven't walked up Main St. recently to have seen the new Hanke sign for myself. Two thoughts. One, the Sapadin's sign had clearly been repainted, which always impressed me because it seemed that someone else cared to retain this little bit of neighborhood history.
ReplyDeleteTwo, the new Hanke Exchange is hard to read -- in order to capture the whole sign, you took your photo from across the street and a bit down Central. The whole thing can't be read from Main St. The previous Sapadin's sign took the common viewing angle into account.