Monday, June 04, 2012

Old signage reveals history



Local Historians know full well how quickly the urban landscape can change when it comes to shop fronts, land developments and changes in the economy.
An old shop sign has come to light on a property in Main Road, Eltham recently.  I suspect the current landlord has removed the former tenants signage to reveal the original tenant who owned or leased the building.  In this case Eltham Fruiterers.  It is known that this business has not been operating since at least 1991, and I suspect that this sign will soon be covered over once a new tenant is found.
Eltham District Historical Society do a great job preserving and telling the stories of Eltham's local history.

3 comments:

Linda said...

I am toying with an idea, which you are free to use/pass on. Only caveat is - please report via a blog, so we can all work out how to do it better. Your post reminded me of it:

Have a scavenger hunt.

On a nice day, get together anyone who wants to take part. Give them a list of themes, send them out with their cameras to take photographs according to those themes.(Not sure yet if it is same themes for everyone, or a theme per team/person)

Give them a time to be back to download photos (so they cannot add any more later), and have a look at the "rushes" over cuppa. Reconvene for a meeting, when they have to bring their best ten photos on stick or CD, and everyone gets ten votes to dispense as they wish. Person with most votes wins (prize?). And we get a wonderful snapshot of the town on that day.

Infolass said...

Thanks Linda - please also visit Moonee Valley local history blog post on ghosts
http://mooneevalleyfamilylocalhistory.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/ghosts.html

I think you have a terrific idea. It would not necessarily have to be in "in the flesh". There are always lots of blogging challenges for family history, perhaps this could be adapted to those who maintain local history blogs including libraries and groups and individuals. Having themes is a great idea.

In the 1908s there was a series of beautiful coffee table book series "A day in the life" (Australia, USA, Soviet Union were some of the titles.

Linda said...

Hi Liz,
There was also the Day in the Life of Victoria that spun off from it, and no doubt in other states. It didn't seem to get seen around as much.

The blog memes are fun, but I don't think our mainstream members get to see them as much as the bloggers and blog consumers do.

Time to get up from our seats in front of the computers, and smell the fresh air. :)