The Sign Painter: Among the region's many 'ghost signs' is the fading legacy of 'Red' O'Donnell

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By Marylynne Pitz | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

At Maurice "Red" O'Donnell's three-story house in Homewood, the phone rang constantly with calls from customers.

That trilling telephone meant income for the blue-eyed, red-haired father of eight whose third-grade education, confidence and ability to paint outdoor signs on the sides of large buildings kept him in business for more than 25 years.

Between the 1930s and 1950s, he painted signs for such clients as Dad's Root Beer, Meadow Gold Ice Cream and Borden's Milk all over Western Pennsylvania.

"He was self-employed. He worked morning, noon and night," says his daughter Marge McMackin, a retired high school English and journalism teacher who lives in Garfield.

The son of Irish immigrants, the late sign painter belonged to a fraternity of brush-wielding, overalls-wearing men called "wall dogs" who created an idiosyncratic form of commercial art that promoted beer, bread, cigars, flour, well-tailored clothes, soda pop and any other product or service someone wanted to sell.

Many of these large signs are still visible in Pittsburgh and other Midwestern and mid-Atlantic cities partly because they were often applied to brick walls with lead-based paint. Some are revealed in vivid color when old buildings are torn down, which is how Polish Hill got its Mother's Bread sign back in 2008. Several years ago, a Star Soap ad on Penn Avenue in Garfield was restored by artist Jocelyn Jacobs through a seed grant from the Sprout Fund.

Often called ghost signs because they are fading and have been painted over older ads, this slice of roadside culture is the subject of several books, websites, at least two documentaries and innumerable postings on flicker.com.

Earlier this year, William Stage, a Missouri journalist in St. Louis, launched a website, www.paintedad.com, to archive and showcase images of these signs he began photographing 35 years ago. He's turned his favorites into a book of color postcards called The Painted Ad that can be torn out and sent or kept as mementos. His first book on the subject, "Ghost Signs: Brick Wall Signs in America," appeared in 1989.

Some of the ad copy from these old signs, Mr. Stage says, is so naive that it's endearing. Examples he has captured in St. Louis include, "Waverly Bicycles will drive your cares away" and "Every puff a pleasure."

The Glorious Return of the Quarrier Diner

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First, let's be clear.  To diner aficionados, the Quarrier Diner is not a "true" diner.  It wasn't built elsewhere and shipped to its current location. It doesn't have a "builders tag" emblazoned above the door which notes its provenance.   Nor does it share the classic "railroad car" shape of the classic diner.  But on so many other levels, it fills the bill perfectly.

We have watched and commented on the Quarrier for years, and, most recently, worried quite a bit about its imminent demise and possible replacement by some clunky FBI building.

So, it is with with great joy that we post this article -- and we give the Pollitt's total credit for this transformation.  Here's hoping that the residents of Charleston will come out in droves to support this remarkable transformation...

By Julie Robinson CHARLESTON, W.Va.

A neon "Open" sign glowing on the newly renovated historic Quarrier Diner excites both local residents who remember the restaurant's heyday and passers-by who look forward to a new downtown

dining option. The restaurant's opening last week was bittersweet for Anna Pollitt, who owns the restaurant with her husband, David. The Pollitts purchased the dilapidated restaurant in September

2010 at the urging of their son Tim, who worked at Murad's in Kanawha City. "He told us that if we would purchase a restaurant, he would make it work," she said. When Quarrier Diner went on the

market after being closed for 10 years, it seemed a natural purchase to David, a C.P.A. He dined there daily when he was a student at nearby Charleston Catholic High School and later when he

worked for 17 years at a building across the street. They began extensive renovations in January to restore the Art Nouveau building to its original splendor when Tim died at on Easter day from a

head injury sustained after falling down the stairs at home. "We had to go forward, partly because we had every penny invested," said an emotional Anna. "The renovations were already so far along."

Read the entire story here.

One of the last of the Worcester cars shuts down...

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At The American Roadside, we have a special affection for the venerable diners once made by the Worcester Lunch Car Manufacturing Company.  It's hard to explain.  It just is what it is.

So, when we see one that is still standing, and struggling against the vagaries of time and changing tastes, we take notice.  We also take notice when they close...

By Corin Hirsch | Seven Days

The lunch car that would house Libby’s Blue Line Diner spent decades meandering through three Massachusetts towns until, in 1989, it landed on a hilltop spot above Route 7 in Colchester. There it became a local retro favorite.

This past Monday, the grill at Libby’s went cold after 22 years.

Karen Griffin, the diner’s co-owner, says she decided to end Libby’s lease to make space for something new. “The building has been sold to some people who would like to do their own thing,” says Griffin, though she won’t elaborate on the business that will follow on Libby’s heels.

Neither will a representative of the diner’s property-management company, though she says details may be available in a few weeks, once the arrangement has firmed up.

Read the entire article here.

OK. We'll ignore the "railroad car" thing, this time...

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Kullman.  Mountain View.  Silk City.  The names that make a diner lover's heart beat bit faster are all there.

Though, of course, not one of them has much to do with the railroad :-)

However, this is a quick review of some of the classic diners on Long Island, NY from Newsday....

Read it all here.