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HomeNewsHeritage committee to look for old, hidden, outdoor business mural signs

Heritage committee to look for old, hidden, outdoor business mural signs

North Bay’s Municipal Heritage Committee has plans to embark on a project where it will literally try to uncover some hidden history.

Peter Carello, the committee’s secretary-treasurer, says the committee wants to learn if there are more outdoor business mural signs on the sides of downtown buildings.

Carello says evidence that some downtown buildings might be hiding these old signs surfaced several years back when Mitchell Architects on Main Street East was renovating its building known as the Colgan Liddle Block.

When workers removed part of the wall of the building they came face to face with the outside wall of the adjacent building which had been constructed prior to 1910 but became hidden when the Colgan Liddle Block building went up.

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On this wall was a business mural sign with the name Despatch and Tribune Fine Job Printing, the name of the business that once occupied the building next to the Colgan Liddle Block.

Mitchell Architects restored this sign and with additional renovations, this outside wall sign now forms a part of one of the architect’s renovated offices.

Carello says discovering the outdoor sign got the committee wondering how many more signs were in the downtown but covered or blocked by buildings that were constructed years later.

Carello says one other outdoor business sign is visible on Main Street West.

It’s on the building that accommodates The Underground.

“It’s Bernie Kelly Insurance,” Carello said.

“It’s very prominent.  If you’re downtown you’ve probably seen it.”

The full sign reads Bernie Kelly Insurance Real Estate.

There’s also a phone number which is a look back in history and how technology has evolved.

“The business operated prior to the seven-digit phone system being put in place,” Carello said.

“Bernie Kelly Insurance only had a four-digit phone number.”

Paint added years later to the outside of the wall sign has obscured part of the phone number, but it clearly only has four numbers.

Carello says the outdoor business mural sign project is a year or two away.

This outside business sign, which was covered up sometime after 1910, was discovered when Mitchell Architects was undergoing renovations. (Rocco Frangione, MyNorthBayNow.com staff)

But he wants to hear from people if they are aware of other signs in the downtown that form part of an outdoor business mural.

The public can reach Carello at [email protected] and tell him which other buildings have hidden signs.

As they’re identified, Carello says the committee would like to restore them which would include removing old paint that got added over the years like in the case of the Bernie Kelly Insurance sign.

Carello says the committee would start with downtown businesses but if something pops up away from the downtown and has some interesting features, Carello says the committee would also take a look at it.

 

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