Wheels Plus

Recently, I had to pick up a replacement shower hose at the Central Avenue Home Depot and decided to take the shortcut to the Westgate Plaza.  I stopped to adjust a chronically loose shoelace and looked up to see this sign.

This unassuming building which, in recent years, has been home to miscellaneous businesses such as a martial arts studio and a small theatre, was once Wheels Plus. 

It was a typically 80s roller skating rink - a place of colored lights, loud music,a DJ booth in a sort of stocky tower dead in the middle of the main, skating area, a tiny wooden skating area for little kids, and a snack bar with memorably good French fries.  I didn't go there too often, once or twice for classmates' birthday parties and at least once on a class trip.  And I was never a good skater, whether on wheels or ice.  But seeing the old sign was certainly a terrific flashback to the 80s!

The Morris Diner

Blurred by Saturday's rain, an old sign rests outside the Quintessence Diner as the building is torn down as part of the Albany Medical Center expansion.

The Sign Underneath

I've already written about the BOOKS sign that used to hang on this storefront on Broadway near Hudson Avenue.  But I've always wondered about the older sign that could just be glimpsed beneath the bookstore sign.  Now that the used bookstore has closed, the old sign is revealed.

Healthy Hearts On The Hill

These signs - and smaller ones with arrows - have been appearing around Albany in recent weeks.  This particular sign is just outside the main branch of the Public Library on Washington Avenue.  They're part of a project called Healthy Hearts On The Hill, a program which is meant to promote heart-friendly lifestyles in the West Hill area of the city.  Here's their Facebook page.

Ghost Ship (Sort of)

I've always had a real love for historic markers and can never pass one without stopping to read it.  But it wasn't until last week that I noticed a hidden detail on at least one such sign.  The outline of a ship can be faintly seen beneath the raised yellow letters and blue paint.  No doubt, it's supposed to be a nod to Henry Hudson's Haelve Maen.

WEIRD

A homemade sign in the window of the Van Rensselaer Apartments.  (The building, at the corner of Madison and Delaware Avenue was built in 1901 and was designed by architect Marcus T. Reynolds).

The Diner Sign

The sign above the old Quintessence Diner at New Scotland and Dana Avenues is dark; the beautiful old diner is closed and the property one of several recently acquired by the ever-expanding Albany Medical Ceneter.  While I wasn't a big fan of the diner's most recent incarnation, the building itself is a terrific classic diner and it would be wonderful if it could be moved instead of demolished.

Send Off

A sign on the long-vacant Trailways terminal on Division Street.

My Kind of Sign

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love coffee. So, needless to say, I quite like this vintage sign on one of the drab, cube-like office buildings along Washington Avenue west of the Capitol.

Sign says...

Sometimes, when you look up at the sides of older buildings downtown, you'll see the ghosts of old painted signs painted on the exterior walls. Most are faded, but just legible enough to see what they once touted.

Most of the ones I've come across are for businesses long gone - like Keeler's, once a popular restaurant.

But this one, on the side of a building on Pearl Street near Lodge Street, advertised a still-active business, the Times Union newspaper.