By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
Paris, Tenn.—History is emerging right before our eyes as workmen continue restoring the historic two-story brick building at the corner of Wood and Market Streets in Paris.
Master Mason Wolfgang Rackl and his assistant Luka Barlie have begun removing the stucco that has covered the side of the building for decades. What is emerging are the painted advertising murals that used to be on the side of the building, advertising Luckey’s Hardware and Coca-Cola.
The building used to house Luckey’s Hardware on the ground floor and the original WTPR studio and offices on the second floor. The WTPR sign used to be situated across the outside of the top floor on the Market Street side of the building and read: “WTPR, “Your Friendly Neighbor”, 710 On Your Dial”
The advertising murals that are emerging now are on the Wood Street side of the building and advertise Luckey’s Hardware. As the stucco comes off, you can begin to see “Hardware, Sporting Goods, Electrical Appliances, Boats, Builders Tools, Boats, Motors” painted on the wall.
You can also begin to see the outline of the infamous Coca-Cola advertising mural that used to be on the wall—the little boy holding a Coca-Cola bottle, painted in red.
And, the Paris Sign Co. signed the mural on the top right and that is totally visible now.
Craig Brown of Brown Sign Co. said his father, Frank Brown, got his start in the business at the Paris Sign Co. “It was all free-hand in those days. The painters did it all free-hand. Mark and I used to help Dad with those, filling in the designs that he painted.”
But more than that, he said, he and his brother used to love sitting and watching their father paint the advertising murals around town. “Even when Dad was getting older, he was so good at that, it was a real treat to sit and watch him do it. A lot of the time I really wish we could turn back time and do it the old way.”
The Paris Sign Co. was located behind the old Airplane Service Station which used to be located at the corner of Minerals Wells and Memorial Avenues and which was owned by the Brown family (present location of Walgreen’s).
The new owner of the building has told WENK/WTPR that plans are to restore the building and open an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant, with other plans still being formulated.
Photo composite shows building as it is today, with Wolfgang Rackl and Luka Barlie at work; second photo was taken in the late 1940s.
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