Noel Weber, owner of Classic Design Studio (Boise, ID), a founding member of the Letterhead movement, and well known for high-end goldleaf and glue-chip glass signs.

Another founder of the Letterheads, Mark Oatis, YESCO (Las Vegas), working on the sign for the wall over the door and window of Main Street’s “signshop.”

Behind the door is Rose Oatis, adding goldleaf to the signshop’s “Glass Signs” front door sign.

Doc Welty, Southern Sign Arts (Leicester, NC), painting the sign for Hank & Hazel’s Grocery. Doc told me the store has a very involved backstory, including a gentleman who fell into a sausage grinder and died. A change in ownership for the store ensued…

Creating a mural on the inside of a garage door that opens to the Crosley mural outside is Jay Allen, Shawcraft Signs (Machesney Park, IL). Author of two books on the Walldogs, Jay is outlining the scene projected on the wall, with the color to be filled in later.

Having contributed the Signs of the Times “ghost sign” to the museum exterior nearly a decade ago, Elaine Wallis, retired from Signature Signs & Graphics (Niagara Falls, ON, Canada), is doing the mural for Snapper’s Tavern on a wall that’s to be part of a new entrance to the museum’s events wing. “Snapper” is the term once used for traveling sign artists.

Lee Littlewood, Lee’s Better Letters (Portland, OR), shows the work in progress for a window for the Clover Deli, which will feature the original sign from midtown Manhattan.

Youth is represented in this project in part by Kelsey Dalton McClellan, Heart & Bone Signs (Chicago), gilding the window for Basinger’s Jewelry store in the late 1800’s Chicago style.

Andrew McClellan, also of Heart & Bone Signs, holds a glue-chip glass panel made back in their shop using another style patented in Chicago. The panel is to be gilded on site.

Collaborating with the McClellans on the Basinger’s Jewelry signage is David Butler, Butler Design (Syracuse, IN), another major force in the Letterhead movement. David is pictured recreating a frame using a dowel rod “ripped in half” lengthwise, with the corners carved and fitted with a copper piece made from a mold, then treated with salt and vinegar to age it.

Susie Butler (left) joins David with Andrew and Kelsey Dalton McClellan in a group shot.

Pictured with the metal cutout of a camera film is John Cox, Thorough-Graphics (Lexington, KY), who is responsible for the front of the Loomis Camera store. The cutout was fabricated by friend of the museum Tim Cambron, Ruggles Sign (Versailles, KY). The style is based on camera shops of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Here’s the camera element for the Loomis Camera storefront, awaiting refurbishment and installation.

Sonny Franks, Sign Creations (Lilburn, GA), is retired from signs, doing only murals now — and this project for the museum. He’s working on Dave’s Garage door-window sign, and also charged with painting the corrugated metal “garage door,” which he characterizes as a particular challenge.

Providing the window sign for Benny’s Credit is Nancy Bennett, Danco (Centerville, IA). The store’s lettering and cash-in-hand graphics are drawn from 1940’s examples.

Honoring the actual longest-running five-star restaurant in the US, Kent Smith, Smith Sign Studio (Estes Park, CO), is gilding the window sign for the replica Maisonette, based on a longtime restaurant in downtown Cincinnati, using the actual logo.

We leave you with the man behind it all, American Sign Museum Founder Tod Swormstedt, who is also the former editor-in-chief and publisher of Signs of the Times. His efforts to publicize the Letterheads starting in the late 1970’s is now paying off even more as they’re helping Tod to extend an unforgettable experience at the museum.

For more information, read our article on the Main Street expansion project.