• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Old Mill Tasty Shop Owner Denounces Damage to Historic Sign

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Tim Potter, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Mar. 29--For several years now, "taggers" have drawn or painted graffiti on old brick-and-plaster walls lining the alleys behind the Old Mill Tasty Shop.

In back of the historic buildings along Douglas, it looks like a graffiti gallery.

Until Monday night, there was a small patch on one wall that the vandals seemed to respect. They kept their spray paint off of it.

It's a quaint sign, painted years ago on a wall behind the popular malt and sandwich shop.

John Wright, who owns and operates the restaurant with wife, Mary, became angry Tuesday when he saw that someone painted "SKUM" in tall black letters that intrude onto an old ice cream company sign that he thinks dates to the late 1920s or early 1930s.

"It is a little history, and it means a lot to us," Wright said of the sign.

In the past 24 years, thousands of patrons have walked through the front door of Old Mill Tasty Shop, at 604 E. Douglas. It is part of an island of multistory buildings that preserve Wichita's historic commercial district.

Probably very few people know about the old sign that someone expertly painted in script letters decades ago on a wall behind the restaurant.

It's about 4 feet long, about 18 inches high, and says "Schluer's Ice Cream Co."

The sign -- with red letters over a now-faded blue background -- is a lasting reminder of the old ice cream operation that was housed where the restaurant is now.

Cleanup on the wall about 15 years ago uncovered the old sign.

Police think that the graffiti painted around the Old Town and downtown area is the work of teenagers whose motive is vandalism.

It's not gang members marking territory, said Lt. Jeff Easter, who oversees the gang unit.

Easter hadn't seen the recent graffiti in the alleys behind the restaurant but said it sounds like the work of some of the same taggers who have vandalized the area in the recent past.

Wright's son, Don Wright, showed where taggers have used markers or paint on other nearby buildings along the alleys behind Douglas and St. Francis.

"It's just nonstop anymore," he said, noting that as soon as merchants and city workers paint over the graffiti, the taggers strike again.

Sometimes, one vandal will paint his moniker over another's work.

Leaving the graffiti up seems to invite more graffiti, Don Wright said.

Tuesday afternoon, as he stood in the alley, two city workers pulled up and painted over a vandalized wall behind another business.

The alleys give the vandals a place to work without being easily seen. Police recommend that businesses add lighting.

If John Wright could say something to the vandals, it would be this: "Pick a better way to be noticed. I don't understand it."

And one other thing, he said: Stop messing with history.

Reach Tim Potter at (316) 268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:tpotter@wichitaeagle.com].

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.)

More News in this Category