I’ve been seeing more and more establishments use their facades to list the products that they sell or services that they provide, the old-school way. I particularly like it when the items are listed in several languages, as used to be done in Lviv before WWII. Before the languages used […]

Lviv, like most cities in the nineteenth century, needed chimney sweeps to keep chimneys clean from the soot that accumulated from burning coal. The bas-relief of a chimney sweep on Anhelovycha Street is one of the only reminders of the era of chimney sweeps. At the beginning of the twentieth […]

Annapolis has it’s fair share of antique iron fences. Like in Chicago and Winnetka, there are many fences made by The Stewar Iron Works, formely the largest iron fence maker in the world. The Stewart Iron Works The Stewart Iron Works, 3rd & Culvert St, Cincinnati, O *** G. Krug […]

I found two antique fences in Winnetka—both made by the Stewart Iron Works. Stewart Iron Works, an ironworks plant located in Covington, Kentucky, was founded in 1886 and incorporated in 1910. A branch in Cincinnati operated from 1903 to 1915. The Stewart Iron Works — Cinncinati, Ohio The Stewart Iron Works Co. — Covington, […]

I discovered some old fences while in the States this summer—first I found several beautiful antique fences on Hoyne Street in Chicago, and then I came across some in my suburb and in Annapolis, and now back in Lviv I have also started paying attention to them. In all three places—Chicago, […]

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries warehouses were built near the waterfront in Annapolis. They were used both to store goods coming into town from ships out in the Chesapeake Bay as well as to store goods like tobacco which were shipped to England. Some of these buildings have […]

To my surprise, I found fire marks in my suburb! “Though long past are the days when the metal symbol of an insurance company affixed to the front of a house afforded its owner the only sure means of protection from loss by fire, these quaint marks are still occasionally […]

When I was in Annapolis I saw some oval plaques with images of trees, eagles, engines, etc. on some of the old buildings. I thought they were something exclusive to Annapolis, but when I returned to my suburb I found a couple of them there and realized it was something […]

I found a new faux ghost sign on a shop that sells gold, silver, watches, and currency. The name of the shop is Ломбард (Lombard). The signs are in Polish and Ukrainian: Złoto (Gold) Srebro (Silver) Zegarki (Watches) Гроші (Money) Kantor (Currency exchange) This first example I’ve seen in Lviv […]