Tidying Up

There's little left to be found about the The Ideal Broom & Brush Factory, in the alley between 1st & 2nd Avenues and 3rd & 4th St. Even the building itself seems to be completely abandoned. The front of the building has a faded awning that says, "The New French Bar" that definitely doesn't look, well, new.

Aside from a few Flickr photos (one of which tempts me to steal a line about Dickensian street urchins), I don't know much about this company or from where in the mists of time this comes to us. Instead I will give you a two cool Historical Society photos of a fire and its aftermath in 1937 at the Ideal Laundry that was a few blocks away, which had a cool sign of its own at the time.

Sans Talking Animated Children

The weather and the fact that this is shot through a window are robbing this one of its vitality, but Writing On The Wall has a somewhat better shot. It's Lee Overall's and work clothes. Not a lot of mystery in the product, but but it looks like an old sign. 206 N. 3rd St.

Tiny Bubbles

I was dodging rain and thunderstorms when I took this one (the North Minneapolis tornado was later that day), so I wasn't able to get very close. From the skyway near Ramp C, this appears to say "Kirk's." I think it might be a soap ad for Kirk's Coco Castile, brand I've never heard of but is apparently more than 160 years old.

This is between N. 1 St. Ave. & N. 2nd Ave near Washington.