Hartford Signs

Cutlery

2011-12-30T13:20:00.000-08:00

Sign remaining from the former O.F. Stengelin Co. cutlery shop. The shop closed earlier this year after being open in Hartford for 111 years. Old Bank Lane.

Dance Factory

2011-12-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

Barry Square.

Hartford Snacks.

2011-11-15T14:34:00.000-08:00

Submitted by Brendan. Hartford Snacks. "the name means service". Meadow Street.

Corner Tap

2011-10-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

Recently uncovered Corner Tap Cafe sign. New Britain Avenue. The Corner Tap was a classic Trinity College watering hole.

More Swift Signs

2011-07-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

Menu

Flux

Eureka!

2011-07-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

Main Street.

Value Mart

2011-04-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

Value Mart. Park Street.

Professionals Only

2011-04-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

Lunch for Professionals Only! - Thank You -. Trinity College.

Balloon Release

2011-04-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

Balloon Release Equals Death for Sea Life. Zion Street.

Swift Factory Signs

2011-04-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

Love Lane.

Dad Parking

2011-04-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

No Parking Except for Dad. Grandview Terrace. Taken by Brendan.

M.B. Sholes Bldg

2011-03-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

The M.B. Sholes Building, home of Guthart, Inc., where we previously spotted this can of Nu-Bake on Franklin Avenue

City Fare

2011-03-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

City Fare Catering. Franklin Avenue.

Beyond This Fence

2011-03-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

Beyond This Fence is Private Property. Forster Park.

Pesticide Storage

2011-03-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

Danger. Pesticide Storage. Goodwin Park.

ONE/CHANE, Inc.

2011-03-21T04:24:00.000-07:00

Rebuild North Hartford. Aquaponic Greenhouse and Community Organic Garden. Found in trash pile.

Brother Bones

2011-03-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

Brother Bones Cafe. Nicky's Express Lube. Franklin Avenue.

Stamps Registry

2011-03-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Stamps. Registry. Windows at the former Billings Spencer Factory. Russ St. at Lawrence St.

Drive Slow

2011-03-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Drive Slow Watch Out For Children Playing. Park Street near New Park Avenue.

Curb Your Dog

2011-02-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

Sisson Avenue.

Diamond Cutz

2011-02-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

This magnificent 1869 Second Empire building, once home to American architect and builder Oliver Easton, now home to "Diamond Cutz Barber Shop".

Fairfield Avenue.

Wm. Boardman and Sons Co. Coffee Roaster Tea Importers

2011-01-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

Notice the painting of the Gold Star Coffee can above.

Ghost Signs On Barbour Street

2011-01-31T11:20:00.000-08:00

Several layers of painted signs. Barbour Street.

Spaghetti Warehouse

2011-01-31T10:55:00.000-08:00

Spaghetti Warehouse is a novelty Italian restaurant chain set up in old factory buildings. The Texas based company closed the Hartford location in 1996. Bartholomew Avenue.

United States Post Office

2010-12-24T05:44:00.000-08:00

1931-1933 neo-classical art deco Post Office and Federal Building designed by Malmfeldt, Adams and Prentice on High Street. The frieze above the pilasters and windows on both sides of low relief figures on horseback transferring a message bears the inscription:

Across unbounded reaches of the sky
Over long trails upon the land
By lakes by rivers and the trackless sea

In tempest and in calm by day and night
We speed at your command and bear
The tidings and the treasures of mankind.

The interior of the building had some unusual features such as secret passages and lookouts for postal inspectors to monitor staff. These features were removed in a 1980's renovation.

No longer a post office and now known as the Cotter Federal Building, it houses such agencies as the IRS.

Located adjacent to the rail line, the post office had a large rear delivery bay, now fenced in and used as a child containment facility.

Broad Street Bullyz

2010-12-24T05:12:00.000-08:00

Broad Street Bullyz Who Run Shit Succa.

Broad St. near Madison.

Elmer's Barber Shop

2010-12-24T05:03:00.000-08:00

Elmer was a Quebecer who ran Elmer's Barber Shop for decades until he sold the shop and retired around 1998. The place is now called "La Rey" yet Elmer's name keeps ghosting through on the alley wall.

Park Street.

Santa is Real

2010-12-24T05:01:00.000-08:00

Constitution Plaza

Nu-Bake

2010-12-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

All Hydrogenated Nu-Bake Shortening All Vegetable. Cudahy Packing Co.

Maple Avenue side of the M.B. Sholes Bldg..

Statue in Wisconsin of Patrick Cudahy who founded Cudahy Packing in Maine in 1915.

Poles Syrup

2010-12-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

Garden Street.

