Orgill Brothers & Company --
N 35° 08.015 W 090° 03.762
15S E 767637 N 3891807
This tall ghost sign is located at 515 Tennessee street in an area that is rapidly redeveloping into loft apartments and condos. This company has changed with the times, and is still in business today.
Waymark Code: WMNM2V
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 04/01/2015
Views: 1
Orgill Brothers & Company was founded in 1847 as a hardware, saddlery, and tack company. Their warehouse and company office, with a large painted sign across the front of the building, was located at 515 Tennessee Street, south of downtown Memphis.
The sign reads as follows:
"Orgill Brothers & Co.
Hardware, Saddlery, Stoves, Implements"
Today Orgill is still in business, but has morphed into a wholesale and distribution company for all kinds of hardware and lumber building supplies to their non-big-box hardware and building supply store clients. See here: (
visit link)
But this ghost sign is painted onto a building that was built by Orgill around 1880s-1890 to house their business as it existed then. Orgill moved out to more modern facilities in Memphis (and 4 other cities) many decades ago, which is why their formerly abandoned warehouse can now be renovated into apartments.
Blasterz were able to find an ad for Orgill Brothers in the 1913 Memphis City Directory, available on Ancestry.com, advertising their wares at the time:
"Established 1847. Incorporated 1898.
ORGILL BROTHERS & COMPANY'
HARDWARE
Saddlery, Stoves, Refrigerators, Metal and Composition Roofing, Agricultural Implements, Machine and Fittings, Contractor's and Mill Supplies, Builder's Hardware, Fire and Burglary-Proof Safes.
Office, 505-515 Tennessee Street
Sample Room, 28 South Front Street"