It’s okay. This isn’t another msm article about Dead Bank, although it is about the past and what is the present. And it’s about the future as well. But today, I’m going to be looking at a little bit of history which, hopefully, won’t be painted over any time soon, although it looks as if someone has already made a start.
There’s a secret adage that is whispered whenever Brits gather around a nice cup of tea, or a warm pint and it goes something like this; To the British a hundred miles is a long way. To Americans, a hundred years is a long time. So you’d think we’d treat history better here.
Mechanic Street bears a proud name stretching from the East Side Park, westwards into the centre of town, or “downtown” as I believe it’s known in these parts. As it proceeds across Spring Street, the little family houses start to disappear as the road eases into what was once a site of a school and small factories and warehouses, which has now been given over to the blight of Red Bank, the corporate parking lot.
But one building has managed to resist the speculators and winklers, the warehouse of Anderson Bros Inc, Moving and Storage, a company whose base has now moved down by the station, and whose storage now resides anonymously in some big-box unit somewhere if it’s not still behind that roller-shutter door.
However, the building remains and despite some recent paint covering up what remained on the facade there is still evidence of old signage on the east side and the rear of the building, known to connoisseurs of this sort of urban archaeology as “ghost signs“.
The signage on the side of the building is barely legible, except in good light, but extends over two floors and bears the legend, “Anderson Bros Inc, Moving & Storage” below what I think may be a logo or other image which now seems virtually obliterated. I’ve photoshopped the image to bring out what remains.
There’s further evidence on the north elevation around the back where “Anderson Bros.” appears to be painted on stucco or plaster.
The question is, do relics such as this need to be kept, or even just archived and listed in this cool little town. Or will it succumb to the inevitable speculative architect-designed, system-built carbuncle with all the attributes of a garden shed as Red Bank’s defining image of the future? The Anderson building is already suffering from “improvement“. How long before the past is obliterated. It’s up to us.
There are a few more examples in RB which I’m going to dig out while they’re still here.