Obituary of Poles, Seymour N.:

October 2, 2007
POLES, Seymour N. Seymour N. Poles, 86, of Magnolia Hill, West Hartford died Sunday (September 30, 2007) at Hartford Hospital. Born in New Rochelle, NY, he was the son of the late Isaac and Bertha (Trachtenberg) Poles. Seymour served in the Merchant Marines during World War II. After the War, he returned to Hartford and co-founded with his father, Poles Syrup. Under Seymour, the business expanded and became Poles Syrup & Paper Supply Co. He owned and operated the business until he retired in the mid 1980s.

Please Do Not Disturb

2010-12-10T15:05:00.000-08:00

Summit Street

Ghosting on Wethersfield Ave.

2010-12-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Unintelligible on Wethersfield Ave

Room (For Rent)

2010-12-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

Another sign from the maker of the I-Me Leasing sign. This time on Capitol Avenue.

Room (For Rent)
No-Smoker
No-Pet
No-Couple

Rell Smells

2010-12-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

Dot Com.
Capitol Avenue

Pig.

2010-12-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

Park Street.

The Soldiers and Sailors

2010-12-10T14:27:00.001-08:00

Frieze on the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, built to commemorate the 4,000 Hartford men who fought and the 400 Hartford men who died in the Civil War. The central allegorical female is a representation of Hartford, surrounded by her citizens, welcoming her warriors home from the war. Note the caduceus, laurel wreaths and Hartford's sword and shield with the hart iconography.

The exceptional center shield designed by the Boston Terra Cotta Company, again with a hart, the sun, and the motto Post Nubila Pheobus.

FULL STOP

2010-12-06T15:51:00.000-08:00

Capitol Avenue.

Alfred E. Burr School

2010-12-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

Splendid, colorful Hartford Arms adorn the front of the school with the motto Post Nubila Pheobus.

Alfred E. Burr School. Wethersfield Avenue.

The man himself.

Signs of Agiculture

2010-12-06T15:38:00.000-08:00

Tag Sale

2010-12-04T15:02:00.000-08:00

Best Pinchos in Town

Fairfirld, Hartford

Plant for Sale

2010-12-04T14:59:00.000-08:00

North End.

Latin Signs

2010-12-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

Ecclesia Sancti Justini. Blue Hills Avenue.

Fugazy International Travel

2010-12-04T14:43:00.000-08:00

Window sticker remnants of a 1980's downtown travel agency.

Columbus Boulevard.

Do Not Urinate

2010-12-04T14:41:00.001-08:00

Do Not Urinate on These Premises. Violators Will Be Prosecuted.

Woodland Street.

Bacon Bottling Company

2010-12-04T14:34:00.001-08:00

Est. 1851, Bacon Bottling Co.

Below an image of one of Bacon's products, Bacon's Brand Root Beer.

Morris Street.

Carville's Ranch House

2010-06-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

In Windsor at the Hartford border.

74 Union Place

2010-06-10T15:33:00.000-07:00

74 Union Place Sign. The "74" was missing for about 10 years and returned recently.

Hartford Base Ball

2010-06-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

A Hartford flag at the Hartford Senator's Game in Coltsville.

Scoler's Restaurant

2010-06-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

A removed plastic panel exposed the original backing for the neon sign of Scoler's Restaurant. Scoler's was a Hartford restaurant owned by a Bernard Greenberg. It moved from Hartford to Bishop's Corner in West Hartford where it remained open well into the 80's.

Laurel Street at Farmington Avenue.

Out.

2010-05-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Jylland

2010-05-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

Jylland. Broad Street. Jylland is one of the three lands of Denmark.

Call A Friend

2010-05-11T15:51:00.001-07:00

Municipal Building. Main Street

20

2010-05-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Railroad sign near Hamilton Street

Southern New England Ice and Oil Signs

2010-05-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Precision

2010-05-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

Precision Dental Laboratory. Park Street.

Sign Sweater

2010-05-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

Capitol Avenue

E.B.T., Credit Card, Lobster

2010-05-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Neon Lobster, Main Street

The Madison Cafe

2010-05-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

Capitol Avenue

Greenwood Market

2010-05-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

Greenwood Market. Specialists in Meats. New Park Avenue.

Congress Man

2010-05-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

Congress Man Package Store. Main Street at Congress Street.

Masonic Temple

2010-05-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Main Street

Tourists

2010-05-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

High Street.

Bimbo Delivery Truck

2010-05-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

Zion Street

Do Not Anchor

2010-05-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

Pipe crossing. Do not anchor. North of Riverside Park. Photo by Brendan

Positively

2010-04-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

Positively no admittance apply at office. Francis Avenue.

General 181 Elevator

2010-04-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

Hartford General Elevator Company, Walnut Street

Home Visitor

2010-04-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

St. Anne's School scoreboard, Park Street.

