Tuesday Treasures Around the World

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.
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My Corner of the World

April 2015 - Cisco Texas

I've been intrigued by Conrad Hilton since I read The Hiltons. But imagine my surprise as we were driving from Odessa TX to Fort Worth to spot a billboard out of the corner of my eye advertising  "Cisco home of the first Conrad Hilton hotel"!!!

With great excitement I said we must stop in Cisco. John was willing (he always is) and was also curious about what we would find.

Like many of these small towns dotting the interstates there are many boarded up businesses. We drove around looking for the "attraction".

The Victor Hotel has been closed for decades in this dusty West Texas town.

It is believed from the look of the lettering and the style of the sign, that it was painted on the side of the Victor Hotel wall facing what was at that time the Bankhead Highway/US 80 through Cisco, in the 1950s.

Cisco was bypassed by the new interstate I-20, when it was designed and built through Eastland County south of town in the 1960s.

We almost gave up but suddenly we were there.


It was restored by the Hilton Foundation and turned into the Cisco, Texas, Chamber of Commerce office and community center. But two of its rooms have been preserved as they were in 1919, and a third serves as a small museum.

Here is an interesting article on how the oil and gas business boomed overnight around Cisco.

By reading the book I had learned that one of his sons was the first husband of Elizabeth Taylor.

I walked by this hotel a million times when we lived in Montreal, and even had lunch there a few times.

Tuesday Treasures

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World


December 2019 - Toronto ON

Say goodbye to another eerie-yet-powerful ghost sign, Toronto.

Crews were spotted giving a fresh coat of paint to the east-facing wall of the old Maclean Building at 345 Adelaide Street West on Monday, effectively erasing an historic painted sign that dates all the way back to the early 1900s.



November 2018 - Toronto ON


Hugh Cameron Maclean - younger brother to John Bayne Maclean, publishing magnate and founder of Maclean's Publishing Company (later known as Maclean-Hunter) - began his career as a typesetter at a young age. He ran away from his childhood home in Crieff, Ont. to find excitement in the big cities of Toronto and New York, earning a living by apprenticing at a variety of printing houses. By the time his brother entered the publishing game Hugh was already an experienced printer and John brought him on board as his partner.

However, this partnership did not last. When Hugh's wife died at the turn of the century and disagreements over advertising caused a rift in the brothers' relationship, Hugh sold his share of the company to John and moved west. Over the course of the next eight years the young Maclean moved from printing to publishing and upon his return to Toronto, created Hugh C. Maclean Publications and finally, in 1914, built the Hugh C. Maclean Building at 345 Adelaide St. W.

With a home for his new company in place, Maclean would finally stay put for the first time in his adult life. The Hugh C. Maclean Publishing Company stayed at 345 Adelaide until Hugh's death in 1949; five years later his company built a modern printery at Don Mills.

Click here to see another Maclean-Hunter building at University and Dundas which was planned by John Maclean as his head office.

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August 2019 - Toronto ON

Queen St. West ghost sign. Beare's Stationers and Printers. Badly faded, the top row said Office Furniture.

I haven't found any history of the company.

Interesting that the  company now occupying the building, black sign, WorkPlace One offers private and shared offices, coworking spaces, meeting rooms and virtual office solutions in Toronto and Kitchener.

So in a digital/electronic environment it is still using office furniture, stationery and printing.

Tuesday Treasures

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.


August 2018 - Montreal QC

Some ghost signs spotted while in Montreal.

Source
Willis & Co. never actually manufactured any sewing machines but they were the proud, sole distributors of Wanzer sewing machines in the Montreal area during their beginnings in 1884. Wanzer Sewing machines were produced in Hamilton, Ontario during the mid to late 1800s and the company was eventually bought out by the Canada Sewing Machine Company.

Alexander Parker Willis (1845-1934), the founder stopped distributing these Wanzer sewing machines in 1888, 4 years after founding the company. The company managed to acquire the rights to sell a range of other piano brands throughout it's lifespan - one that greatly exceeded M. Willis' own (the company went bankrupt in 1979).

I can't find any background on this one.

Named for the Castle Tea Company and erected on the site of the former Emmanuel Congregational Church, it was designed by Montreal architecture firm Ross and Macdonald, and was completed in 1927. It has 11 floors. The building's facade material is brick and its facade system is applied masonry. 

The building is now home to a Victoria's Secret outlet and was previously home to a Chapters bookstore, which closed in 2014.

