Age Is Relative

It's hard to tell, but this one may not be all that old. It says "The Unpainted Place" and it's on the back of what is now Utrecht's art supply at 1601 Maple Street.

Mysterious

Not all ghost signs are created equal, and this is our first example of a sign whose company name is tantalizingly close to, but not quite, legible. I can make out National and Co., but I've not been able to divine the word or two in between. We're still in the historic Automotive District, and the last two letters of the word before Co. look like they could be "us", so maybe it says "bus." The sign appears on the side of the building at 1222 Harmon Place.

If you can do better than me in making sense of this, please let me know in the comments.

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!

Inaugural Sign

This blog's very first sign is nearby your humble blogger's home, and is one of the pair of signs on either side of the building at 1208 Harmon Place.

As is reasonably legible in the sign, it's for H.A. Holden Inc., apparently a maker of electric motors and parts. As of this writing, a 1953 product catalog is up for auction on eBay. Holden was apparently acquired by Genuine Parts in 1999, although the press release for the completion of that transaction suggests that the company wasn't founded until 1954.

My alloted time for internet search on the history of this sign as expired without turning up much more that's worth reporting, but regardless, this sign is a fitting place to start in exploring what can be learned about the history of a former industrial town from the ghosts left in paint on some of it's older remaining walls.

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!