New Painted Ad Covers Old Painted Ads

The faded ad crowd went ga-ga last year when these two old hand-painted jobbies appeared on the side of a building on W. 32nd near Broadway. Forgotten New York, citing Walter Grutchfield, explained: "Protective Ventilator is more or less definitely 1910. The one above (Alliance Press?) is probably slightly older. The Manhattan telephone directory has Alliance Press at 114 W. 32nd St. in 1907. They were printers, but seem to have been founded by the Rev. Albert B. Simpson. Both he and a couple of colleagues lived in Nyack, N.Y."


A couple months ago, the wall was taken over by another ad, also painted, for Jack's discount store. Not an unappealing ad, if you ask me. Bold colors. Simple, but engaging imagery. The painters made an interest made an interesting choice, though, by not painting over the two old ads completely, but just painting over the half of them that got in the way. Kind of makes the old ads cooler, and more mysterious. Kind of.