This Mail Pouch advertisement has been mostly preserved on a repurposed building in downtown Mount Vernon. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

When I take driving trips in Ohio with my family, I enjoy getting off the freeway and going through smaller towns whenever I can. It’s more interesting than the tedious freeway landscape.

And I really enjoy going through smaller towns. For about a 20-year chunk of my life, I lived in a small town of about 2,000 people — Baltimore, Ohio — and I enjoyed the lifestyle that place allowed. I now live in Zanesville, a small city of around 25,000 with a growing renaissance in its downtown. It’s a great place to live, too.

This sign in downtown Cambridge no longer exists. Sadly, I believe the building burned and had to be demolished. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

I often notice in smaller cities and towns buildings that were once used as advertising billboards. It made sense — it was cheaper to paint an advertisement on an exposed side of a building rather than to erect a new sign. The signs that have survived this long were typically applied to the sides of brick buildings. Sometimes these signs are so faded and weather-worn that they can barely be made out and are referred to as “ghost signs.”

This faded sign advertises a well-known soft drink and a local business along Putnam Avenue in Zanesville. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

Usually these signs advertise products or services that are long since gone or have largely fallen out of favor, such as tobacco, patent medicines or local businesses from the late 19th century or first half of the 20th century. That’s part of the appeal for me — they stand out for their glorious anachronism.

Owners of the East End Cafe, along US 40 in Zanesville, repainted the sign on the side of their building. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

This is not unlike how many barns were often painted to advertise products, services or tourist attractions, such as the iconic Mail Pouch barns throughout the Midwest and in many other states, Meramec Caverns in Missouri and See Rock City barns in the South.

This Mail Pouch Tobacco sign is on the side of a building in downtown Lancaster. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

In this post is a collection of the painted building signs I’ve photographed over the years in several of Ohio’s small towns and cities. Some of these signs no longer exist, while other signs have been refreshed in recent years with new coats of paint, or restored to incorporate into a building’s new use.

View videos of more signs from Dusty Tires here:

“Signs, Signs, Signs ”

“More Signs”

Starting from the top, these are located in the towns of: Mount Vernon (SR 13), Cambridge (US 40, no longer in existence), Zanesville (US 40), Lancaster (US 22) and Monroeville (US 20).

This sign in downtown Monroeville on US 20 advertises a furniture store. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

How do you find these signs? It’s easy — just keep your eyes open as you go through the oldest parts of a small town or city. Usually they are located along the main street in the downtown area, where the most traffic would pass by and probably still does. Look up at the sides of brick buildings, especially those that are taller than others or have sides exposed from demolition of former buildings nearby.

The sign on this building along Putnam Avenue in Zanesville has been freshened up with a new coat of paint, advertising “Bronchini The Great Cough Cure.” William M. Chappelear & Sons Co. of Zanesville prepared the remedy from roughly the 1890s to the 1920s. In its sales literature, it claimed to cure “bronchitis, coughs, colds, sore throat, asthma, influenza, croup and all curable diseases of the throat and lungs.” (Credit: Ken Drenten)

If you know of any other signs like this around Ohio or nearby states, let me know by sending me an email at kdrent67@gmail.com. I’d like to add more photos to my collection.

And you can find lots more interesting places to visit at Dusty Tires, my website and blog.

Ken Drenten is creator and manager of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

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