‘Ghost signs’ serve as reminders of the past
Photos and text by Kim Hairston
We may see hundreds of advertisements in a day, but some that have been around for decades are fading from brick walls and our consciousness.
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- A. Heim Groceries and Provisions remains above a faded and partially painted over Bull Durham sign on the corner of Riggs and McKean in West Baltimore. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun.)
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- An advertisement for The Barn Restaurant painted on a building on Hull St. and Fort Ave. The Glen Burnie restaurant burned in a “suspicious” fire in 1974. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Durapak Co./Vac Pac building on W Ostend Street housed a plastic food packing company. Vac Pac relocated to Baltimore County. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Atlantic-Southwestern Broom Company closed in 1989. The building, now called The Broom Factory, now houses retail, studio and office space. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Former home of the S. Hanover Metal Co. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Ghost sign of State Supply Co. on Harford Road. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- “Carriages” is illuminated by the evening sun on the side a building on W Saratoga Street. The sign is part of an advertisement for Gross & Stoops Carriage Works. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- A vertical advertisement adorns a wall of the former Faultless Pajama Company factory on S. Paca Street. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- A Manchester Shoes For Men sign is easily seen on N. Howard St. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- A ghost sign on the side of a rowhouse on Greenmount Avenue advertises Houck’s Shoe House. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Several fading painted ads are grouped together on a wall on Hamilton Avenue. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Progress Federal Savings and Loan ghost sign on W. Saratoga St. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Ghost signs of two department stores, Julius Gutman which later became Epstein’s, on W. Lexington St. are seen from N. Howard St. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- An old Baltimore School of Beauty Culture sign on E Mulberry St. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Overlapping ghost signs of several business on the side of a building on W. Baltimore Street. Clothing Outlet Store. Traces of old advertisements on buildings. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Former home of the S. Hanover Metal Co. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Quaker Oats advertisement of the side of an abandoned rowhouse on Edmondson Ave. and N Mount St. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Knoop Co. Coal and Wood on N.Gilmor St. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- A ghost sign advertising Lemler’s Drug Store. The the sign on the liquor store that now occupies the space lists medicine. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Old Baltimore Bargain House sign on W. Baltimore Street. The catalogue wholesale company became one of the largest business in the city in the early 1900s. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- A pair of eyeglasses are barely visible on a wall on Hamilton Ave. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
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- Ghost sign of C. Piccione Confectionery and Coca Cola on Harford Road. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
Once vibrant, “ghost signs,” or “brick ads” or “fading ads,” remind us of businesses that were vital to the life of cities and towns. In Baltimore, carriages, factories, corner stores that are long gone are still promoted on the sides of brick buildings.
These images were hand painted by “wall dogs,” artisans who often worked several stories above ground. The amount of lead in the paint they used helped preserve their work so even after a century of sun, rain, and snow some of their work is clearly visible. Others are so weathered only fragments of the original sign remains.
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