March 31, 2006
Cubanola
West 7th and Bainbridge Streets
Just south of the river off Hull Street
Layers and layers of old signs, but the only word I can read is "Cubanola." One word is all you need when you have Google. Though the rest of the sign remains a mystery, I found out a lot about Cubanola.
Cubanola is a flower, a song, and a five cent Havana cigar (smoked by Australia's War Cabinet at the Victoria Barracks).
The Cubanola Glide (listen) was referenced by T.S. Eliot in The Wasteland.
Cubanola ghost signs have turned up all over. A woman found one beneath a plaster wall when she was restoring her old house in Baltimore. Another Cubanola sign was found on an interior wall in South Boston, Virginia. A sign as faded as this one is on a structure in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
And, of course, I'm listening to Cuban music as I collect all these links. I had been planning to write something completely different …
170 words | March 31, 2006 09:16 PM | Ghost signs