Thread by @jeremy_hopkin

Cool Find!!! Adam Wynne recently messaged me to ask if I had any information about the ghost sign on the south side of 111 River Street in Toronto. The building is currently under threat of demolition.

I wrote back that I had nothing on it, surprised because I didn't even know there was a ghost sign at the location. However, I agreed to dig further. All the lettering I could make out from the photos at the beginning was choppy, "Office... .... & Co."

I stared at this faded sign through several years of Google Street Views for far too long, messaged back and forth with Adam about the history of the surrounding area, dove into the usual some online research, and started tracing what lettering I could decypher...

Then, it finally clicked! - It's a directional sign to the Offices of the Salvador Reinhardt Brewery! It even has one of those Old-Timey hands pointing east to where the brewery stood just behind the house on Mark Street. - Here's a rough graphic I made of what I found:

For some time the entire north side of Mark Street was owned by the Salvador Brewery of Reinhardt & Co.

Reinhardt's brewery was sold and eventually the building became a Central Storage Company warehouse, when it was destroyed by fire in 1957. The former brewery property is currently home to Mercedes-Benz Downtown Toronto.

Adam seems to be quite happy with this interesting discovery. He plans to use the rough graphic I created in a deputation to preserve houses in the area at an upcoming Toronto community council meeting.

I'm hoping that he's successful. Would love to see a bit of old Regent Park preserved, maybe even with this ghost sign to nowhere restored to its former glory... I have my paint brush ready!

Thanks for reading this. Take care out there!

#ghostsign #sign #reinhardt #salvador #brewery #vintage #localhistory #history #historical #vintagetoronto #tdot #the6ix #torontolife #torontohistory #tohistory #toronto #ontario #canada #hopkindesign