Ghost Signs Revealed by the Demolition of the old Union Gospel Mission

You might have seen on a nostalgia FB page a very nice picture of ghost signs revealed by the demolition at the former Union Gospel Mission. (Seeing this, others photographed it also, and several images have seemed to circulate on social media.)

via FB

I could not find much of anything for the Superlub motor oil, which "makes old cars young and young cars gay." I really hope I can find some local advertising for that brand. That's a great slogan!

The soap ad yielded a pretty close match from 1925. It's not exactly the same in every detail, but the terms are nearly all the same. Since the ghost sign doesn't say "without a washing machine," it's probably from a little later when washing machines were more popular. But in the 1930s the ads are very different, so it can't be too much later.

January 27th, 1925

Here's an older shot of the block face before the facades were remodeled. In the upper right corner you can see a different sign, something "Colby," maybe cheese, on the side of a building above the cafe.

The old storefronts and apartments, 1943
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

100 years ago Union Oil of California initiated the first gas station for this corner. There had been a "two story frame house" on the lot.

December 8th, 1922

Here is the corner on the Sanborn fire map a few years later, with a boarding house still on Center Street at the alley.

Before the UGM: Corner of Commercial and Center
1926 Sanborn Fire Map
(See more here)

A profile of the current operator in 1933 says Frank Doolittle had been a harness maker, so he personally expressed the shift from buggy to automobile.

August 24th, 1933

And at the other end of the block, when they finally get to the single-story remnant of the State Insurance Building, I hope there is some evidence of its evolution from a two-story building three windows wide to the three-story building seven windows wide. It wasn't just the third floor with the Mansarded roof line that was added, but the whole volume was widened, more than doubled. When last year the HLC was discussing mitigation for the demolition, they did not seem to have known about this brief early stage in the building's life.

Two stories, three windows wide: January 7th, 1887

Three stories, seven windows wide
March 27th, 1889

Previously see:

• "Soil Contamination and Monitoring Wells Point to History of UGM Site" (2018)
  
• "City Council, August 27th - To Buy the old UGM" (2018)
  
• "City Council, September 13th - Make an Un-Hooverville!" (2021)
  
• "What to do with Remnants of State Insurance Building?" (2021)