Just a few days back, I got a tip from our Community Development director, Laura Miller, that a ghost sign had been partially revealed during a remodeling project that was currently happening at the rear of the Katz Drugstore Building on the NW corner of Sutton and Manchester.
By the time I arrived on the scene the excitement was over. The mentally sharp folks on the Facebook page, Maplewood, had already deciphered the meaning of the sign of which just a couple of letters were visible.
The mystery was quickly solved but I can add a bit more to the story.
The remodeling project, by The Blue Duck Restaurant, exposed this vertical strip of an old ghost sign.
If you haven’t seen this before, have you got the meaning yet?
The sleuths on Facebook decided that the sign must have read, “Parking Here” and also had a large arrow. I think they must be right.
We can tell from this aerial photograph from the 1950’s that the ghost sign was probably directing motorists to the alley which leads to a parking lot.
If you’d like to see more old photographs of the Katz Drugstore, check out my past post, Let’s Bring Back the Big Kat.
As always, I appreciate your interest and support.
Doug Houser June 18, 2023
Reader Dave P. kindly sent the image below. He can make out “Parking Entrance” as the text for our now mostly missing ghost sign. Much thanks, Dave
