""PAN-DANDY" is a bread made from the very highest grade of flour, purest of lard and sugar, and also contains as one of its principal ingredients "Malt Extract" which is used for the purpose of giving added value to the strength-building qualities of this bread."
"John Decker & Son
Architectural Sheet Metal Works
Tin Roofing, Cooper Cornices
Metallic Sky-Lights"
John Decker, a manufacturer of sheet metal roofing and cornices. Nephew of William Decker, architect of many of the brewery buildings and homes of brewers in the Brewerytown neighborhood. The building that John Decker had his business still stands at Girard, with a story high cornice emblazoned with dimensional lettering.
2702 W Girard Ave [map]
Working title: Philadelphia Ghost Signs - A visual record of faded advertisements in the City of Brotherly Love The book will serve as a visual record of a few of the ghost signs and faded advertisements in and around the greater Philadelphia area. What is a ghost sign? A faded, painted sign, at least 50 years old, on an exterior building wall heralding an obsolete product, an outdated trademark or a clue to the history of the building's occupancy. This work will be an attempt to document these once prominent but now quickly vanishing features of the urban landscape. Working Table of Contents: 1. Old City 2. Center City 3. Northern Liberties/Callowhill 4. Fishtown/Port/Richmond/Kensington 5. North Philadelphia 6. South Philadelphia 6. Other Neighborhoods - Manayunk - Fairmount - etc
"Richmond Machine Co."From KETC, LIVING ST. LOUIS Producer Jim Kirchherr finds out the truth behind "Ghost signs," faded advertisements painted on brick walls of rehabbed loft spaces and vacant buildings around St. Louis. Theses signs offer a glimpse into a busier, simpler age when blacksmiths were prominent and specialty shops lined the streets of the Wellington Loop.
Living and working in San Francisco, FontShop.com’s hometown, one is immediately aware of hand-painted signs — whether it’s the colorful Spanish-language brushwork of the Mission District or the mid-century marquees, liquor stores, and florists of the East and South Bay. There was a time when every sign was made by hand, and most of them were painted. Now, in an era of computers and vinyl, the craft is sadly rare. Fortunately there are still a few bright spots, like New Bohemia Signs newbohemiasigns.com, where the tradition is carried on to create new markers for the next generation of city dwellers.
We visited proprietor Damon Styer at his shop on 11th in SOMA and followed him to a job up the street. He describes the “muscle memory” that drives such quick and legible, yet beautifully imperfect work.
Former Little Fish restaurant, closed due to structural problems. After removing aluminum siding on second and third stories, "PAT STEAK" signage appears. Wonder if it had any connection to the other famous steak joint by that name?
"CATTIE GALVANIZING CORPORATION" horizontally along XXX Street.
Address numerals "107" faintly visible at the top of this rowhouse. More signage, now illegible, running vertically along the edges and between the windows.
Shot high above the streets of New York City, "UP THERE" reveals the dying craft of large-scale hand painted advertising and the untold story of the painters struggling to keep it alive.
Capturing a trade that is equal parts artistic precision and greuling labor, the filmpresents a painting tradition pre-dating modern advertising. A craft that today finds itself dangling precariously on the brink of extinction.
In 1984 Steve Powers started climbing rooftops in his neighborhood and painting his alias ESPO as a dues paying member of the ICY graffiti club. 25 years later he returned home to Philadelphia in the summer of 2009 to write a love letter across the same rooftops facing the Market-Frankford line. The letter, meant for one, with meaning for all, encompasses 50 walls on a 20 block stretch of market street. Drawing input, inspiration, and work from the community, Powers created a letter to and from west Philly. This unprecedented public art project was a collaboration of Powers, The Mural Arts Program, and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. It required 1200 cans of spray paint, 800 gallons of bucket paint, and the skilled hands of 20 of the finest spray painters in America, who Powers put into the legendary ICY club.
StoreFront scours the city and provides an indispensable guide to the city's timeworn shops. From humble neighborhood stores tucked away on narrow side streets to well-known institutions on historic avenues, anyone with a love of New York City will cherish being given a visual walking tour far beyond the scope of even the most thorough visitor or observant resident.
