Conditions have been hard on West End landmarks, as what might be the area's two most remarkable buildings, the Empress Theatre and the Snowdon Theatre, have been abandoned and left to rot by local authorities.
The magnificent Meldrum was similarly embattled but still shines bright, in spite of a language law that forced it to modify its wording and a bylaw banning lit rooftop signs that goes way back to the 1960s.
The sign was erected after 1932 when the business was launched but nobody knows when.
Photographer Franco Alo made it his last photo in Montreal before moving out west.
He described his pic, as "an ode to a neighborhood we grew to love more than thought possible. Nice tight community and thriving food scene, you'll be missed NDG."
The sign was recently transformed from neon to LED, according to the company's co-owner Paul Filgiano, who reports that the company has never once considered taking the sign down, even though it is costly to maintain.
The sign, as well as the Reitman's sign at Queen Mary and Decarie, are the only two lit rooftop signs permitted in the district. Both signs predated the bylaw ban.
Their maintenance contract ensure that it stays lit at all times. At the slightest flicker, crews mount up to get the fix.
The sign once read "storage" but the Quebec's brutal language laws forced the authentic, historic, original sign to be modified in the 1970s.
The company was launched in 1932 by Scots Jim Meldrum and wife Agnes. They had no kids, so their niece's husband took it over. His sons, the Filgianos, have been running it since he moved on.
The job of moving people out of town can be a sad thing.
"We move people for all sorts of reasons: wonderful reasons, sad reasons, some are bittersweet, they're going on to great things but they've had great things happen to them here too," said Filgiano.
Paul, 53, has been close to the company since birth and has been an employee since 1984.
It pleases him to see people photographing or admiring the historic sign.
"I like the glow it gives. At night it gives a warm glow to the street," he said.
I love the sign but found their quote to be over-inflated...was considerably cheaper for a local move to use an advertiser on Craigslist, and I made sure that he had insurance and was registered as a real business with CSST. Guess they only go after the relocation market where companies pay and don't care how much they spend.
ReplyDeleteSee this: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-39155680
ReplyDeleteI've also noticed that, over the years, many of our older office and even apartment buildings have had their original advertising signs and names obliterated due to overzealous landlords presumably yet unnecessarily fearful of the OQLF "language police", "renovation", and/or outright vandalism.
The Willis Pianos sign on the west side of 1224 Ste. Catherine St. has somehow survived:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4976351,-73.5753056,3a,33.3y,43.66h,96.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5vIJpLqJJMqsW_lpy4GZrg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
but many others have not. How many remember the "Farine Five Roses Flour" sign at the Port of Montreal had its fourth word removed way back when? :-(
Many of the older apartment buildings in Cote des Neiges and N.D.G. that had names in relief or gold painted over their address numbers have also been scraped or chiseled off by presumably truculent owners. It's a wonder that some of the original edifices in Old Montreal still have their signs intact--such as the Molson Bank!
See Urban History Review for N.D.G. (including maps), by Walter Van Nus:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/uhr/1984-v13-n2-uhr0791/1018121ar.pdf