Ghost signs haunt the walls in Saskatoon, especially downtown and in Riversdale – but they’re slowly disappearing.
Devon Hanofski has been tracking them down, even creating a ghost sign tour in 2016 for a student planning conference.
“I would always see them, growing up and wondering what they were, what they represented,” he said.
Ghost signs are hand-painted advertisements on the walls of old buildings that have begun to fade over time.
But even in two short years since then, many of those signs have vanished.
The artists who hand-painted these signs used lead paint, which is why traces of these signs have endured for so long – the paint would actually soak into the bricks, Hanofski said.
“They sort of transcend their use from what was practical to what would today be – out of context – but a form of public art,” he said.
But with their numbers already dwindling, yet another of Saskatoon’s ghost signs may disappear.
The new owners of the Tees and Persse building on 24th Street may paint over the ghost signs on the side of the building, but they’re struggling with preserving the past.
According to an email statement from Strata Development, they’re in discussion with design consultants and the owner on how to “select an exterior wall assembly that compliments the building’s heritage, but also helps improve energy efficiency of the building – focusing on sustainability.”
Hanofski said it’s important to preserve these signs for their history, but also for their aesthetic.
“If they can be preserved, whether that’s through documentation, city policy or incentives, or even just people acknowledging that they exist, it’s a benefit for future generations to have these available to them,” he said.
Hanofski said if you keep an eye out, you may begin to see more and more of the ghost signs that lurk on the city’s walls.
