SignWall.com

Thanks to Cliff Milligan, who sent the following:

Here’s the Cataract Brewing Company sign, which is part of the High Falls Brewery. Cataract opened following prohibition in the former Standard Brewing Company location (the yellow building in the back). After Cataract closed in 1940, Genesee picked it up (don’t know exactly when Genesee bought the building).

Alan sends this wonderful collection of words and images:

Here are some copies of the Pulver sign when it was still all intact, about 1995. The other photos are of my Pulver machine. It is circa 1910-15. The front & side panels are attached enameled steel. The later models were pressed steel with silk screen lettering. The 7-watt light is not original. All the machines were outside on buildings, generally near an entrance, no electric light needed.

According to information I have from RMSC, Pulver closed its doors in late 1954 and the books closed in 1955. An auction of equipment, tools, machinery, furniture etc. was held in October, 1954. The Rochester Times-Union (9/8/1955) has an article saying that the Pulver Firm sells it building to Perry T. Sweet & his wife Gladys of Williamson for $32,000 for warehouse purposes. They operate a furniture store at 328 University Ave. and an appliance store at 368 State St. In the early 1960’s I was in the furniture store with my parents. It was a converted house with add-ons! It was on the North side of University just around the corner of South Union. I believe the building is gone.

Main St near the Susan B. Anthony District is where you’ll find the wonderfully named S.A. Doody’s Reliable Shoe Store.

The full text appears to be:
S.A. DOODY’S
RELIABLE
SHOE STORE
BOOTS, SHOES
RUBBERS

and then the rest is obscured — one of the words may be "hiring."

SignWall.com was featured today in The Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester’s daily newspaper. Hello and welcome to D&C readers who are visiting for the first time!

This painted sign from Lyons, NY is typical of what happens when there is limited advertising space in a small village.  Note the Coca Cola logo bleeding through behind the Honest Scrap sign. The second view of the two signs makes for some great comedy : "Honest Scrap: delicious, honest, refreshing, scrap." Something tells me that wasn’t the intended message.

Picture and text by Pat Domaratz

Pat Domaratz pointed me to this Geneva, NY, landmark. A quick search turned up this lovely little site on RootsWeb, which tells us:

"In 1847, John Williams Smith and S. S. Cobb opened a dry goods store
in Geneva NY under the name of Cobb & Smith. In 1849, Mr. Cobb
withdrew from the business and John Smith was joined with his brother,
Solomon E. Smith, in the operation of J. W. Smith & Co. This
store continued in operation til the mid-1900’s." The site has a nice illustration of the store, too.

Among the store’s employees was Samuel D. Pierson of Pittsford, whose biography is available online. If you’re willing to drive a bit to do your research, Hobart & William Smith College in Geneva has a five-page history of the store among the papers of George Maxwell Blackstock Hawley, who graduated from Hobart in 1892.

The Parazin Building is just down the street from the Phillips Process building. According to an article in City Newspaper, the building is one of the oldest structures in Rochester’s High Falls district. It was built in 1826. There’s a photo of the building on a Flickr site that says it was built to house the Louis Selye Fire Engine & Hose Company. The same site also says the building is being renovated. It has passed through a number of owners, including our local NPR affiliate, WXXI. The building was donated to WXXI in 1985. I was unable to turn up an information on Parazin Corp. If you have any ideas, contact me via the e-mail link to the left.

This sign for Phillips Process Co Inc is located in the High Falls District in Rochester, on the corner of Mill St. and Commercial St. Among other things, this building houses Entercom’s Rochester broadcast studios. The sign is fairly easy to read:

PHILLIPS
PROCESS CO
Inc
MANUFACTURERS OF
NEV-R-KURL
TYPEWRITER RIBBONS

CLEAR PRINT
STAMP PADS
SPECIALTY INKS
EX-IT WATERLESS
HAND CLEANSER

Phillips Process Company still exists, but it’s now on Magnolia St. in Rochester. At one time, though, it was at 192 Mill St., where these photos were taken. It’s funny where you find documentation for things like that. In this case, I found the company’s address listed on a very thrilling 1959 report titled: "PUBLICATIONS–Typewriter ribbons, carbon paper, pencils,  and inks for use in typing and reviewing manuscripts" from the U.S. Department of the Interior. If you’ve been having trouble sleeping, read this report.

This unusual sign once belonged to Alhart’s Hardware, located on Culver Road at the corner of Grand Avenue. If you look closely, you can still see the raised lettering advertising "Appliances.” American Sportsman, a gun shop which has since moved to East Rochester, took over a portion of the old Hardware store and top billing on the sign.

Text by Pat Domaratz / Pictures by Jason Crane

Jason says: In the close-up shot, you can see the GE and Maytag symbols at the top of the pole.

UPDATE: According to reader Dave Migliore, the hardware store was named Alharts, not Aberts, as was originally listed on SignWall.com. Dave said he thinks it was owned by the father of local news anchor Don Alhart.

One of the favorite Italian bakeries in Rochester’s northeast section was Calabrese’s. Started in the 1920s, the successful bakery was owned by the Calabrese family until the 1980s. The Calabreses sold it to new owners, who continued to churn out bread, cookies and sweet breads (pumpkin and zucchini among the favorites) until the late 1990s, when a third set of owners took over. The bakery closed in 2001.

Text by Pat Domaratz / Pictures by Jason Crane