A Heart For History

DAYTON - Members of the Dayton community are lending their talents and their time to restore a collection of downtown outdoor advertisements going back to the late 1800s.

The Historic Sign Restoration Project on the back of the Sterling Savings Bank and other buildings on Main Street, is a project of the Dayton Development Task Force. The group obtained a $20,000 grant from the Sherwood Trust Fund recently and work is underway.

The group won't be restoring the advertisement s so they look new. Rather, its members want to maintain an old-time, historical feel and the ghostliness of the somewhat overlapping advertising remnants.

The ads include Cleveland Superior Baking Powder, Wards & Hindle Co. Inc.' House Of Quality and Monnett & Hamilton Hardware And Implements. There is a fourth ad, but their letters are hard to make out.

"We want to make it look old," said Brian Graham, who is contracting with the task force to repaint the advertisement and has agreed to have it done by the end of October.

Graham lives in Dayton and has been painting sets for local musical productions at the Liberty Theater for about five years. This is his first mural restoration.

In addition to painting sets, he considers himself an oil painter who also does other artwork. He agreed to restore the advertisement be- cause it called on his creative side.

"It's an interesting job," Graham said. "This is just an extension of (my other work)."

First, Graham researched the building and the advertisement. He said the building was constructed between 1880 and 1890 and the first advertisement was added soon after it was built.

Those who painted the murals on the buildings were called "wall dogs," Graham said, and it probably took just a couple of days to complete it.

Graham said the wall dogs would keep busy painting buildings.

Before painting can begin, the building must be cleaned and prepped. Tom Hargrave, a retired mason who lives in

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Dayton, is donating his time to patch holes in the original mortar and file joints. Cheryl Ray, the project's volunteer chair, is scrubbing the bricks with steel wool.

The brick building has taken a beating over the years, Hargrave said.

Hargrave has a long history of volunteering his services and has built a little league baseball complex in White Swan and jail cells in Toppenish with kids from a federal work program.

The task force asked for Hargrave's help and he was happy to oblige.

"I'm retired," Hargrave said. "I need something to volunteer for and help out the community."

While Hargrave is out filling holes in the brick, Graham is in a cherry picker high above the ground scrubbing the façade with a brillow pad and a bucket full of soapy water.

Members of the task force and Hargrave are also spending hours in the heat scrubbing the brick to get it ready for paint.

"We're trying to put the brick back in the best possible position before the sign is redone," said Marcene Hendrickson, the task force's chair who can't participate in the work because of an injury.

Hendrickson explained that the building owners on Main Street who have a portion of the signs on their property wall are paying for the preservation of the top 4 feet so rain runoff doesn't damage the new collage below.

Graham said the original paint used was an oil-based medium with lead pigments. The lead in the original paint can make the work a bit more dangerous, Graham said.

Instead of using oil paint, Graham will be using a special mural paint that has an acrylic base. When it's completed, a clear top coat of acrylic will seal the mural and if that top coat is applied every decade or so, it can have a long life in Dayton, Graham said.

Once the painting begins, Graham estimates that it will take him about six to eight weeks to complete it.

"But it's my first one, so that's my best guess," he said.

For more information, call Marcene Hendrickson at 382-4860 or Cheryl Ray at 509-382-2995.