Gorgeous ghost signs for Wrigley's Spearmint Gum, Borden's Evaporated Milk emerge from decades-long hiding in Missouri
Plus, midcentury motel endangered; California sign in the pink; Boston Market pummeled but Arby's hugged; and more headlines from the road
I’ve only been to St. Louis, Missouri, once and still have a pretty long list of things to photograph in the region. Now I have one more, and it carries an added urgency.
Two amazing ghost signs — hidden for many decades and likely from the 1920s— have emerged in the nearby city of Clayton. They are stacked atop each other: The top one promotes Borden’s Eagle Brand Evaporated Milk, and the one beneath is for Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum, with “Spearman,” the mascot, making the scene. The Spearmen — there were more than one — were used in the 1910s through 1930s. (Learn more about the Spearmen here, and explore a neat Mother Goose comic featuring them in the teens. In 1936, Spearman lit up Times Square in a spectacular neon sign that was said to be the largest in the world in articles of the time.)
My friend and former Tribune Broadcasting colleague Joe Millitzer, an executive producer at Fox 2 in St. Louis, kindly shared these photos with me, taken by reporter Liz Dowell.
The ads were unsealed after demolition work at the John P. Fields bar, which had to be razed after a delivery truck rammed into it, causing catastrophic damage.
Reports Dowell:
The Wrigley’s Spearmint ad shares similarities with this building’s ad, featuring Spearmen and the same Spearmint packaging.
However, Eagle Brand rebranded in 1939, featuring a cow named Elsie on their cans. The can on the building retains the original branding.
These advertisements not only showcase the marketing strategies of their time but also evoke nostalgia and curiosity. As the bar prepares to reopen, these relics serve as reminders of the enduring legacy of iconic brands and the stories they tell, bridging the gap between past and present.
But what will happen to the ads when the replacement building rises? Millitzer, below, put together a video with the story and explained how popular the ghost signs have become since they were discovered.
Do they stand a ghost of a chance?
On a wall in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, you can see a similar ad for Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum, featuring Spearman. Here’s the exact location. There’s another neat one in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, located here. Want more Pottstown or Pennsylvania tips? Patrons of my newsletter can get travel advice from me, including maps and suggested itineraries. You can subscribe (free or paid, both are appreciated!) below.
On the ghost sign front, KTAL NBC 6 takes us on a tour of ghost signs in downtown Shreveport, Louisiana.
Midcentury motel meets Wawa development plans: Who will win?
A year ago, I told you that development plans threatened the Modernaire Motel in Springettsbury Township, Pennsylvania, near the city of York. Now, those plans are up for a vote, with deliberations set for March 27.
The complex will feature “a Wawa with gasoline pumps, a Starbucks, restaurants, and apartments could replace the historic Modernaire Motel and other properties in Springettsbury Township,” reports YDR.com.
Some locals aren’t too pleased, concerned about the amount of traffic, noise, and pollution the development could bring.
They’re also concerned about losing this historic property, a collective loss. The developer has an answer for that: Artifacts from the Modernaire, including the sign, would be saved, said John McKenna of Madison Development Group. The group said they discussed those plans with the Lincoln Highway Association.
"We did represent to the association that we would be happy to donate certain parts of the motel, notably the historic sign that resides there," he said, according to the local paper.
The Modernaire has been a staple of the Lincoln Highway since, by some accounts, May 1949. A less architecturally impressive expansion was built out in the back in later years.
According to an account in the York Daily Record, the motel in its 1950s heyday attracted a mix of guests, from workers toiling in local industry jobs who would rent rooms a week at a time, to families exploring Pennsylvania Dutch country in the summer.
Development has imperiled the Modernaire before, but according to the paper, this is the first time a developer has been able to assemble this many lots. They are seeking modifications and waivers to move ahead with their vision.
Stay tuned.
Beloved Rancho Mirage Pink Elephant enjoys some much-deserved TLC — and protection!
