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Archive for December, 2012

Lonnie Tettaton Walldog

Lonnie Tettaton is the maestro of wall signs in St. Louis, whether that sign is done from scratch, using either client’s or his own design, or it is one to be carefully “touched up”such as the historic Bull Durham Tobacco sign in downtown Collinsville, Illinois. Every journeyman signpainter has a helper, and Lonnie started his […]

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Walldogs

“They were extremely fast with these big walls, but then many did nothing but walls. They had tricks the younger people hadn’t picked up.” —Gus Holthaus, signpainter, Cincinnati They were a rugged, resourceful lot with a dedication to the craft bordering on monomania  They painted signs on walls, great and small, and they worked like […]

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The Painted Ad:

RELATED WEBSITES

New York City Wall Signs

Ghost Signs in United Kingdom

American Sign Museum
Cincinnati, OH

Society for Commercial Archeology
Madison, WI

Pan-American Pictorial Survey

VIDEOS

Here are some of our picks for must-see TV.

Booze and Fags: Ghost Signs in the UK

Only Fools & Horses: Ghost Signs in the UK

HEC TV Feature on St. Louis Wall Signs

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dec 10, 1989
Toledo Magazine
Fading Beauties: Painted signs can give us glimpses into the history and culture of our past.
byline Mary Manton White / photography Don Strayer

Dec. 27, 1989
The Kentucky Post
Urban Artwork of 'Walldogs' Slowly Fading
byline: Jack Hicks

May 14, 1994
New York Times METRO
Signs of Lost Times: Age Gives a Faded Glory to Old Advertisements Painted on the Sides of Building. byline Paul Goldberger / photographs Jack Manning

Feb 6, 2000
Peoria Journal-Star
Poetry of Gentle Decay: Lost Art of Painted Signs is Slowly Fading Away. byline Pam Adams / photographs Linda Henson

March 27, 2000
Moline Dispatch / Rock Island Argus
Fading Signs of Other Times byline Tory Brecht

March / April 2001
Preservation:The Magazine Of The National Trust For Historic Preservation
Writing On The Wall: The faded signs of decades-old advertisements hover high above the streets of Manhattan. byline Linda Cooper Bowen / photographs Sava Mitrovich

Jan 27, 2003
Baltimore Sun
If This Wall Could Talk. byline John Woestendiek / photographs Jed Kirschbaum

May 4, 2003
Houston Chronicle
Ghost Signs Bring Taste Of History To Buildings: Some Old Ads On Walls Are Being Preserved
byline Allan Turner / photographs Karl Stolleis

Sept 2007
Signs of the Times
Dogtown Reborn: Vintage Wall Signs Have Been Restored In This St. Louis Neighborhood byline Wm. Stage

May 14, 2009
The Courier – Lincoln, IL
“Ghost” Turns Up In Lincoln Alley

May 2012
Signs Of The Times
Art Meets Archaeology: A Collapsed Building Unearths an 1890s Wall Mural Story and Photos: Wm. Stage

BOOKS

Haas, Cynthia Lea, and Jeff Holder, Ghost Signs of Arkansas, University of Arkansas Press, 1997.

Russell, Laura, Colorado Wall Dogs: Ghost Signs Across Colorado, Second Edition, Simply Books, Ltd., 2006

Stage, Wm., Ghost Signs: Brick Wall Signs in America, Cincinnati, Ohio: ST Publications, 1989

Jump, Frank, Fading Ads of New York City, The History Press, 2011.

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