Philly Ghost Signs on Google Maps

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Almost all the posts on this site have been positioned on the above interactive Google Map so you can accurately find where these signs are located.

Center City Ghost Sign Photo makes Schmap Philadelphia Guide

A photo of a ghost sign I took in 2005 (previously posted here) has been selected for inclusion in the newly released fifth edition of the Schmap Philadelphia Guide:

Schmap is a leading publisher of digital travel guides for 200 destinations throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The innovative technology behind Schmap Guides also lets end users publish their own ‘schmaps’ (to share trip itineraries, local reviews and more), and powers a popular range of Schmap Widgets, displaying maps with content and event schedules for travel, sports, concert tours and more on a fast-growing network of websites and blogs. Founded in 2004, Schmap is privately owned and based in Carrboro, North Carolina.

Chestnut between 7th and 8th [map]

Excerpt from "Draplin Project"

A snippet from Jess Gibson's "Draplin Project". Somewhat related to signage design, more about the declining state of design in America. Language definitely not safe for work.

Designphiladelphia Feature

Today the Designphiladelphia blog featured a post about the Philly Ghost Signs Project blog. If you've arrived here from the post, welcome! If you haven't, you can read the full write-up here.

Kevin Derrick, who runs the blog, read a little deeper into the content contained here, beyond just the collection of photos of old buildings:

In doing this work, the photo-journal simultaneously questions our past, present and future all under the beguiling premise of peeling paint... Something of a revelation and altogether extraordinary, certainly.

The blog is the ongoing online presence of Designphiladelphia, a series of events that include studio tours, lectures, exhibitions, workshops, book signings and parties in and around Philadelphia design institutions.

If you have any tips or information on signs that you know about, please send me an email via the link at right. Thanks for looking!

Harbison Dairy Milk Bottle Water Tower

Not the best shot, taken with my phone. Will have to come back to reshoot.

Some history:

Harbisons Dairies built the water tower around 1914. There were two other bottles at the intersections of Kensington and Erie avenues and another at York Road and Ontario Street in Kensington. it was a water tank for the sprinkler systems.

Over time, the milk bottles became trademarks for the company. When the original milk bottle and the plant that it was attached to were sold to the Novick Brothers food company (for a mere $40,000 in 1951), an agreement was drawn up: The water tower was to remain and if the shape was not changed, the plant's new owners were allowed to paint it any color but white. It took a while, but eventually the agreement was honored and the bottle was painted gray and black.

Today, Harbisons Dairies are no longer in business (the company was sold in 1966), and all that remains is the original bottle, rusted and in danger of meeting the same fate as the other two. The bottle, nominated to the Preservation Alliance's Endangered Properties List in both 2003 and 2004 is said in the alliance's newsletter to be "not as significant as many other sites.

Great article here. More information here.

Coral and Abigail Streets [map]

Schaffer Furniture

"Schaffer Furniture"

Corners, Bainbridge and Fairhill Streets [map]

Lou Wolff & Sons

"Lou Wolff Quality Used Cars"

Not really a "ghost" sign, since the 80+ year old business is still operating on these premises. But the great hand lettering just needed to be captured. Note the use of exchange names/letters in the phone numbers.


The image below, taken 1/13/1959, shows the garage (see the "514" address numerals) connected to a larger building which housed the Arctic Refrigeration Service Company, complete with it's own faded wall signage. This dates the Lou Wolff sign to at least late 1959, since this building has yet to be demolished, and all-numeric phone numbers were not commonplace until after 1960.







Also note that the large, more colorful sign on the office across the street reads "Lou Wolff & Sons", and the phone number is all-numeric, making this sign newer.


PhillyHistory.org. Philadelphia Department of Records. 23 February 2012. <http://www.phillyhistory.org>.

E Palmer Street and E Girard Ave‎ [map]

Fishtown Ice

"Fishtown Ice"
As the corner buildings were being demolished, I spotted signage being reused as cladding...

Corner, Columbia Ave and Thompson St‎ [map]

Berger Bros. Company

"Berger Bros. Company"


The origins of Berger Bros may be traced to the late 1800s. William H. Berger was born in Milton, Pennsylvania, in 1841. He learned carpentry before joining the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, Berger moved to Philadelphia and in 1874 he founded William Berger & Company, manufacturers of tinners' and roofers' supplies such as copper, aluminum and steel gutter. Soon after he was joined by his brother, and the company name was changed to Berger Bros Company. The company grew steadily, and became one of the largest of its kind in the United States. It is still in business today, operating outside the city limits in Feasterville.