The beautiful Pink Elephant Car Wash in Rancho Mirage, California, brings smiles to faces and shines to cars. Descended from but not affiliated with a similar pack of roadside pachyderms in the Seattle area, the Rancho Mirage car wash revels in its history, selling photos, shirts and other memorabilia, I told you back in 2019. Now, I learned that not only is this beauty getting a sensitive renovation, it was recently designated a local landmark, reports NBC Palm Springs.
Says the NBC affiliate:
Over the years, this pink elephant with a spraying trunk has grabbed attention from senior citizens to social media influencers.
“A lot of the kids, young people, come by, take pictures and then they post them on Instagram and Facebook,” Lorraine Barnes said. “It’s become a really big thing.”
Well, THAT hits a little too close to home. Though I’m happy to be considered among the “young people.”
RELATED: An Elephant Car Wash sign from a closed location ended up at Amazon’s Seattle campus. Here’s a list of locations; there is even more at Roadarch.com.
27 Boston Markets left in America
TAKE TOMORROW’S NOSTALGIC PHOTOS TODAY: Will there be a day when social-media posts featuring Boston Market storefronts elicit elegiac prose from me? We’re not quite there yet, but get ready for a tribute post soon. The chain is down 27 locations, and that number could soon be reduced by 27. The math is not good—math as in the accounting kind has been the problem for a chain that I used to remember as Boston Chicken back in the 1990s, and then expanded, perhaps more than it should have.
Now that I realize I don’t have any photos of a Boston Market, guess what I’ll be hunting for in my travels over the next few weeks?
The Retrologist is coming! The Retrologist is coming!
They REALLY like The Meats
Here’s a happier fast-food piece — check out the story of these really devoted fans of this Arby’s location in Canada. They even have a name — the “Arby’s Army.”
Reports blogTO:
Who knew so many people loved Arby's? The Oshawa location of the fast-food chain (that notably has no locations in Toronto), certainly had their meats cut out for them on Saturday, March 9, when at least 200 fans of the chain showed up for a well-earned roast beef sandwich.
The gathering was not a protest against the lack of a Toronto Arby's location, as had been previously reported, but merely a massive get-together of people who simply wanted to get their hands on some seriously sought-after sandwiches.
Love it!
Thanks, Brian Gallaugher, for the heads up. (If you like roadside Americana, and I know you do because you’ve read this far, join the Society for Commercial Archaeology today!)
Duly Noted
Preservationists in Denver are working to save the shuttered home of the music venue El Chapultepec, which is facing demolition.
Preservation Chicago issues its list of seven buildings to save in 2024. They include the Swift-Morris Mansion, which I photographed in 2019. A “2023 fire badly damaged the building’s wooden interiors. Today, the building is in the national register, but it isn’t a local Chicago landmark. Preservation Chicago hopes that changes and building is renovated,” according to the Architect’s Newspaper.
The Swift-Morris Mansion, seen in July 2019, suffered a fire last year. (Rolando Pujol) SIDENOTE: This beautiful sign, one of Chicago’s BEST, is (hopefully still) right across the street.
The roof has collapsed at Atlanta’s historic Mary Mac’s Tea Room and is closed for now. I took a quick night snap back in December 2020.
SIDENOTE: This is down the street from the historic 1965 Krispy Kreme that was damaged in arson in 2021. Owned by Shaquille O'Neal, the location reopened with a new building last fall.
The storm-damaged Warren's Lobster House, a beloved seafood restaurant in Kittery, Maine, is on the market for $4.9 million. Two rounds of flooding in January caused considerable damage. The gift shop is still open. I snapped this picture on a brutally cold December day in 2018.
See you Friday for my next newsletter! Please share the word and kindly hit the button below.
We are working to preserve the Modernaire Motel neon sign mentioned in your newsletter. Donations may be made via https://preservationpa.app.neoncrm.com/forms/save-the-modernaire-motel-sign-1
great newsletter this week