Marysville, Kansas

We caught these in another trip out west. 

Along Hwy 36.

A many-layered sign, on the edge of town. We believe there's a Coca-Cola sign in there somewhere.

And not far away, a tobacconist.

There's another sign we just couldn't stop to collect.  But we did find it on Google Street View.

Gone

The removal of the sign for the Imperial Mall, while a shame,

isn't inappropriate. There's really not much of a mall there.

Photo found in the Hastings Tribune. Submitted by Ms. P. Birky.

You can see more of this sign here.

Gone but not Forgotten

A couple of buildings at 8th and Main were recently disassembled. 

The work revealed, briefly, a sign, seen below...

And just under that roofline, the bottom of lettering.

See what was torn down here, and and in the second entry here.

Also recently lost: this one. It was painted over.

From the Mailbag

Spotted in Astoria, OR, by @suzippity.

Reader Submissions

The first three are from Denver, CO, courtesy of Ms. D. Ames.

Found in Seward, NE, and shared by Mr. C. Schweer.

And I'm afraid we've forgotten who sent these to us, and where they are from.

Savin' the Day

A lot to appreciate here on Elm, near Findlay Market.

First, the quality of this cigar sign on glass, compared with the last few we saw.

And the artist: none other than Gus Holthaus,

who has a lot more signs on this blog than he's credited for.

Philadelphia PA

Nearing the End

Our tour of Philadelphia is nearly complete.

And we've saved the best for last.

This ain't it.

And we should point out the Inquirer is still publishing, just not at this facility.

Two Ends of the Same Building

So you can see the signs on both ends.

In the Callowhill neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Mystery Solved

Growing up in the Midwest, Alco meant a chain of discount stores.

They went out of business in 2015, and didn't have a presence in Philadelphia anyway.

As it turns out, Alco stood for Arnold, Louchheim & Company.

And leave it to another ghost sign hunter to find the history for us.

Callowhill

North of downtown Philly, er, Center City, and north of Chinatown 

is the neighborhood of Callowhill.

It's mostly industrial buildings that are being given new life as lofts.

And thusly, there's no shortage of ghost signs here.

One and a Half Plus One and a Half

On the right, an engraved sign.

On the left, half a sign.

Presumably, they put the windows in later, and repainted the sign.

More from Philly

Center City

What surprised me most about Philadelphia was the amount of retail in the downtown, or, as they call it, Center City.

Yes, that's a Target store in the foreground.

It's almost as if they haven't received word that Amazon and the Internet have killed brick and mortar stores.

Kidding aside, it does make for a vibrant downtown or city center.

Half Hidden

Forget About It, Jake

It's Chinatown.

Screamin' Phillies

We did not intend to capture ghost signs with promotional banners featuring an open-mouthed Phillies player in the foreground.

But it happened.

Jewelers' Row

So named because there are a lot of jewelers there.

Still in Philly

Note the mostly ivy-covered sign near the bottom.

Sunrise over Broad Street

Philly Cheesesteak

Yes, when we were in Philadelphia, we had a cheesesteak.

No, it wasn't at Wendy's or Spicy Memory.

18th? 19th? How about 20th?

Maybe it was the fact we were in a city with roots back to the 17th Century,

but when we found this sign, we felt it had to be old.

Really old. 

And it is. Just not as old as we thought.

The company dates back to 1921.

And Philadelphia's Ghost Sign Project captures the layers where it has been repainted.

Three Tiers

We often have to do a double take.

At first glance, we noticed only the camera store sign.

It wasn't until we walked by again that we noticed the other two faded signs.