{"id":8188,"date":"2017-04-04T16:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T20:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartsignblog.com\/blog\/?p=8188"},"modified":"2023-11-01T01:21:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T05:21:30","slug":"fading-beauty-ghost-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartsign.com/blog\/fading-beauty-ghost-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"The fading beauty of ghost signs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"Ghost Signs Video\" src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.net\/embed\/iframe\/8vcr5j4a8v?dnt=1#?secret=lfLDmGQ0D5\" data-secret=\"lfLDmGQ0D5\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Have you ever walked past a building and noticed an old, hand-painted advertisement slowly fading away? It may be fading and difficult to read, but it is still visible. This is called a \u00a0\u201cghost sign\u201d. Usually, they are kept for sentimental purposes or simply if the owner doesn\u2019t care to have it removed.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many ghost signs from the 1890\u2019s to 1960\u2019s still exist today, mainly in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada. Most of these signs were made with oil-based house paints that contain lead, which is what adheres it to the building for such a long period of time. Signs started to be created differently in the 20th century, and so ghost signs from that period are not as prevalent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, conservators are asked to preserve and rehabilitate many original signs rather than paint over or alter them. Some of these include a <\/span>Coca-Cola sign <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the Old Town District of Fort Collins, Colorado, the paint on the exterior of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/washington.org\/find-dc-listings\/national-building-museum\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Building Museum<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Washington, D.C., and an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/forgotten-ny.com\/2015\/11\/omega-oil-harlem\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOmega Oil\u201d sign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in New York City. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Special thanks to our contributor, Sam Roberts and his GhostSigns Initiative. His work includes the GhostsSigns Tour app, publications, and other work aimed at documenting and researching these old, fading advertisements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check out more ghost signs on his website &#8211; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ghostsigns.co.uk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/ghostsigns.co.uk\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever walked past a building and noticed an old, hand-painted advertisement slowly fading away? It may be fading and difficult to read, but it is still visible. This is called a \u00a0\u201cghost sign\u201d. Usually, they are kept for sentimental purposes or simply if the owner doesn\u2019t care to have it removed. Many ghost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":8183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[644,645,497,303],"class_list":["post-8188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","tag-ghost-sign","tag-ghost-signs","tag-sign","tag-signage"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The fading beauty of ghost signs | SmartSign Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smartsign.com/blog\/fading-beauty-ghost-signs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The fading beauty of ghost signs | SmartSign Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever walked past a building and noticed an old, hand-painted advertisement slowly fading away? It may be fading and difficult to read, but it is still visible. This is called a \u00a0\u201cghost sign\u201d. Usually, they are kept for sentimental purposes or simply if the owner doesn\u2019t care to have it removed. Many ghost [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smartsign.com/blog\/fading-beauty-ghost-signs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SmartSign Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/SmartSign\/220245064667579\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-04T20:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-01T05:21:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/kpic43.p3cdn1.secureserver.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ghost-sign.jpg?time=1722363218\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"687\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erica Albanese\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmartSign\" \/>\n<meta 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