Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn and Vintage Chevy Truck Painting

by Debra and Dave Vanderlaan

Title

Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn and Vintage Chevy Truck Painting

Artist

Debra and Dave Vanderlaan

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn and Vintage Chevy Truck Painting
by Debra and Dave Vanderlaan
One of the classic Mail Pouch barns, with the added bonus of an old Chevy pickup truck!
... These barns can be found in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Connecticut and California, although an increasing number have fallen into dilapidation or have been demolished. The barns, usually hand-painted in black or red with yellow or white capital lettering, read as: "Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco Treat Yourself to the Best." Sometimes, they are surrounded on the left and right by a thin vertical blue border.

Originally, Bloch Brothers advertised on the walls of businesses, such as this theater in West Virginia. Initially, barn owners were paid between $1 and $2 a year for the advertisement, equivalent in 1913 dollars to about $20 to“$40 today, but more importantly, they received a much desired fresh coat of paint to preserve the integrity of the wood. Mail Pouch painted their message on one or two sides of the barn (depending on viewability from the roadway) and painted the other sides of the barn any color the owner wished. Many of the barns were repainted every few years to maintain the sharp colors of the lettering.
After World War II, many of the barns were painted by Harley Warrick of Belmont County, Ohio.] He once estimated that he had painted 20,000 barns in his life, spending an average of six hours on each. Warrick claimed that he always began each barn with the "E" in the word "Chew". Other barns were painted by Mark Turley, Don Shires, and several others. Their initials remain preserved on some of the barns with the date of the painting. These initials can be found on the blue border surrounding the front side, or nearer to the roof.
The Highway Beautification Act of 1965, which sought to restrict the vast number of local advertisements that were being placed near highways, exempted Mail Pouch barns since they had been deemed historic landmarks.
Please see our big gallery of fine art photography and digital art and especially our Barns Gallery and our Classic Cars and Trucks Gallery!
www.CelebrateLifeGallery.com

Uploaded

January 23rd, 2019

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