By Tom Surprenant, Stahl Construction

This is Stahl Construction’s first blog entry since being selected by the Knight Foundation as one of its St. Paul Arts Challenge winners. Following a period of fundraising, we will begin conserving some of the great “ghost signs” on the walls of 19^th Century warehouses and factory buildings still standing in St. Paul’s Lowertown District. My name is Tom Surprenant and I’m the general counsel here at Stahl, and I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to be involved in this project. For now, I’ll be blogging about the project.

It’s funny how ideas start; in addition to my work at Stahl, I run Sounds of Hope, a performing arts nonprofit for youth. From my desk in the Sounds of Hope office in Lowertown, I get to gaze daily on the old commercial signs painted on the back of the Parkside Apartments Building, and I have long wondered what companies commissioned those artfully designed signs proclaiming “Carriages,” “Harness,” “Stocks,” and “Cigar Factory.” I have wondered who painted them and when they were painted. It has delighted me on many dreary, cold January afternoons to sit at my desk and imagine who might have been buying those cigars and those carriage harnesses. Was it the livery man from one of the carriage houses behind the grand homes on Summit Avenue? Or the owners of a local dairy delivering milk by wagon? Imagination can be a wonderful thing!

Then, all of a sudden, imagination began to merge with reality. While I was sipping coffee outside the Jax Building with my Sounds of Hope partner one afternoon, Jeanne wondered aloud why no one had ever bothered to repaint the best of those old signs from the glory days of Lowertown’s past. Soon afterward, an email from the Knight Foundation serendipitously appeared in my mailbox inviting Jeanne and me to an event for a big announcement affecting St. Paul. We attended and heard the exciting news that the Knight Foundation was bringing its Arts Challenge to St. Paul. This could not have been just pure coincidence, I figured, so I began researching the history of “ghost signs” and the methods of restoring and conserving old signs painted on brick exteriors. I then had a series of conversations with folks at Stahl about the idea of helping to preserve St. Paul’s commercial legacy, and a lot of gratifying excitement spread throughout the company. How lucky it is to work for a construction company that knows something about scaffolding, masonry repair and the like, right?

Well, that’s the early history of our project. Following an initial round submitting the idea to the Knight Foundation, and later a full proposal, Stahl’s idea was selected for an award of funds. Suddenly we’re in the art conservation business; moving ahead to make this project happen, learning more and more about art conservation as we go, reading about “ghost signs,” and immersing ourselves in Lowertown’s history. On the way, we’re also meeting some of the many wonderful people who are committed to preserving and celebrating the rich history of the city of St. Paul. And we’ve found a great art conservator to do the main part of the work.

In the upcoming blogs, we hope to take you through our adventure of turning this idea into a reality. We expect to face many ups and downs, but we’re in the construction business where there are always unanticipated twists and turns—bad weather, delivery delays, fickle city inspectors, etc. To achieve our goals, we will need to raise additional funds, complete our research, select the signs most appropriate for conservation, obtain needed permits, coordinate schedules with our team, and much more. There’s much to do in the coming year… some of it scary, all of it exciting. Wish us luck!