vintage mural ads & other signage by Frank H. Jump & friends
Today I conducted a walking tour of Greenpoint Brooklyn with Preservation Greenpoint. The tour was based on last year’s tour map- Greenpoint Fading Ads Walking Tour – Google Maps . Here are some of the images I found interesting on this trip. It was a glorious day and it was great to meet Matthew and all of the Greenpoint Preservation enthusiasts!
On Saturday, I was able to attend 3 open house NY events. The 1st was a walk through Chelsea to rediscover old NYC and the fading ads that silently adorn to the buildings as people passby without ever noticing them. The handpainted signs/ads that cling onto these old buildings tell a great story on the history of our city! Photographer, author, and NYC Historian – Frank Jump led the talks and walks with much enthusiasm & knowledge! Checkout Frank’s book & blog called ‘Fading Ads of New York City‘. He seems to have a great passion in unearthing the New York of yesteryear by discovering and examining old signs and the businesses they were representing.
(The enthusiastic Frank Jump leading the talks & the walks on Fading ads in NYC! He takes us to a few signage gems in the Chelsea/Flatiron area.)
Frank Jump @ Chelsea Walks Fading Ads Tour
(Miss Weber’s Millinery Shop on 48 W.22nd Street)
(Phillip Morris – America’s Finest Cigarette)
(Griffin Shears – nailfiles*Tweezers*nippers*manicure sets)
(A. Steinhardt & Bros. – 860 Broadway)
(Crown Coat Fronts by Union Square)
(An example of when a building uses handpainted signage for each floor of the building)
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Fading Ads of the Village: A Lecture by Frank Jump
Wednesday, November 28
6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Washington Square Institute, 41-51 East 11th Street, 4th Floor
Free; reservations required
RSVP to [email protected] or 212-475-9585 ext. 35
From New York’s iconic skyline to its side alleys, the new is perpetually being built on the debris of the past. For nearly twenty years, Frank Jump has been documenting the fading ads that are visible, but less often seen, all over New York. Disappearing from the sides of buildings or hidden by new construction, these signs are remnants of lost eras of New York’s life. This photo-documentary is also a study of time and space, of mortality and living, as Jump’s campaign to capture the ads mirrors his own struggle with HIV. During this presentation that will focus on the fading ads of the Village, experience the ads–shot with vintage Kodachrome film–and the meaning they carry through acclaimed photographer and urban documentarian Frank Jump’s lens. His book,Fading Ads of New York, will be available for sale and signing.
Last Sunday, as part of Open House New York Weekend, we joined a walking tour of the faded ads of Tribeca.
On the faded ads of Tribeca tour, part of Open House New York Weekend.
A good 70 people turned up in the drizzle to follow the tour by local photographer and blogger Frank Jump, who since 1997 has specialised in capturing the fading advertisements, or ghost signs, of New York.
From Fading Ads of Tribeca Walking Tour OHNY © Vincenzo Aiosa
Beautiful & dubious – From Fading Ads of NYC © Frank H. Jump
From Fading Ads of Tribeca Walking Tour OHNY © Vincenzo Aiosa
Hey- There want a table for 150! © Vincenzo Aiosa
Groceries, Liquor, Segars © Vincenzo Aiosa
From Fading Ads of Tribeca Walking Tour OHNY © Vincenzo Aiosa
From Fading Ads of Tribeca Walking Tour OHNY © Vincenzo Aiosa
From Fading Ads of Tribeca Walking Tour OHNY © Vincenzo Aiosa
© Frank H. Jump
From Fading Ads of Tribeca Walking Tour OHNY © Vincenzo Aiosa
Instagram © Frank H. Jump
From Fading Ads of Tribeca Walking Tour OHNY © Vincenzo Aiosa
Staple Street © Frank H. Jump
Staple Street © Frank H. Jump
New York Hospital – Staple Street – From Fading Ads of Tribeca Walking Tour OHNY © Frank H. Jump
© Vincenzo Aiosa
© Vincenzo Aiosa
© Vincenzo Aiosa
Over 125 people arrived for the walking tour today and I want to thank every one of you for coming. What an incredible day! I thoroughly enjoyed showing you around Chelsea/Flatiron and weather permitting, I hope to see you tomorrow for the Tribeca tour.
The Omega Oil sign, on Frederick Douglas and 145th, that started it all. (Courtesy Frank Jump)
For more than 20 years photographer Frank Jump has been documenting New York’s fading ads. Slowly vanishing signs of yesteryear, the building ads are ephemera that has stubbornly persisted in our constantly changing urban landscape, in defiance of development, decay and all the other challenges conspiring against them. The most common term for such remnants is ghost signs, but Mr. Jump prefers fading ads. “I never felt comfortable with the word ghost,” he says. “I don’t really believe in ghosts.”
While some may see such remnants of the past as manifestations of loss, Mr. Jump sees them metaphors for survival. “Like myself, many of these ads have long outlived their expected lifespan,” he explained in a recent interview. In 1986, at the age of 26, Mr. Jump was diagnosed with HIV and told that he had a few good years left. Despite the discouraging prognosis, a decade later he was finishing his long-postponed college degree when he saw a massive, faded sign for Omega Oil at 145th Street and Frederick Douglas Boulevard. – CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
It’s that time of year again when New York flings open its too-often locked and double barred doors for the 10th annual Open House New York (OHNY) weekend. The event promises unprecedented access to the cities myriad of architectural, cultural and historical gems. From the spectacular—The Grand Masons Lodge, which is participating with the event again this year at its historic 23rd street location—to the austere—the Brooklyn Army Terminal, an imposing 5 million square-foot site of criss-crossed steel and exposed concrete—to the just plain obscure and whimsical—come explore the lost streams of New York, which can be observed, using a flashlight, through the ventilation holes of old manhole covers, but normally that’s about it.
It’s a wonderland, this city.
Likewise, the Fading Ads of New York City tour offers a chance to stop and remember the New York that once was. The tour is directed by the remarkable Frank Jump, a documentarian and historian of these commercial artifacts for more than twenty years now, whose breadth of knowledge on the topic is unsurpassed.
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Fading Ad Blog
