The following information was found at Skyscrapercity.com
As city tears down structure at 134 St. Paul St., signs hidden for nearly 100years become visible on walls on either side
The demolition of one piece of St. Catharines history is revealing another.
Two ghost signs have appeared on the sides of two St. Paul Street buildings, made visible after nearly 100 years by the continuing demolition of a city-owned building at 136 St. Paul St.
On the side of 144 St. Paul, which is vacant, are the faint remnants of a sign advertising "Chas. Young and Son, Bicycles and Sporting Goods, Boots and Shoes."
Across the demolition site, on the building that is home to A Touch of India, is another sign, proclaiming Ecclestones as the store "For Good Dressers. 20th Century Clothing."
The simple block-letter signs are prominent and eye-catching, and by their location they indicate that St. Paul was a two-way street. Because the buildings are on the curve of the street, the bold lettering of the Ecclestones sign was clearly meant to be visible to people travelling in one direction on St. Paul, while Young's sign comes into view for people travelling in the other.
"That's awesome," said St. Catharines Museum curator Arden Phair, when he learned about the appearance of the old signs.
Painting a message directly on the side of a building "was a popular form of advertising, a precursor to modern-day billboards," Phair said.
Old fire insurance records provided by Edith Williams in the Special Collections Room at Brock University indicate the building being demolished was most likely built sometime around 1912 or 1913.
Old city directories in the reference room of the St. Catharines Public Library reveal that in 1874, Charles Young worked as a foreman at Healey's at 39 St. Paul St.
A business listing confirms that Timothy Healey Boots and Shoots was indeed located at 39 St. Paul.
But by the following year, Young appears to have struck out on his own. The 1875 city directory lists Chas. Young of Bond Street as a boot and shoemaker at 58 St. Paul St., a business he operate until at least 1912.
Around 1893, his son, Edward, also of Bond Street, is listed as working at the same place.
The street numbers don't necessarily match, said Dennis Gannon, a historian who writes the weekly Yesterday and Today column for The Standard, because the numbering of the buildings on St. Paul was changed several times over the years.
The city directories around the turn of the century also include intermittent references to Scove Young or Scoval Young, "a finisher" at an unnamed bicycle works, who also lived on Bond Street, multiple listings for Miss Elsie Young, living on Bond Street, and a single reference to Miss Fanny Young, a dressmaker.
Meanwhile, an article published in The Standard on March 19, 1984, documents the closing of Ecclestones. Jack McCann, the then-owner, is quoted as saying the store was opened 90 years earlier by A. M. Ecclestone.
First established in 1894 across St. Paul Street, the men's clothing store moved several times to various downtown locations. The sign appears to correspond to its penultimate location, before it moved around 1968 to 237 St. Paul.
McCann said in 1984 he was shutting down the business at which he started working in 1940, and which he bought from the Ecclestones in 1970, because of rising rent and declining business. McCann said the store always took special pride in the fact that it supplied uniforms to the students of Ridley College.
Today, the building at 136 St. Paul is being demolished to create a new entrance into the lower-level parking lot, currently being considered as a possible location for a proposed performing arts centre and Brock University's school of fine and performing arts.
The ghost signs have been hidden for nearly 100 years, protected from the elements by the walls of the building between them, but their survival is not guaranteed.
If the walls displaying the signs are proven to need some sort of protection, the signs would most likely be covered up, said Anthony Martuccio, design and construction engineer for the City of St. Catharines, who is supervising the $245,000 demolition contract. A decision will be made once the demolition is complete, which is expected by the end of July.
The original article by the St. Catharines Standard is no longer available, but may exist in the archives of the St. Catharines Public Library.
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