Confusion written on the wall

Here's a new word for your vocabulary: Palimpsest.

It comes from the Greek and traditionally refers to a document written on parchment that's been used before and has been imperfectly erased, so the earlier message is still partially legible.

It's a stretch, but I think it can also be applied to something we see every day and don't think very much about.

For instance, there's a palimpsest, of a sort, outside my office window.

It's been there for years, but it wasn't until the old Maitlen Motors building was torn down to make way for the jail expansion that it became clearly visible.

Anyone who has traveled east on Portland's West Main Street lately has seen it.

At the top, the sign says: "PAYNE'S RESTAURANT" in faded white paint on an equally faded black background.

Beneath it, in a larger painted box is apparently a separate advertisement for, "The Justly Famed" something.

"Justly Famed" what? I have no clue. Just as I have no clue about the history of Payne's Restaurant.

(The building is now the home of the Greazy Pickle, whose Z will puzzle historians a hundred years from now. Before that it was Stables, and before that the American Bar. It was the American Bar all my lifetime, I believe.)

But back to the palimpsest in brick and its mysteries.

Below "The Justly Famed" the sign has been painted and re-painted so many overlapping times that it's next to impossible to decipher.

I think I can make out the word "Arthur," but if it was "King Arthur" the "King" has been painted over.

Do I see "coffee" in there? Or "Mother"?

The fonts that have been used only add to the confusion.

I've always been a sucker for old, painted signs on brick buildings. (One of my favorites in Dunkirk advertises "cloaks." When was the last time you or anyone you know went cloak shopping?)

Based upon the number of times I've been asked if I know anything about Payne's Restaurant, I'm not the only one.

In many cases, the old signs have been sandblasted or power-washed away. In others, they've been painted over.

The newspaper's home office has a sign with a story of its own.

Back in the early 1960s, a long thin sign was painted at fourth floor level, marking the building as home of The Graphic Printing Co. and The Commercial Review.

The version of The Commercial Review nameplate that was used was very 1960s looking. I hated its look, and when I became editor I vowed to replace it as soon as possible.

Unfortunately I never communicated those plans to anyone else.

So when the sign needed to be repainted in the 1970s, those in charge simply replicated the old sign.

I decided when I became publisher just to let it fade away over time, but I hadn't counted on the need for brick repairs.

In the late 1980s, some major restoration work was done, obliterating part of the sign.

That's why it says, "The Commercial Rev" instead of "Review."

If we wanted to further confuse future historians, we could get out the paint buckets and make it, "The Justly Famed Commercial Rev."

Now that would have them scratching their heads.[[In-content Ad]]