Thursday, January 2, 2014

A unique kind of ghost sign: Victorian-era stonemason names etched on a wall in a Fitzroy back street

Some years ago a friend showed me this place in the back streets of Fitzroy and I've been trying to find it ever since. Today I found it again, on Hanover Street - the place where it appears Victorian stonemasons left their mark during the building of a grand bluestone residence in 1880 (the date as recorded in one of the marks; see below).

It looks like the marks were made in a previously unexposed area of the stone wall that, judging by the light colour of the stone compared to the stones around it (see last pic), used to be covered by a building - that is, before the flats were built next door.  Now they look over the washing lines of the folks who live in the flats.










2 comments:

  1. I am amazed at how many names there are and that they are from different places: Ballarat, Colac. I would have thought that it would have been one master mason and his team.

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  2. These stone mason name etched on a wall are looking nice..
    Posted by: Mary Davis | Stone Mason

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