CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE – Credit: Lauren Carroll/Journal
They are the ghosts of businesses past, their once-bright messages, advertising 25-cent plate lunches or wedding cakes, faintly recognizable after decades of sun, rain and neglect.
If photographs turn yellow with age, hand-painted advertisements simply fade away.
Look closely and you can still spot some of these “ghost signs,” as they are often called, all over Forsyth County, particularly Liberty Street, once a hotbed of commerce.
The signs are a window into a bygone era, when businesses lured customers into their store with paintings of a refreshing 7-Up on the side of their building rather than blasting emails promoting the latest LivingSocial deal.
An acclaimed new book, “Fading Ads of New York City,” by photographer and urban archaeologist Frank Jump, has sparked a renewed interest in these signs, resulting in stories in several national newspapers and a popular website, www.fadingad.com.
Though Jump said his eyes had washed over plenty of old advertising murals, he never really paid attention to them until he saw a giant Omega Oil sign in Harlem while taking a class on the history of New York City in 1997.
“Once you’re made aware of them, you begin to see them everywhere,” Jump said from his home in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The success of his book and blog speaks of a desire among people to better understand their city’s history, he said.
“I think these signs provide, not really nostalgia, but a reminder that there is a past and there is a history that should not fade,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s not about the product or the sign painter but it’s about a history of a neighborhood. Some of these products were for people who moved to the suburbs, which indicates demographic shifts and white flight. Once there was a neighborhood that thrived and now, there is nothing left behind.”
Closer to Winston-Salem, Salisbury has begun restoring some of the ghost signs in its downtown.
Behind every ghost sign is a story. Here are a few of them: Drink Pepsi-Cola
