Foreign Lands: Trout Or Seat Covers

We're back in St. Paul, not far from our favorite many-signed wall, with Jax Manufacturing Co. and friends. At first, I couldn't help but think of the exciting trout "fishing" opportunities of Jax Cafe, in particular because a friend was recently ignorantly mocking Minnesota fishing by referencing trout fishing in a stocked pond, but I think this is something different.

Writing On The Wall has already been here, noting that there are actually several layers of signs here. I'd like to explore the partially-covered signs, but I can't make out enough to go down that route, so I guess I have to stick to Jax. Unfortunately, I haven't got much on them either, except that some of them made seat covers for "autos" in 1940.

No surprise, but I'm not the first to snap it at 253 E. 4th St.

Hedgehogs and Hellscapes

This one is definitely a ghost as it's barely legible. What I can make out says "Sonic Tires" and "Tire Distributor." It's also a ghost in that I can't find much about it on the internet (during the limited time allotted to Googling).

To state the obvious, it used to be a tire distributor. Sonic seems to have been a tire brand that the internet mostly forgot. All I can find are an eBay auction for a '70s-vintage brass belt buckle and a vintage painted metal sign (way cool) touting the "tire of the future today" that is more than a little reminiscent of something out of a Fallout landscape.

It's in the middle of a multi-block complex of warehouses turned into apartments on the 600 block of 1st St. N. (To read the sign, you might need to click on the pic to enlarge)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

One more block down Washington there are ghost signs covering an entire side of a building. The two on the right are for warehouse space (big shocker here in the warehouse district). I can't make out the top, but spanning the building in the second row of signage we have "Martin Parry Commercial Bodies." Sounds pretty cool, right? Like maybe back in the day you could buy cadavers for TV commercials or something? Awesome!?

Okay, so not quite that macabre. Martin Parry was once a vehicle manufacturer, but by 1915 was specialized in building truck bodies for the Ford Model T (click the link for a great set of illustrations from the company's 1926 catalog). An analyst report from 1923 says the company was formed in a combination of two predecessors in 1919. The company was bought by GM in 1930 (more great illustrations) and renamed the Chevrolet Body Division. This sign was therefore likely painted sometime between 1919 and 1930, and probably graced a distributor of Martin Parry bodies. You can find it at 607 Washington Ave. N.

Holden #2

This is the other side of the the building. A walk by last night reminds me that the building seems currently to be unoccupied.

ETA: A bit of poking around on the Minnesota Historical Society website suggests that in an even earlier incarnation, this building housed the Sturr-Bullard Motor Company, consistent with this area's past of Minneapolis's Automotive District.

Update:  Construction is well underway for the "summer" opening of a Lunds wine and spirits shop.  The good folks at Lund's tell us that the building is known as the Sturr-Bullard Motor Company Building and was built in 1914. Even better, it appears they are going to preserve the signs (at least so far).  Good for Lund's!