Spotted on Pleasant St. between Green and Elder in OTR, on the back of a building that faces Elm St.
Department of Everyday Visualingual
News + inspiration from a design studio in Carbondale CO
Spotted on Pleasant St. between Green and Elder in OTR, on the back of a building that faces Elm St.
Department of Everyday Visualingual 
That building is for sale if anyone is interested. The front is very cool, but it is a difficult building, since it was never used as apartments and the layout is bad. Plus, as you can see, it has structural issues.
NO! There’s no structural issues there! You lie!!!!
There’s lots of ghost signs there.
Yep, this is future landfill material. Aside from it being in OTR, and the large composite of beautiful hand-layed brick, it seems to have no real historically aesthetic value (from this shot, at least). Not very often I find myself saying that…
Any idea why it made sense to paint the back so extensively? It seems like a bit of an anomaly.
I look at this ghost sign every day as I enter and leave the Findlay Market area and have wondered if you would feature it.
Up close it is surprisingly legible. It was obviously for a furniture store from back when they all featured appliances as well. Above the Philco Ford sign at the bottom (a maker of radios and other household electronics), to left the sign advertises “3 room suits” and to the right “wringer washers.” I have made out other portions of this sign, but don’t remember them well enough to pick them out of this photo.
The back of this building overlooks the south parking lot for Findlay Market. I believe this space has been a parking lot for a very long time.
After doing minimal research on the net, I came across a couple of sites/threads related to this building, but nothing substantial. I think I need to actually go look at the site firsthand. Anyway, here’s some interesting reading…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philco
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/philco.htm
http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=165938
http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=15065.0
http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,7062.0.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/19/philcoford-house-of.html
Again, things you’d probably find (if you already haven’t), but I don’t have time to get into real research. I’m assuming that in the 60-70s, this was a local distributor, reseller, or technician of Philco Ford TVs/appliances, and there was possibly parking in the back with good sightlines to other streets. Just a guess.
The front of the building has a two story, cast-iron storefront and a very cool cornice. The building is definitely worth saving. I think it was built as a furniture store and always was a furniture store of somekind, and it had a freight elevator. The guy who owns(ed) it was named Pat Salamone. He filled the placed with salvaged materials, started doing repairs on the building, but he was in over his head and I believe has health issues. Pat is still around the neighborhood, and I think he really wants to sell. If you want to buy, knock on his door at 225 Magnolia, I don’t think he has a phone.
It is an interesting-looking building, though it seems like quite an ambitious rehab. Matt, thanks for all the links.
My worst nightmare was on my second year at uni when I was trying to secure placement. ,
Umm, okay.
My second worst nightmare was on my year at uni when I was trying to place security.
Yeah.
Very cool! Thanks for the link! I definitely need to see it in person.
Come on down to Findlay Market and wander around the area!