In the early 1950’s, there was a 6 or 7 story yellow painted sign on a brick building facing Dearborn Station in Chicago advertising Lee Work Clothes, Overalls, Shirts and Pants.
I have seen photos of the faded sign from the 1980s and later on Flickr, but does anyone know of a photo of the unfaded sign?
I would like to incorporate that sign on a building on my HO scale layout.
Thanks.
Rich
There are a few shots (a bit distant) in this thread from another forum.
http://ogaugerr.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/46660482/m/268100274?r=200101874#200101874
–Reed
Here is a pretty good close up of the faded sign.
I need a Photoshop expert to enhance it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3341/3561322063_1b6e422ebb.jpg?v=0
Rich
The Lee website says, “Lee currently employs more than 400 people across the United States.”
Wikipedia says, “As of 2005, Lee Jeans have been manufactured … in a number of small factories in Chamarajanagar, India. 60,000 workers produce 5,000 pairs of jeans a day.”
Excerpt from Company History
Lee was founded in 1889 by Henry David Lee and several business associates in Salina, Kansas. As a teenage hotel clerk in a small Ohio town, Lee saved his earnings and, investing them skillfully, was eventually able to take over the Central Oil Company, which distributed kerosene oil for lighting. Stricken with tuberculosis and advised by doctors to relocate to a more hospitable climate, Lee sold his business to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company in the late 1880s and moved to Kansas, bringing several associates from his oil company with him. In Kansas, Lee and his associates sought out a five-year charter from the state to run a wholesale grocery business that would sell fine food products under several different brand names, including “Mother’s Style,” “Cadet,” and “Summer Girl.” The company’s start-up financing totaled $100,000, with one quarter of it reportedly contributed by the town of Salina.
Lee’s business rapidly prospered, benefiting from its position as the largest food supplier between Denver and Kansas City. The market it served was enjoying a period of rapid growth, as it developed from frontier to a more settled, prosperous area. Within its first ten years, the company had branched out into three additional businesses, the H. D. Lee Flour Mills Company, the Lee Hardware Company, and Kansas Ice and Storage. Soon, the Lee company was also selling sewing materials, furnishings, paper goods, and school supplies. By the turn of the century, Lee’s enterprise represented the largest wholesale grocery and dry goods business in the Midwest…
The most important addition to the Lee company’s product line came in 1911, when Lee became frustrated by infrequent del
Mike,
I had been waiting to hear from you.
That second photo is among the best that I have seen.
Not only the Lee Jeans sign, but also the quality and color of the entire photo, including the Chicago skyline.
What I need now is a Photoshop expert to create a reproduction of that sign for my HO scale layout.
Rich
Reed,
I neglected to thank you for posting those photos. They are very cool.
Rich