From the Mailbox

This little beauty was sent to us from Omaha, by our Western Field Agent, Mr. D.L. Hudson.

He said it was tucked away in an alley and he was lucky to catch it.

Three Revisits, and a Newbie

Up along McMicken, around the Mockbee building.

How this is sheared off is fascinating.

Obviously, there was a building there, protecting what we see now.

But someone took the time to remove what was above the now absent roofline.

And a scant 20 yards away, our new find:

Faded, but still visible, if not legible.

Potpourri

Court and Walnut. Most recently, it was a fast food Mexican restaurant. Before that, fast food Chinese. Before that, a corner grocery store, if this Salem cigarette poster is to be believed.

Vine and Liberty. Previously spotted here. 

What's interesting is that the old sign was hung up on the wall, not painted on it.

But still, there's a ghost.

7th, between Vine and Race.

Court Street.

We don't remember. We believe it's on Vine in OTR. 

Main Street.

City Hall.

Race.

Big Boy Reveal

Again a tip of the hat to Mr. R. Salerno for alerting us to this recent uncovering on 6th Street,

between Main and Walnut. You can read more at his blog.

On the upper left of this former Big Boy, there's another ghost sign.

And to the left, another.

Dissected by a shadow here.

When the Light Is Right

New details reveal themselves.

Sure, we've seen this view before, but...

Before, we never noticed this. 

Comparing it to our earlier photos, it was there, but went unnoticed.

We believe it was part of the German National Bank sign.

A New Look at an Old Favorite

Sure, we've featured the Mockbee building many a times. And there's good reason we keep coming back to it.

There's so much going on. 

There's so many details.

So much layering.

So many former uses for the building. 

For instance, can you see the "Outdoor Advertising" or the "Signs" signs?

Schwartz' Point

We were going to feature this OTR jazz club after it closed, but then we found out through 

Queen City Discovery that it's reopening.

So we won't. Ignore this post.

Celebrity Sighting

We've long ignored this mural at the corner of Race and Liberty.

Largely because it's more of a mural than a sign.

And because it's rather "modern."

How modern? We're guessing early 90s.

Based on the presence of Urkle from Family Matters, which ran on ABC from 1989 to 1998.

However, it IS advertising a diner, Ollie's Trolley, and it is faded.

A Walk to Walnut Hills

We became aware of this sign in Walnut Hills recently, and decided to hike up to get a picture.

There's not much legible, other than "measure" and "school."

Along the way we decided to revisit some old favorites, like this one, on Gilbert.

(Note the faint "Finn" above the Ohio Blue Print sign.

Still on Gilbert. Not a sign, but we've featured a few of these alarm boxes before.

On McMillan. Across from the old Kroger. Definitely an old favorite.

We hope as the building is renovated, the developer decides to keep it.

With a photobomb from a more modern eye-catching device.

Note the painted-over chicken.

Probably was a glorious neon sign when it was created.

A very curious building. The doors are marked "men" and "women".

And above that, in the center, there's more lettering we can't quite make out.

If one is going to walk to Walnut Hills, one has to walk back.

We noticed this on the hill on Vine Street.

And it looks a mess, but we're still certain this wall just above Liberty, where Main turns into McMicken, there was a sign here.

Clues?

In Hamilton, at 127 and Heaton, we saw this on a recent pass through the community.

Is it a partial "Hamilton", or simply "Milton"?

We didn't have time to look around the rest of the building, but on the east side, Google Earth shows us more ghost signage, for Mohawk Papers and "machine shop."

From the Mailbox

Spotted by Ms. D. Walz in Blair, Nebraska.