Montreal’s heritage signs face an uncertain future

Montreal is a city of signs. From dépanneurs to street corners, they’re everywhere eyes may wander. Some of these signs have graced Montreal’s neon-lit skyline or looked out over the city’s major arteries for more than 50 years. But a number of factors can cut the lifespan of a sign short leaving another piece of the city’s heritage rusting or fading away with each passing day.

Signs have a strong link to the product or brand name being sold. When a brand is discontinued, sold, or revamped, all of the previous references to the brand are erased and with it go the signs. The sale of a brand almost claimed an iconic beacon dear to many Montrealers; the Farine Five Rose sign.

Erected in 1948 by the Ogilvies, a prominent Scottish family that had emigrated to Canada in the 1800s, the 45-foot rooftop sign originally read “Farine Ogilvies Flour.” The Ogilvie Flour Mills Company eventually sold to Archer Daniels Midland in the early ‘90s but the sign remained as a historical beacon lit against Montreal’s night sky.

For the commuters that travel to and from Montreal’s core, the sign has become a landmark that is inseparable from the city’s image. “Would we imagine Montreal without the Five Roses?” says Dinu Bumbaru, Heritage Montreal’s policy director. “No, it wouldn’t be the same Montreal.”

However, the city found itself in that very dilemma when Archer Daniels Midland sold the Five Rose brand to Smucker’s in 2006. The sign was turned off in July of that year and faced an uncertain future. Montrealers rallied for the return of the iconic neon red lettering and, following numerous letters, the sign was once again lit in August.

Matt Soar, one of the co-founders of the Montreal Signs Project and an associate professor of Communications at Concordia University, has since launched a website dedicated to the sign inviting users to suggest creative ways to re-purpose it. “It’s just a big chunk of metal that lights up at night, but at the same time it has a specific resonance with Montrealers,” said Soar.

But the increasingly faster pace of a brand’s lifecycle is not the only thing claiming Montreal’s signs. The city itself has taken an aggressive stance on commercial signage. In the Plateau Mount-Royal borough, Project Montreal councillors established a bylaw that bans all billboards. The ban comes on top of a bylaw that was passed by a previous administration, which limits the type and size of the signs merchants can hang. Plateau citizens pushed for the bylaw after the historic Warshaw supermarket closed and was replaced by a Pharmaprix. Project Montreal councillor Alex Norris explained that the borough was concerned that the new sign was ripping away the distinctiveness of the neighbourhood.

Built into the Plateau’s bylaw is a section that requires signs put up before the rule was established to adopt the new standards once the owner sells the business. However, Norris quickly points out that the council is more than willing to make an exception as long as there is a strong, established historical link. “We’re not fanatics, but we are determined to prevent the plateau from turning into another suburban junkyard; a bland, banal, wasteland of commercial logos you can see anywhere,” said Norris.

Despite some preservation efforts not all of Montreal’s heritage signs can be saved. Hidden among the commercial signs of Montreal are gems of a day long since passed in urban advertising. Painted advertisements, fittingly nicknamed ghost signs since they’ve weathered and faded with age, plastered the city in the late 19th century and continued to be popular until the mid-20th century.

While not obvious to the average pedestrian, anyone looking for a ghost sign can spot them in many parts of the city from Sainte-Catherine Street to the Old Port. Some are quickly fading in the direct sunlight while others stay in relatively good condition. However, some have still to be uncovered, waiting to be exposed by a demolition or fire. One of the latest to be discovered was for Turret cigarettes on Sherbrooke Street West in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce after a fire gutted a building.

Kate McDonnell, a graphic designer and editor of the Montreal City Weblog, has been taking photos of the city’s ghost signs since the 80’s and has seem numerous signs fade away over the years.

“It just feels like a whole era of our city is just represented by these signs and they’re slowly going away,” said McDonnell. “You see them and it’s a little wink or nod from a past era.”

However not much can be done for Montreal’s dwindling number of ghost signs. Restoration would strip ghost signs of their mystique and historical value. Preservation would be costly and impractical since it would involve sheltering the sign from the elements.

“You have to accept in this case, whether it’s sad or not, they’re just going to disappear over time,” said McDonnell.