John Bulmer Photography + Media Development : Blog + Newswire : www.throwingpixels.com: Albany Ghost Signs | Restoration Obscura

Monday, April 28, 2025

Albany Ghost Signs | Restoration Obscura | 04.27.2025

Signs of Another Time:
Albany’s Collection of Ghost Signs
For Restoration Obscura

In Albany, New York, you don’t have to dig far to find history — sometimes, you just have to look up.
Look up at the old brickwork downtown, and you’ll start to notice them: faded names, peeling slogans, hand-painted ads for cigars, clothing, and beverages that haven’t existed for decades.

These are ghost signs — relics of the businesses and industries that once powered the city. Painted directly onto the brick with durable, lead-based paints, they were meant to last. And in a way, they have — long after the shops closed and the companies disappeared, the signs remain, clinging to the sides of warehouses, storefronts, and row buildings.

Once you start seeing them, you’ll notice them everywhere, especially in the older cities of New York and New England. And each one pulls you back — not into a single, polished version of history, but into the rough, ordinary pulse of everyday life a century ago.

We explore how to spot these hidden histories — and how cities tell their stories through the things they leave behind — in Episode 1 of the Restoration Obscura Field Guide Podcast:
“How to Read the City Like a History Book.”

Open on Spotify

The Restoration Obscura Field Guide Podcast is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.

For information on www.restorationobscura.com

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Monday, April 28, 2025

Albany Ghost Signs | Restoration Obscura | 04.27.2025