New (old) Frontier House sign approved

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

In about four weeks, a new sign will adorn the front of the Frontier House at 460 Center St., Lewiston. While the sign is yet to be built, it will very much resemble what hung on the front face of the historic, 201-year-old structure many, many years ago.

Ellicott Development is overseeing the Frontier House restoration. On Monday, Planning and Development Coordinator Jeremy Wassel and Ulrich Sign Co. President Chris McCaffrey presented Village of Lewiston officials with a sign package they said matches historic photos.

Wassel said the New York State Historic Preservation Office approved the sign’s look (light-colored letters on a black background) and size (15 feet, 10 inches wide; 27 inches tall).

The Frontier House’s existing sign is not original to the building. So, Ellicott Development and Ulrich Sign used two photos – one from 1895 and another from 1931 – as the basis for their blueprint.

“It's hard to tell, but talking with SHPO, they believe the sign from the 1895 photo, I believe it is, they believe it's similar, if not the same one,” Wassel told the Historic Preservation Commission. “So, we used the 1895 photo as a reference, and the 1931 one to try and understand the font itself.”

“It will be nice, elegant; something that would be in character with that time period itself,” Wassel explained.

Of the letters, he said, “Instead of being a typical white, we went with an off-white design. Looking all the historic photos, it seemed like it wasn't a pure white last time. So, we went with off-white that we thought was very similar to some of the other reference photos we had.”

The sign will read, “Frontier House.” – yes, with a period.

“We went back and forth – should we or shouldn’t we – but, to make it look like it did originally, for whatever reason there was a period on there,” McCaffrey said.

The Frontier House as seen earlier this week.

A rendering of the “Frontier House.” sign to be mounted later this winter. (Image created by Ulrich Signs, courtesy of the Village of Lewiston)

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With regard to how the sign will be lit, “It’s going to be externally illuminated,” Wassel said. “Below the sign itself, we're going to do a little light bar that has a reflector on it, that would be able to adjust. It’s going to be about a foot out. It's going to be a very narrow beam. The fixture itself is about an inch and a quarter in height – and actually, when you angle it towards the wall, it's going to just do a nice wash on the side itself. It won’t go on the rest of the building.

“Originally for the building, we did have some up-lights at each of the columns, too, so that'll also help light up the sign.”

Below the main sign, “We will still be doing an address (block). It's going to be on the lower-end front, right above the front porch stairs,” Wassel said.

HPC member Rita Geiben said, “I think it looks nice.”

Her colleague, James Baptiste, added, “This is an upgrade.”

In January, Wassel presented a proposal for a backlit sign with acrylic letters pushed through and illuminated with LEDs, “to kind of give a glow effect around the letters.”

That idea wasn’t as popular.

“It seems a little modern,” HPC Chairwoman Loretta Frankovitch said at the time.

Baptiste said the design was not appropriate for the face of the Frontier House building.

Village Historian Russ Piper said he was “dead set against” the sign proposal. His preference would be that the sign remain “as the original was in 1895, from one window to the other; white with black letters. … It should be just wood; painted letters; the same as it's always been.”

Both the HPC and Planning Commission approved the revised Frontier House sign proposal.

The village is expecting to receive another sign proposal – this one for Fairbanks, the street-level restaurant to be operated by Billy Club – in the near future.