Philadelphia Ghost Signage Project

01Jul08

Offering a “visual record of ghost signs and faded advertisements in and around the greater Philadelphia area,” Lawrence O’Toole’s Ghost Signage Project chronicles our own local history vis-a-vis the wornout marketing campaigns of old. At first glance utterly straightforward, and yet there’s something more here still…

The ability to recognize the ubiquitous as potential subject matter is certainly a feat unto itself. What you or I might pass by dozens of times somehow slows and stops the pace of the multidisciplinary O’Toole. Presented simply as a document of time/place, this urban archeology is matter-of-fact but altogether fascinating through the author’s lens and research as well. Within the content of the project’s various posts comes one more surprise, however. In documenting Philadelphia’s collective industrial-era history, O’Toole manages to likewise trace the present-day movements of people and their respective resources too. Once and seemingly-still abandoned structures in Kensington and North Philly stand in contrast to the rehabilitated ones of Center City and NoLibs. Places of activity and wealth are (re)visited once and sometimes never again. In doing this work, the photo-journal simultaneously questions our past, present and future all under the beguiling premise of peeling paint… Something of a revelation and altogether extraordinary, if you ask me.

“A faded, painted sign, at least 50 years old, on an exterior building wall heralding an obsolete product, an outdated trademark or a clue to the history of the building’s occupancy. These signs often reappear after a rainstorm or following the demolition of a neighboring building.”

Philadelphia Ghost Signage Project
Society for Industrial Archeology