The Collective

On Ludlow, just east of Clifton.

It was recently home to the Marburg Collective.

***
On an unrelated note, our friends at GhostSigns recently took action to try to save a sign.

Bravo!

Gone Condo

4th and Race.

Ghost Dog

We swear the dog wasn't there when we took the picture.

He ran into the shot.  That's Rufus, the unofficial dog of OTR, and our sometime-ghost sign hunting partner.

Cheap Eats

Alas, closed earlier this year, as apartments are built upstairs.

Everyone raves about Tucker's, on Vine, but this place was just as good, if not better.

Cheaper, anyway.

9th and Main.

Way Out West

Where the wild things grow.  Here there be dragons.  Close to the edge of the world.

Faded, But Old?

At 15th and Republic.

The word "Coffee" is readily apparent, and we're going to guess beneath it "Premium".

Beyond that, is anyone else's guess.

However, our gut tells us, while this is almost gone, it wasn't here long.

Dunno why.  Just a hunch.

And if so, there's probably someone around who remembers, or has a picture of it, in its glory.

ICYMI: Make sure you see yesterday's entry.

It deals with a city working to preserve some ghost signs.

Recognizing the Artform

Ghost Signs: A project of the Community Design Workshop for the City of Seattle from Seattle University on Vimeo.

Community planning and design, history, and art all come together in Seattle, where college students have been documenting ghost signs, and trying to develop a policy to determine when a sign should be preserved, and when it should be let go.  

Read the full report here.  Or just skim through it.  It's lengthy.

Kudos to GhostSigns UK for sharing this.

Keeping the Artform Alive

Cincinnati artist Rick Janney was commissioned to work on signage for Suder's Art Store in Over-the-Rhine.

After visiting Faded Ad Art, he was inspired to create his own ghost sign.

We hope others take note of his work, and are inspired to preserve existing ghost signs, or to create future faded ad art.

Special bonus:

Next door to the Suders' lot, the barest remnant of a sign.

Rick has seen it too.

Everything HAS Gone

For as long as we can remember, storefront on Court Street has been little more than storage space, with a hint of something to come.

The hint has gotten stronger, as the sign was recently removed.

We were somewhat disappointed to learn there was nothing beneath it, except a rusted i-beam.

(See previous entry here.)

McMicken Reopened

This street had barriers erected over the summer to try to curb the prostitution trade.

The barriers are gone, so, you can easily drive up, and see the old garage sign here, between Race and Vine.

At least, we see "garage" above the garage door.  Can't quite make out what's on the side.

A Mystery... (Solved)

But first, this one, almost gone, in Chicago, from our Western Field Office Agent, Mr. D.L. Hudson.

And this one, very nice, and possibly still in business, but, we can't remember where it came from.

Who sent this?**  We apologize for our lousy record keeping.

**Our Western Field Office Agent kindly informs us it was he who submitted this picture, taken from a train window, heading INTO Chicago.  He also says Haraldsen's is still open, with a website, and we agree with him that this is a fine piece of art, despite not being "ghost", and it should be heralded.  (See what we did there?)

Omaha

 More from Ms. C.A. Peterson-Rinehart.

Two that we missed on our own excursion to Omaha, and one we already had.

Keep them coming, dear readers, keep them coming!

On the Road Again

The staff here at The Writing on the Wall weren't the only ones to travel this summer.

This beaut comes to us from the Jesse family, on their recent trip to Rapid City, South Dakota**.

**We stand corrected. Again. It's actually in Lead, South Dakota.  Whether it's pronounced <leed> or <led> remains to be seen.

And So We Bid Farewell to the Furniture City

This magical, mystical, mostly empty city of glorious ghost signs.

But fret not.  'Though summer be nearly over, we have more finds from you, while you vacationed across this great land.

Near the End of the Road

Faded almost beyond recognition...

In the lower right, we can see "HOUSE", and in the upper right, "WARE".  Maybe you can see more.

We were wrong about there being plenty more signs from our excursion to Grand Rapids.  The stockpile is almost empty, and then we'll return to Cincinnati, and feature a few more reader submissions.

End of the Road

This is not the end of our Grand Rapids tour, though. Oh, no.  Plenty more to come.

Everything featured this week has been in the same area.  All of these signs are visible with just a few steps.