Should a downtown Coca-Cola ghost sign be "revitalized" or left alone?

Ghost sign geeks debate

"It's a natural gathering place, and essentially a gateway to the downtown mall if you park in the Water Street garage," said Michael Caplin, an attorney who serves as board co-chair for Friends of Cville Downtown, talking to the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review recently about 2nd Street SE on the downtown mall and a plan to restore an old Coca-Cola "ghost sign" advertisement on the side of the Oyster House Antiques building.

Indeed, 2nd Street SE is one of the most prominent pedestrian gateways to the mall, and while Caplin was pointing that out in an effort to gain support for the sign restoration idea, you couldn't help thinking about how that creepy-looking abandoned hotel project couldn't be in a worse place. No one mentioned the "Dewberry/Landmark" building during the BAR discussion about the older advertisements on the wall that faces it, but it was not lost on those who heard the news about the sign restoration plan.

"Maybe best to focus any restoration energy on the building/skeleton next door?" asked a local photographer on the DTM Facebook page.

Ironically, the only recent energy focused on the building next door came from Friends of Cville Downtown, who paid to wrap it in a music-themed vinyl mural.

Others across social media less subtly whatabouted their way into comments and threads about homelessness, income inequality, racism, wokeness, the evils of sugar products, corporate ethics, and government waste; or didn't give a shit about this kind of aesthetic debate, but even those who stayed on topic were divided about the restoration plan.

I prefer ghost signs to look like ghosts. Leave it as is.

Let it be - and let it just continue to fade away with time. I was surprised people wanted to do this.

Paint a new mural over it that reflects the beauty of Charlottesville.

Yes, restore the sign. Who could it possibly offend? Pepsi?

Yes, restore the sign!!!

Caplin framed the plan as an effort to "brand" historic buildings [earlier Caplin had discussed attaching bronze historic markers to buildings] on the mall and draw attention to their history. He characterized the Coca-Cola sign as representing the "dawn of American marketing" and warned members that the historic sign would fade away completely if it wasn't restored. While Coca-Cola may have wanted the sign completely restored, Caplin said they were able to convince them to fund a "fifty percent" restoration of the sign. As Caplin explained, the sign would be touched up and preserved in a way that made it easier to notice while still looking antique and faded. Plus, it would be preserved to keep it from fading. He'd already lined up an artist who specialized in this kind of work, Scott Allred, who said he could do the project for $30,000. Caplin said the building's owner was "totally psyched" about the idea.

Indeed, the building's long-time owner, Hal Brindley, says he likes the idea of revitalizing the Coke sign with a 50% restoration.

"The Coke sign has mostly disappeared," he says. "I would hate to lose it because I believe it is interesting and adds a sense of history to the building and the mall. I believe the 50% restoration will keep a strong feeling of antiquity and a sense of history, without disturbing the other old signs on the building."

Caplin likened it to turning up the brightness on your TV screen. BAR members likened it to buying distressed jeans, considered the other ghost signs that had been painted on the wall, and wondered - is restoring something just enough so that it looks like it’s fading away and needs restoring really preservation? Or are you simply interrupting and altering the natural process that made them historically beautiful in the first place? In other words, is this tacky?

Mike Fitts, a local artist who had a studio downtown for years, called in and was unequivocal.

"I absolutely love that wall exactly the way it is," he said. "It’s a natural effect that's been happening to that wall. I understand the preservation idea, but any paint being applied to that wall would just be terrible. It's a recorded document of time passage, and I feel that if you put any paint on that wall it is just going to become something artificial. It wouldn't be the same. That wall is absolutely stunningly beautiful as it is."

"Part of the joy of looking at that wall is seeing those different layers simultaneously," said BAR member Breck Gastinger. "A story of architecture downtown is present in that wall, as it is, because you can see the changes over time. I think it’s beautiful in its current state....why mess with it? Keeping it from fading kind of defeats the point."

"But it will disappear," Caplin said.

"Well, signs fade," said Gastinger. "Feels funny to freeze it in time."

Ghost sign hunter and blogger MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson has obviously seen this situation before:

Some people believe that a repainted ghost sign is a tribute, because it brings out an old, hand-painted sign’s former glory and preserves it for future admirers. Shop owners and landlords may touch up a ghost sign in an effort to spiff up their properties. Restoration projects subsidized by downtown-revitalization committees and by companies like Coca-Cola (who see, in the ghost sign movement, a chance to get more mileage out of an ad paid for, in some cases, more than a century ago) can stoke up a sense of local pride with their crisp lines and fresh palates. - Ghost Signs, Roadsides and Travel

Her take? Leave the signs alone. Why?

"Because restorations, no matter how well-meaning, and no matter how well done, generally miss the point," she writes, pointing out that a ghost sign's allure is that its fragile and fading away, that it is a survivor of time, and that there are often mysteries with histories to unravel. Still, she thinks there are exceptions, especially if the idea is to do a partial restoration.

"Restoring part of a ghost sign, or one ghost sign out of several on the same wall, encourages casual onlookers–who may never have noticed the faded paint before–to appreciate the artistry in the restored section/sign. It also invites them to imagine what the unrestored portion/sign used to look like.

…Casual onlookers who see a partially restored ghost sign are invited to view this sign as ghost sign geeks see it. And then maybe, just maybe, to notice and wonder about–and even appreciate–another wall of fading paint one day."