Photo du jour : Enseigne murale

8 comments

1. Amazing! It’s in such good condition too.

2. That’s awesome! I miss seeing English signage in Montreal

3. Thank You!

   I was in Montreal for a funeral in October 2008 and saw the top of the ‘Turret’ ad protruding above the bricks as we walked East from Patricia to the restaurant across Sherbrooke for our meals.

   Wanted to see the whole thing.

   Looked as if the demolition was causing bricks to fall from the apartment building to the West, so they stopped.

   At one time, there used to be billboards on the empty lot where the apartment block is now.

4. Ça me rappelle une enseigne similaire qui a été découverte sur la rue Masson (coin 10ème) à Rosemont.

   J’ai pris une photo en janvier dernier:
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/xbourque/3528845521/

   — Xavier

5. Wow, j’espere qu’ils vont trouver un moyen de le garder !

6. More shots here: http://moblog.net/view/332931/turret-cigarettes

7. Altho’ not done in paint, here is another trademark from the past in NDG.

   http://i351.photobucket.com/albums/q470/Kootenay_Central/BTCoHUnterExchangeJune20070002.jpg

   http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=rkbmv48vxyb1&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=28380371&encType=1

   The HUnter Exchange origonally occupied only the 1/2-block West from Hampton and consisted of Telephone prefexes ELwood, DExter and WAlnut until the late Forties.

   C. 1951 the other half of the building facing Monkland was constructed West thru to Hingston.

   Later in the Fifties the ‘name’ was changed to HUnter as 7-digit dialing was instituted.

   Now with all numbers, it is ’48’

   I worked in the HUnter Exchange back when it was still mostly Step-by-Step ( HUnter 2 was Crossbar and could have Touch Tone Dialing, at extra cost. ) amidst the clattering Line Finders, Selectors and Connectors.

   Amazing the amount of mechanical hardware that was required to ‘Dial’ a number and complete a call in the S by S era.

   The Exchange ‘drew’ 3200 Amps the day JFK was shot.

   Anyway, enough of the science of Telephony in the finger wheel era.

   The Meldrum the Mover building at Walkley and Sherbrooke was once a Bell Exchange.

   http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=rk9f5d8vxpj2&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=28379773&encType=1

   Other Data;

   http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/Recommended.html

   http://jbb.poslfit.com/Pages/514.html

   DExter became HUnter 4

   An Aside. When they were uglifying the SW corner of Sherbrooke and Cavendish with the first highrise at the corner, a Tower Crane fell as it was being erected, landing on one of the ‘Heritage’ apartment blocks on the North side of Sherbrooke, bridging the Boulevard, closing it to traffic and the 105.

   A rigger rode it down, then fell to the street sustaining a broken leg.

   The East corner bricks on the building struck were knocked off, and, for years one could see where they had been replaced.

8. I worked at West Broadway Grocery for a few years, never suspecting the existence of this lovely ad for a long gone brand of cigarettes was hiding on the (now) outside wall.

   I for one do not regret the disappearance of all english signage, a reflection of contempt for the majority of the citys population by the powerful minority.