Hotel Avon

2010-03-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

Beacon

2010-03-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

The Beacon Light and Supply Co., Walnut Street.

Queer Resource

2010-03-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

Queer Resource Center. 114 Crescent Street

Solomon Building

2010-03-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

The art deco Solomon Building on Park Street. Was at one time a Woolworth's on the ground floor with two floors of bowling alleys above. Directly across the street from the now mostly demolished Lyric Theatre.

Beaches Closed

2010-03-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

Bartholomew Avenue.

South End Athletic Club, Inc.

2010-03-29T05:16:00.000-07:00

Bushnell Street.

Gray Smokestack

2010-03-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

The Gray Telephone Pay Station Company. (check out their 1912 catalogue here.) The name was changed to the Gray Manufacturing Company on February 19, 1939. The company eventually went bankrupt on September 14, 1976. The Gray Manufacturing Company made the Audograph (a dictation machine) after World War II. It recorded on thin vinyl discs. One interesting technical feature of the Audograph was its ability to vary the disc's rotational speed continuously, depending on the location of the recording/playback stylus. By spinning the disc faster when the stylus was in the outer grooves, the machine allegedly made better recordings. A Gray Audograph played in important part in the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. On the day of the assassination the Dallas Police Department (DPD) operated two radio channels. Channel I was for normal police radio traffic and channel II was assigned for the use of the presidential motorcade. Each channel was recorded by a different device. Channel I was recorded on a Dictabelt and channel II on a Gray Audograph. Both machines worked by engraving a track into a plastic medium. The Dictabelt used a rotating cylinder and the Audograph used a flat disk, similar to a phonograph record. Both machines were transmission actuated. The recordings were poured over for years, but never served to provide any additional information to identify the number of shots fired that fateful day.

Arbor Street.

Leak Teakes

2010-03-29T04:56:00.000-07:00

Leak Teakes Royal Variety Store. Hot Dogs - Hot Sausage - Billiards - Cold Soda - Video Games.

Herbert Star TV

2010-03-28T06:10:00.000-07:00

Bartholomew Avenue at Park Street. On Rite Side.

In Memory

2010-03-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

In memory of the men of Connecticut who suffered in Southern military prisons 1861-1865

Out In

2010-03-28T05:59:00.000-07:00

Hoadley Place.

Fore Lease

2010-03-28T05:58:00.000-07:00

Marshall F. Davenson

2010-03-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

Modeling and Plastering. Maple Avenue.

Perfeshion Barbers

2010-03-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

This salon has perfeshion barbers. Maple Avenue.

Store Accept Food Stamp

2010-03-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

Store Accept Food Stamp. Store Sell Phone Card. Maple Avenue.

VFW

2010-03-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

Metal sign pointing to a no-longer-existing Veterans of Foreign Wars hall on Maple Avenue.

Fairfield Park

2010-03-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

20's era housing development column on Maple Avenue and West Preston Street.

The Trinity

2010-03-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

Crescent Street

Elton

2010-03-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

Washington Street

Elite

2010-03-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

Washington Street

Polish National Home

2010-03-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

Charter Oak Avenue

Atlantic Screw Works

2010-03-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

Nicola Motto Block

2010-03-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

Nicola Motto was a successful fruit and confectionary dealer. Proud of the symbol of his prosperity, Motto placed his name in large letters at the top of the building, naming it the Nicola Motto Block. The style is Renaissance Revival in the Flat Iron shape. The Block featured multiple store fronts and was architecturally significant for the curved glass windows in the wood paneled apex facing Barnard Park / South Green.

Beginning in 1893, living and working in the building, Motto ran his "Motto Fruits" business until his death in 1899 or 1900. His sons, John and Joseph, who were clerks in the business, continued to live in the building with their mother, Rose. With John remaining as clerk, Joseph took over the business, operating as "Joseph Motto Fruits" on Maple Avenue

Pull Your Pants Up!

2010-03-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

Its an epidemic.

Hartford Cares

2010-03-28T05:11:00.000-07:00

Hartford Cares. Buckle Up. Hartford Safety Belt Program. Capitol Avenue.

Receiving

2010-03-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

Hartford Office Supply Receiving. Capitol Avenue

Murk Brush Co.

2010-03-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Capitol Avenue

La Biblioteca

2010-03-28T04:58:00.000-07:00

The Lyric Theatre

2010-03-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

Gets knocked down today.

Walton Auto

2010-03-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

Nelson Street.

Johnson Fish Market

2010-03-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

Fresh Fish. Mather Street.

U-Stop Convenience

2010-03-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

Mather Street

Carling Tool

2010-03-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

The Carling Tool & Machine Co., Inc. Sign makers mark: United. Capitol Avenue.