Tuesday Treasures

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

March 2013 - New Orleans LA

Isaac Edward Emerson was born in Chatham County, N.C., in 1859. His family moved to Chapel Hill in 1868. Emerson was graduated from the University of North Carolina as a chemist in 1879. He came to Baltimore in 1880, and opened a small drug store. As a young chemist, he worked out and patented the formula for Bromo-Seltzer, a headache remedy, upon which Emerson's immense wealth was based. Bromo-Seltzer's great popularity was due, in part, to Emerson's early recognition of the importance of advertising to sales. Emerson undertook world-wide advertising campaigns for Bromo-Seltzer, Emerson's Ginger-Mint Julep drink, and other products. These efforts included newspaper, magazine, and store ads, as well as more adventurous strategies like sponsoring the "Effervescent Hour," a program that aired on numerous radio stations in the 1930s.

Emerson organized the Emerson Drug Company, built the Emerson Hotel, and had large hotel and realty holdings in Narragansett, R.I., where he maintained a summer home. He was president of the Citro Chemical Works of America, Maywood, N.J.; chair of the American Bromine Company; and controlling owner of the Maryland Glass Corporation, one of the largest manufacturers of the blue glass ware in which Bromo-Seltzer and other medications were packaged. He also sat on the boards of directors of many banking institutions. For many years, the flashing light atop his Emerson Tower was a guide to airplanes flying around Baltimore.

An avid yachtsman, Emerson formed the Maryland Naval Reserve in 1894. During the Spanish-American War, he led his own naval force. After the war, he received the rank of captain.

Emerson and his second wife Anne Preston McCormack Emerson were known as a lavish entertainers, maintaining two yachts for parties and around-the-world tours. His daughter was Margaret Emerson McKim Vanderbilt Baker Amory, the Vanderbilt being Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who went down with the Lusitania in 1915. Margaret's daughter Gloria Baker was one of the nation's most popular and richest women when she made her 1938 society debut in a $50,000 dress. Gloria, who one newspaper cited as having "more suitors than her mother had husbands," married first tin heir Henry J. Topping, Jr., then Brigadier General Edward H. Alexander. Source

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August 2009 - Philadelphia PA

Trenton China Pottery, founded by Louis Eidelson, was one of the first restaurant supply companies in Philadelphia. It has been family owned and operated since 1927. Louis Eidelson’s idea of selling pots and pans was a family tradition originated in Russia with his parents. After Louis immigrated to the US and served in World War I, he continued his family business in 1922-23 in New York where he traveled the Catskill Mountains peddling china, pots, and pans. Due to a strike led by the miners, he hustled his wares on the streets of Hazelton, Pa and in 1925 opened a location on Wyoming Ave. By 1927 Louis moved his business and opened a store in Philadelphia located at 4th & Catherine Street. Louis didn’t stay long at this location and moved that same year to 2nd & Arch St., which was an industrial area known as Old City. Louis’ sons (Sam & Phil) eventually started working with him and took over the company in the late 50’s. By the 1980’s Sam took over the business. In 2005 Sam retired and his daughter & son-in-law took over T.C.P.. With much perseverance, the company has survived the Great Depression and the recent economic recession. The original name has been changed to Trenton China Restaurant Equipment & Food Service Supplies.

Kalamazoo Michigan

September 2016 - Kalamazoo MI

It is a ghost sign even though it is freshly painted as the business no longer exists.


In 1870 the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad began service through Kalamazoo with a passenger station on the southeast corner of Pitcher Street and East Main, today’s East Michigan Avenue. The presence of this station, and the countless out-of-town passengers deposited there, had an immediate impact on the neighborhood. Within the span of only a few years, several new hotels and restaurants were built and existing facilities expanded. This building boom created much of what we now call the Haymarket District.

It was during this period that the Columbia Hotel, known today as the Columbia Plaza, was born.

When Adam Ehrman purchased the Columbia, he moved his family into the hotel. As a result, his three sons were literally raised in the business. The eldest son, Frank, began working for his father at the age of twelve, gradually working his way up take over management of the hotel when his father retired 1920.The elder Ehrman eventually passed away in 1940.

This photo postcard shows the Columbia Hotel as it appeared in the first years of the twentieth century. The rear of the building has been expanded and the park added by Adam Ehrman is visible on the left.

Author's Collection. Source

On 1 February 1899 the Kalamazoo Gazette announced further changes. Adam Ehrman purchased the property from Charles M. Stevens the previous December. Pelick Stevens had passed away in 1881. The new owner promptly undertook a number of improvements to the structure, including the addition of steam heat and new furnishings. It was then reopened as the Columbia Hotel, a name that would stick for the remainder of the hotel’s history.

Like his father, Frank Ehrman maintained the Columbia's reputation and continued to expand and improve the facility. But Frank was not the only Ehrman son to figure prominently in Kalamazoo’s hotel industry. His brother John purchased the Rickman Hotel at Kalamazoo and North Burdick Streets in 1925 and ran it for many years. Meanwhile, another brother, Leo, worked with Frank as an assistant manager of the Columbia.

