SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Pastimes : What Ever Happened To That Company? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (198)1/27/2012 1:19:18 PM
From: richardred  Respond to of 306
 
Your post reminded me of this sign I go by all the time. Now I know the rest of the story.

Gold Medal Flour / McKechnie's Grocery Store, Canandaigua, NY

H ere's another multi-layered ad, this time from a building in Canandaigua, NY. The building is on the corner of Buffalo St. and Main St. You can easily see the Gold Medal Flour advertisement. I was baffled by the clearly visible word "Eventually" at the top of the Gold Medal ad. What could that mean? Try all the other flours, and then get around to Gold Medal? A little detective work turned up the explanation. The word was part of one of Gold Medal's most successful ad campaigns . According to the General Mills Web site:

"In 1907, Washburn, Crosby launched its long-running advertising slogan, 'Eventually-Why Not Now?' B.S. Bull, the company's advertising manager, is credited with the creation of the slogan. As the story goes, he was editing a wordy text about the superior quality of Gold Medal Flour and found, that when he was finished he had edited out all the words except 4: 'Eventually.' He then added, 'Why Not Now?' Having had this brilliant idea, he was struck with self-doubt and tossed the paper into the wastebasket. It was said to have been found by a young member of the firm, James Ford Bell, who later became the first president of General Mills, Inc. (The slogan was used on billboards, company trucks, train cars, flour bags and in the company's printed advertisements, appearing as late as the early 1950's. Other companies adopted the slogan as their own; it was seen in political cartoons; the slogan was the title for a Sunday sermon; and it even appeared as the front-page headline of the Cincinnati Times-Star with a small-print notation, 'With apologies to Gold Medal Flour.")" (If you get out the old magnifying class, you can see the words WASHBURN, CROSBY'S above the word GOLD.)

If you look closely at the sign, you'll see that another sign was painted on the same section of wall. Upon close inspection, that sign reads:

JUICE CANDIES
AND FRUIT
CIGARS AND TOBACCO
CASH PAID FOR
BUTTER AND EGGS

As our English friends would say: What's all this then?

I have the answer. I happened to take two photos of the front of the building, too. The first is a mundane shot, but the second solves the puzzle. The small inlaid stone at the top of the building reads:

W.S. McK
1886

A little digging turned up this obituary from the Ontario County Times of Wednesday, 6 August 1924:

"William S. McKechnie, a life long resident of Canandaigua and for many years a prominent merchant at the Four Corners in upper Main Street, died at his home Wednesday morning about 9 o'clock, following a long illness. Mr. McKechnie, who was a nephew of the late J. and A. McKechnie, the well known brewers, was born in Canandaigua in 1847, and was educated at the Academy here. After a course in a commercial college in Rochester, he engaged in the business in Main Street North, first as an employee in the J. and A. McKechnie grocery store at the Corners, then as a partner in the same store with William McCabe, then with John Browning, and finally on his own account. In 1886 he built the brick block in which he thereafter for eight years conducted the store, following which he sold out to the present proprietors, O. C. Frary and Son, and retired from active business. Mr. McKechnie was a member of Canandaigua Lodge, F and A. M. and Excelsior chapter, R A M, and had held high offices in these organizations. He leaves only his wife and a number of cousins. Funeral services were held from the home Friday, Rev. H. L. Gaylord of St. John's church officiating. Interment was in Woodlawn Cemetery."

So there you have it. Apparently, the store paid cash to farmers who brought in needed goods. I went to high school in Canandaigua, and I've probably passed that corner a thousand times. Now I know a little bit more about it.

Pictures and text by Jason Crane
wallsign.typepad.com