On Wednesday evening, I went on a historic walking tour with two friends and I took very few pictures — so I’ve included them all in this post! It was a Ghost Sign tour of The Exchange District in Winnipeg — arguably one of the most interesting parts of the city (and the movie industry seems to agree, given how many are filmed here).
We were drawn perhaps most of all by the word “ghost”, but the sign aspect is interesting to me as well because of my day job in advertising. So this was a nice little cross section of interests.
These walking tours happen every Wednesday evening in summer, hosted by the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation. And they are addicting. I overheard one woman remark that this was her third time taking this particular tour! I think if I lived closer, I’d be taking these tours every Wednesday, too.
Most of all, I was pleased to see we were such a large group, interested in the stories behind these fading signs. Which… I suppose I would be expected to now explain, or at least distill. Hmmm. I am a good listener but not always a good rememberer. I do not want to accidentally copy the book I purchased from our guide, Matthew Cohen (the book is aptly titled Ghost Signs: An Exchange District Walking Tour) so I’ll just run the risk of getting this wrong. (It’s not like you couldn’t google it to correct me anyway.)
When it comes to Canadian prairie cities, Winnipeg is pretty old. Because it’s located on the banks of the Red River (the highway of the 1800s), getting there was “easy”, and it grew rapidly in the 1800s. A huge boom. These buildings went up fast. And then the growth stopped because no developers wanted to knock ’em down to build something new — and this effectively preserved the character of The Exchange District and makes it such a neat place to check out today. I think he said that in 1997 The Exchange became a national historic site, further protecting the area.
So anyway, the advertising of the day involved a lot of painting ads on the sides of buildings. And a hundred-odd years later, these signs persist, mostly due to oil-based paint (with high lead content!) on porous brick. Some have been painted over, but over time have continued to shine through, in a ghostly manner.
But that’s not really what caught my attention. It was more our guide’s reflections on what happens when ghost signs begin to disappear. He has spent years carefully researching and documenting each one, and the assumption is that he would become attached to them, and want them to continue to exist. He noted one ghost sign just outside the historic site boundary had windows cut into it, and when that happened many people had messaged him, expecting him to be outraged.
He was not.
He explained that they’re temporary. Everything’s temporary. Everything changes. He pointed to a pane of glass nearby, painted with an advertisement from over a century ago: “One stone and that piece of history is gone forever.”
I made sure to take a picture:
