Rand's Old Signs

I love most anything old. Old trucks, old airplanes, old motorcycles and old tractors. I enjoy their interesting lines, art deco design and history and have collected them for years. I've become interested in old signs too, mostly town street signs of wooden construction from the late 1800's. They've become increasingly rare and expensive, so I'm making my own, paying close attention to detail.

Above all else I love New England, so as you peruse my sign collection I've highlighted some of my favorite places in this unique six state region.

This blog displays only a fraction of my inventory, but everything here is available for sale. Or, if you have a specific sign or object in mind, contact me at rkpeck727@yahoo.com to discuss your project.

My design "studio" in the basement of our 1790 cape in Amherst, NH.

A little larger view of my shop, all cleaned up!

This is a rare photo

Now the products.

The Boston Post Road runs north from Boston into New Hampshire. There were many "Post" roads that left Boston into Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut that served to carry newspapers, mail and word of mouth traffic from the city to outlying taverns, inns and homes along its route. The revolutionary Committee of Correspondence, formed by Samuel Adams in 1764 used these routes to warn citizens of British troop movements. The best known of these events was the midnight ride of Paul Revere from Boston to Concord, Massachusetts. Colonel Revere may very well have been directed by a sign like this on the night of April 18, 1775.

This pine sign measures 28" long by 6" high and would have hung at an intersection to guide early travelers and insure safe passage. It costs $85.00 + shipping.

This sign would have been seen at the intersection of Boston Post Road and Amherst Street in Amherst, NH by citizens on foot, horseback or in carriages when Amherst was the county seat and a thriving legal center. In fact Daniel Webster argued a case here in 1805 in the towns second courthouse, now a home on Foundry Street. It's made from two pieces of pine and measures 24" long by 15" high and costs $95.00 plus shipping.

This small piece of scrap pine (I waste nothing) will eventually be attached to our outside mudroom wall to alert UPS and FedEx of our location. In 1765 it would have alerted the Minutemen or the Committee of Correspondence to the home of a patriot. One who would have opposed oppressive taxes on tea, playing cards, sugar, stamps, pamphlets and other daily items of convenience that lead to the Boston Massacre in 1770. For a mere $30.00 (with no tax) I can make one for you with you too. Plus shipping of course. The colonists never argued about shipping charges, only unfair taxes levied by a distant monarch. Why have a boring hardware store number on your home when you can have a piece of history?

This New Hampshire sign measures 37.5" by 9" and is a replica of a sign that I remember seeing in Wolfeboro, NH 30 years ago. It's a single piece of pine with a square edge frame. Choose any state you like, or your last name, or university and I'll make it look like this "antique" for $85 plus shipping. For $150 I'll make it a two board sign and add your town name too!

Same sign as above

We have four fireplaces in our cape and one is a little less than desirable to look into. It needs someone to attack it with strong chemicals to clean years of hard use. Until that day arrives though, I constructed and painted this three-board, 33.5" by 45" fireboard" to disguise its poor internal appearance. Early New Englanders used fireboards to decorate unused fireplaces and stop drafts.

Here's how it appears and fits in with the rooms decor when standing back. This is our dining room and the fireboard turns into quite a conversation piece during dinner with friends and family. I call it early American primitive, my family just calls it primitive. President George Washington's portrait hangs above the mantel because he was in office (1789-1797) as our nations first president when our home was constructed in 1790.

Here's another "primitive" that I constructed and painted that I used in our front reading room until I removed the old brick hearth and replaced it with a piece of Deer Isle, Maine granite. This is a three-board piece too. To create an old appearance, I allow the seams between the boards to appear.

It's appearance from afar.

I was inspired by Rufus Porter when I undertook these fireboards.

I've decided to branch out a little further and design a simple foot stool that early New Englanders would have kept near their fireplace. Children would have sat before the fire, warming themselves until father arrived home and needed somewhere to rest his weary feet.

My prototype is taking shape. Later I'll prime it, paint it, paint a scene on the top and beat it up so it appears well used by several generations of the family.

Here's the finished foot stool. After painting I sanded it to diminish its "new" look, but decided against "beating it up." It looks fine the way that it is. $95.00 + shipping.

Here's a sign that would have hung near Portsmouth Harbor informing sea captains of their latitude and longitude before setting sail for Europe, Asia or the Spice Islands in search of commerce. Before casting off though, they'd trawl the harbors taverns, bars and other unsavory establishments recruiting sailors for this arduous journey. It measures 34" by 6" and would make an attractive addition to your office or den already laid out in a nautical theme.

I'll bet that you were unaware that Portsmouth was at 43 degrees north only 20 degrees south of the arctic circle. But clipper ship captains weren't and avoided these dangerous latitudes where huge icebergs patrol the North Atlantic on a year round basis.

This is the back of the Portsmouth sign showing it's latitude and longitude.

I glued an old Northwest Airlines Atlantic Orientation Chart that their pilots used when they flew between North America and Europe to the back of the sign.

I made this sign for my son when he was accepted at Boston University (BU) Law School. I copied his acceptance letter and glued it to the back.

Here it is decorating our dining room next to our Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington. I think that president Washington went to BU Law too. If he didn't he probably wanted to but thought that the commute from Virginia was extreme.

Linda and Ian in his apartment in Brighton on his birthday when we gave him this "one of a kind" BU sign.

I just designed and finished this Merry Christmas sign that looked as though it would have graced the tavern or dining room at the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Mass. or the old Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Mass. or the Jared Coffin House in Nantucket. Many a tankard of mulled cider would have been raised beneath this sign celebrating the holiday season.

More houses that would have been used as children's toys in the 1800's, that today make great decorating pieces.

They're made from 1" pine stock that actually measures 3/4" and fit anywhere.

I've recently received an order for a many of my "little colonial houses" and will be setting my saws for a large run. This would be the time to place your order for these neat little display pieces that children played with regularly in the 18th and 19th century. With no computer games, let alone electricity, children spent hours before the hearth playing with wooden toys like this.

I'll set my saws for two sizes: 4"L X 3"W X 3.5" T and 5"L X 3"W X 3.5" T

They're solid wood, painted in a variety of colors including cherry stain.

I may not include chimneys on this run as they're problematic.

$19 a piece or a neighborhood of five for only $85 + shipping and minus the cul-de-sac.

Here's my latest sign, still in the layout stage. Check back in a few days to see what it says.

And here it is just a couple of days later directing weary travelers from Boston or New York's sweltering neighborhoods to a cool respite in the Mt Washington Valley. Travelers arrived via old Boston-Maine locomotives with trunks for the summer at the North Conway Station in search of relief from summers hot cities.

Nantucket, from the Massachusetts Algonquin Tribe means far away island. This sign would have directed well heeled tourists staying at the Jared Coffin House or Roberts House Inn, across the cobble stoned square to the Ferry Dock for transportation to Hyannis as whaling captains prepared to get under way. Do you know what a Nantucket Sleigh Ride is?

Two new signs from New England's oldest tourist destinations awaiting buyers in my shop.

Jackson Village

The beginning of a new footstool, all cut and ready for assembly.

Now assembled and waiting to be sanded. Then sanded again. And yet again before adding paint. Check back later to see my progress.

After much sanding I finished this stool with flat black paint, but with a cherry stained top and several coats of satin poly-urethane steel wooled between coats. It has a different look, but one that I think was common to early American hearths with bee hive cook ovens to the side.

We've recently built an addition to our home and we needed a bench by the door to make it easy for us to change shoes, particularly during the winter months. I simply expanded my foot stool design to six feet and added a lower shelf for looks and more stability. For strength over such a long span I used five-quarter finished lumber for this project. Five-quarter is an inch and an eighth versus three-quarters of an inch on standard one inch stock. I considered six-quarter at an inch and a quarter but it was unnecessary. This skirt however is one inch stock and adds to the rigidity of the design. The seat surface is six feet long by 11 inches wide and is 17 inches above the floor.

Here it is after construction, glued and screwed together awaiting my Mikita orbital sander.

Until I get around to sanding my new bench, I'm working on another sign. This one will be a little different, constructed with a six foot board and two "wings" that I'll dowel in above and below the main sign. I'll also paint the board black and letter with gold paint, something I've not yet tried. Here it is cut and awaiting paint.

Here's my completed Mt Washington Cog Railway sign that directs travelers where to purchase their tickets. I'll attach the wings below with glue and dowels for an interesting, NH historical artifact.

You're not familiar with New Hampshire's famous cog railway, also known as the railway to the moon? In 1852 Sylvester Marsh came up with a great idea to build a railroad to... well better yet, click here to learn more about New Hampshire's fascinating mountain railway.

Another beautiful fall day here in southern New Hampshire at

Rand's OLD SIGN SHOP.

The White Mountain Stage Lines shuttled passengers from the base of Mt. Washington to its summit at 6,288 feet above sea level. Using horse drawn Concord Coaches, constructed at Abbott & Downing in nearby Concord, NH, this treacherous trip follows what has evolved to today's Mt Washington Auto Road.

The closest that General Washington came to the White Mountains Stage Lines would have been in 1776 when he arrived in Cambridge, MA to take command of the Continental Army. Shortly thereafter he routed the British from Boston in early March when he and Colonel Knox fortified Dorchester Heights with artillery stolen from the British at Fort Ticonderoga in upstate NY. Since 1901, New Englanders have celebrated this event known as Evacuation Day every March 17th. You may know this date as St. Patricks Day.

This looks like an original Fenway Park sign. America's oldest major league baseball stadium still in use, the Red Sox (originally known as the Boston Bean Eaters 1894) opened the facility on 20 April 1912, just west of Kenmore Square. The owners were hoping for a fun filled day to display the new, state of the art baseball facility to kick off a new Red Sox season. A state of somberness though fell over Boston as just a few days earlier on 15 April 1912, the mighty Titanic sank on her first transatlantic voyage taking some 2,200 passengers to a watery grave.

As you passed Cannon Mountain through Franconia Notch on your way to visit Mt. Washington, you'd have passed a sign like this, pointing out the geological anomaly of New Hampshire's Great Stone Face.

This is a close up of the piece that sits atop the sign. It came from an add on for New Hampshire license plates in the 1930's.

You'll never get lost again looking for New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountain with these beautiful signs. The problem though, is that as of 3 May 2003 it no longer exists, having succumbed to the ravages of time. The Great Stone Face was formed 12,000 years ago as the last of the Great Glaciers melted and receded from North America.

Eleven pictures up I displayed a picture of this bench during its construction stage. Here it is finished with painted legs and a stained top. It's made from five quarter stock and has ample strength to serve as a bench. It's placed here to help visitors with their shoes.

Here it is again in a little more finished setting after we finished building this new room. Now you can see how badly you need one of these accent pieces!

This bench is six feet long with a 12 inch wide top and is displayed here with another bench of the same design but five feet long with a 10" top. The second bench will serve as a coffee table beneath the windows that you see here. It as well is made from five quarter stock and could be used to sit on too.

The smaller bench in position by the windows.

You may remember the BU Law sign that I painted for my son. When my daughter Samantha saw it she asked me to create a Michigan sign for my son-in-law Blair. She emailed the logo that she wanted and I went to work. Here it is after layout in its rough form.