The prosperity of the 1920s was reflected in the improvements Frank Ehrman made to the hotel. The most ambitious of these occurred in 1923 and 1928, when two large five-story wings were added to the rear of the building. A large formal dining room occupied the ground floor of the 1923 addition. Frank did not stop there. In 1931 an extensive interior renovation was carried out, including the creation of a large ballroom capable of seating seven hundred within the former Arlington building, a new coffee shop, and new lobby. When all of the work was completed the hotel offered two hundred guest rooms and some of the finest dining and banquet facilities in Southwest Michigan.

Darn, I wish I'd known the following:

Perhaps as a testament to the Columbia’s popularity, it is said that during the 1960s and 1970s Elvis Presley made the hotel his headquarters whenever he was in town. Even today a room on the second floor has been set aside as his office, officially listed as such on the building’s directory. The room is furnished with Elvis-related memorabilia.

On 13 January 1982 it was announced that the Columbia would cease operations.


Happily, the Columbia was spared the wrecking ball. In 1983 a group of local investors formed the Columbia Plaza Partnership and purchased the building from Topper Johnson. Two years later the group began work on an extensive three million dollar renovation, the end result of which transformed the old hotel into a first-class office building named the Columbia Plaza.

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July 2016 - Toronto ON

1960s advertising. Dundas and Bond.

Ghost Signs and CHUM

 Tom hosts Tuesday's Treasures.

May 2016 - Toronto ON

This photo captures two ghost signs and a neon sign in the background.

Tip Top Tailors CHUM sign Gelber Bros

On the left - “Tip Top Tailors Suits and O’Coats Made to Measure.”

I searched through the Ontario  Heritage Acts web site to find the following information.

Founded by David Dunkelman in 1909 to manufacture men’s clothing, Tip Top Tailors became one of Canada’s leading retailers in the 20th century.

 The cultural heritage value of the property at 260 Richmond Street West is related to its design or physical value as a representative example of an industrial building from the World War I period that displays a high degree of craftsmanship with the application of terra cotta on portions of the principal (south) façade. The cultural heritage value of the Tip Top Tailors Warehouse also relates to its historical or associative value as it reflects the practices of Toronto architect Isadore Feldman and the architectural firm of Kaplan and Sprachman. Feldman, whose individual commissions included the American Hat Frame Company Building at 49 Bathurst (a recognized heritage property), designed the Tip Top Tailors Warehouse before forming a partnership with J. P. Hynes and A. E. Watson in 1915. As Hynes, Feldman and Watson, the firm’s projects included all types of buildings, among them Allen’s Theatre (now known as the Music Hall) at 147 Danforth Avenue, which is included on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties. Harold Kaplan and Abraham Sprachman were among the first practicing Jewish architects in Toronto, and were known for their designs for movie theatres across Canada, beginning in 1936 with the completion of the Eglinton Theatre at 400 Eglinton Avenue West (the property is designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act).

This sign is included as part of the Heritage Act.

The portions of the east and west elevations, extending 33 feet or 10.06 metres from the south façade, with the light-coloured brick cladding, the quoins and, on the west wall only, the painted signage reading “TIP TOP TAILORS SUITS AND O’COATS MADE TO MEASURE”.

The cultural heritage value of the Tip Top Tailors Warehouse is also associated with its contextual value as it defines and supports the industrial character of the area. The property is situated south of Queen Street West within the King-Spadina neighbourhood where neighbouring properties include the Wesley Building (now known as the CHUM-City Building) at 299 Queen Street West, which displays similar terra cotta cladding and is designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Here is a better shot of the CHUM sign.

Originally erected in 1959 at 1331 Yonge St., the sign received its first restoration in the late 1970s. It suffered significant damage when the station’s tower was sabotaged in August 1986. Two nearby residents who believed that the tower interfered with their television reception decided, after a healthy drinking session, to crawl onto the station’s roof with a pair of bolt cutters. The perpetrators, later convicted for “mischief endangering the lives of others,” were not prepared for how quickly the tower toppled onto Yonge Street, crushing the “CH” portion of the sign. Stories vary as to whether the sign was repaired or replaced with a replica after this incident.

In 2009 it was moved to their new location at Richmond and Duncan.

Gelber Bros. (Richmond Street West, East of John Street) on the right:

The Ontario Jewish Archives notes The Gelber Brothers were named Louis and Moses and were born in what is now Austria. The brothers co-founded the Imperial Clothing Company, which would become Gelber Brothers Woollens as advertised in this ghost sign. This building on Richmond Street, behind 299 Queen Street West, was their head office designed by Benjamin Brown, who also built the Tower Building and Balfour Building on Spadina and Adelaide. The brothers were prominent members of the Toronto Jewish Community and were actively involved with many Jewish organizations and charitable activities.

I viewed an exhibit on Benjamin Brown a couple of weeks ago and wrote about it here.