Older, painted brick signage. Taken 1929. 




An early location of the business seems to have been immediately adjacent to the Betsy Ross House, in a building now demolished. First image taken 1929, next two, dates unknown.


Sign on larger building, with dimensional lettering in place. Taken 1959. The larger building next door to the earlier location still retains the ghost outline of lettering left after dimensional tin letters were removed. PhillyHistory.org. 


Philadelphia Department of Records. 23 February 2012.
<http://www.phillyhistory.org>

236 Arch Street [map]

Joseph Cornelius - Upholsterer

"Joseph Cornelius, John Wanamaker,
Upholsterer"

Thanks to Justin Flax for sending this in!

50th and Baltimore [map]

Edwin J. Cummings Family and Steam Coal House

"CUMMINGS COAL"


Take a look inside this structure here on Hidden City Philadelphia.

This photo, taken a block south and dated 1901, shows "CUMMINGS COAL" emblazoned on the railroad viaduct overpass. Unfortunately it is too far away to see the structures.


Here is the location in a photo dated 8/15/1894. The buildings are different (all of them gone at this point), suggesting this remaining structure was built later.

PhillyHistory.org. Philadelphia Department of Records. 8 April 2008. <http://www.phillyhistory.org>.

400 block of 13th Street, near Callowhill [map]

Piedmont

"Piedmont" in angled script. You can also faintly make out the outline of a pack of cigarettes just next to and slightly above the "5¢" at the right. There appears to be have been another sign either over or under this sign. There are other words below the main sign, but they have mostly weathered away.

Piedmont was one of the most popular cigarette brands around 1910, no doubt bolstered by the practice of inserting baseball cards in the packs. This helps date the sign to that era.

Very difficult to distinguish, but the script, colors,“5¢”, and general overall layout are consistent with this wall ad in Hartford:




Older photo, via Flickr, taken 18 August 1995 by xnedski .

Poplar at St John Neumann Way [map]

K&F CHINA

"K&F CHINA ...ERS"
There is more painted signage on the tile behind the white wooden planks.

230 Arch Street [map]

John Evans' Sons Inc.

"John Evans' Sons, Inc."
Springmaker. This was home to the business from 1870 to 1967.
History on the company available on their website.


Detail of (mostly) unaltered lettering from the late 1800s.


Interesting logotype.


As seen in 1960.


506 N. 13th Street [map]

Philadelphia Belting Company

"Philadelphia Belting Company
MANUFACTURERS LEATHER BELTING"

6th and Spring Garden [map]

Union Transfer Co.

"Union Transfer Co.
Baggage Express"


Space has served many purposes - a Spaghetti Warehouse, now a music venue by the original name.

1026 Spring Garden [map]

Esslinger's Brewery - Plant No. 1

Older, larger sign with "Esslinger" script, covered by newer, yellow-background sign.


Another sign appears far beneath, the only remaining legible section reading "... & SON."

This could be a remnant of G. Dallett & Son Co., a candle and soap works that occupied the corner space until moving further up Ridge Avenue in 1880. Archival illustration depicts both George Esslinger’s Brewery & Lager Beer Garden and Dallett’s Soap & Candle Manufactury as neighbors on this corner in 1884.

To get a sense of the Esslinger script and color pallette, look at these items: <a href=" target="_blank" www.usbeerstuff.com="" />beer label, beer can, Quizzie case, serving tray, menu sheet, and model delivery truck. For some history on Esslinger's, see here.


Ornate corner signage in stone.


More signage in stone.

10th Street and Ridge Avenue [map]

The Bicycle with the National Reputation

On 10th Street side of building, possibly newer signage?
"The Bicycle with the National Reputation".
Vertical signage along rightmost column (not visible here) reads "BLACK BEAU(TY)" partially obscured.
Smaller diagonal signage between windows - "NORFOLK" "NEWARK" "BRA... ...ES"


According to the periodical Iron Age (Jan-June 1919), Haverford Bicycle Company owner Max Sladkin purchased the property at 10th & Buttonwood to manufacture bicycles and bicycle parts. 


According to this catalogs (1, 2, 3), The Black Beauty was a line of bicycle models HBC sold.


Another shot from alankin's photostream.



"(LEA?)THER GOODS."
Hamilton Street, front of building.


"HAVERFORD CYCLE CO."





Other views, opposite side of building, facing lot.




Other sides of building.
Most overlapping signage now illegible.


More modern signage from newer occupants.



10th and Buttonwood Sts. [map]