Tobacco Road

 

We left Wheeling shortly after capturing all 

those Marsh Stogie signs, and heading south

off to the right we saw another complex of 

tobacco related buildings.

(They were distant, and we were moving, so these aren't 

the greatest photos, but trust us, they say

Mail Pouch from the Bloch Brothers.)

Little did we know what awaited us.

We followed the Ohio River back to Cincinnati,

and every few miles, we found a Mail Pouch sign.

By now, everyone knows the story

behind the famous Mail Pouch signs.

There were a couple we missed, because

they came up quickly, and there was

no room to turn around on this

two-lane highway.

But every few miles, we found another.

To back up a bit...

Long time readers will recall finding

Mail Pouch tobacco barns during a 

trip to Pennsylvania.

Thanks to Ms. J. Fiesta, we finally

captured the one we missed in 2022.

Wheeling, Part II

 

We've said it before: Taking ghost sign pictures

from a moving car is not an ideal way to hunt.

But, sometimes, one has to compromise: Do

you want to get great photos, or do you want to

get where you're going?

Many thanks to our new staff photographer:
Ms. J. Fiesta for her sharp eyes and her willingness

to take pictures and her patience.

Of course, when you are doing "drive-by

photography," you're bound to miss a lot.

For instance, the giant Marsh Wheeling Stogies

sign on top of this building.

You can see that giant sign here, along with a

history of the Marsh Stogie company.

Wheeling WV

We've wanted to hunt ghost signs in Wheeling after

seeing this a few years ago, from the Interstate.

 

(WWVA is still broadcasting, so that 

is technically not a ghost sign.)

We did not end up getting the WWVA sign, but we found plenty more.

Wheeling has a lot of ghost signs,

but it also has downtown streets

that are apparently in a permanent

state of reconstruction.

(Google Street View photos from a year

previous show the streets still torn up.)

Still, it wasn't just the state of the roads

that made this just a quick survey.

We had a long way to go to get home.

More from Wheeling next entry.

Toronto

To be perfectly honest, we weren't planning on taking a lot

of ghost sign pictures during this trip, as we wanted to

keep this hobby from overshadowing the rest of the trip.

 

But there were a few we could not resist capturing.

These two we found on the way to the Rogers Centre to see

some baseball.

We spent all of our limited time in the Downtown.

Toronto has a wonderful mix of old and new. 

And the old may block but never completely erase the old.

Booth Signs is still in business.

And we think we've found an older photo revealing

the rest of the sign.

Detroit

We've just completed a tour of the Great Lakes region, and 

we're happy to report the discovery of many ghost signs.

We have featured this one from our previous trip to 

the Motor City, but this is a better photo.

Many more to come.

 

The best for last

 

Our sharp-eyed friend Ms. J. Fiesta spotted 

this one earlier in the day from a moving car.

We weren't able to catch back up with it

until the evening, and the lighting does

it no favor. Unreadable in daylight too.

Yes, you see the couch and you think to yourself

"Is this indoors?"
It is.

On the second floor of a bar called

"The Social View" we found this.

But is it real?

It certainly looks authentic and a woman at the bar

attested to it, but she had been drinking.

 Polk Sanitary Milk Co. did exist.

We're just a little suspicious because 

of the way the structure is built.

It's hard to explain.

Long time readers will recognize

when we travel and grab a 

lot of ghost signs, we always

save the best for last.

A few more from Indy

We are near the end of our visit to Indianapolis,

and I fear near the end of this blog.

Quality control has gone downhill.

Every entry seems harder to make.

(We read Hotel, but can't make anything

else of it. Although we seem to 

remember reading it clearly in person.)

 

In this one, we see "Taylor Belt,"

and on the second line: "Leather."