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Effort underway to "Raise the Globe" in Downtown Jonesboro

Vince Pearcy

The Downtown Jonesboro Association, the West End Neighborhood Association, and Arkansas State University’ Heritage Studies Ph.D. program are working to restore an art sign in downtown Jonesboro.  The project would be to restore the Globe Drug Store advertising sign at 300 South Main Street.  Dr. Gregory Hansen is professor of English and Folklore at Arkansas State University.  He says the sign was originally painted in 1920 and was restored over 15 years ago but it has since faded and parts have been over.  He says the restoration will help resurrect the sign to what it used to be.  Faded historical signs, like the Globe’s sign, are called ghost signs.

Dr. Hansen says ghosts signs have been documented all over Arkansas, and he says these kinds of signs are important to preservation efforts in historic districts, such as downtown Jonesboro.

“If you have a sign like this on your building, it is a sign of important historic value,” says Hansen.  “Most historic preservationists would advise not to restore it if you can see it.  If it comes to the point that it is so faded away then someone needs to come in and restore the sign to how it was before.  That is what we want to do here.”

The effort is trying to raise $5,000 for the restoration of this piece.  If you are interested, you can go to YouCaring.com to help.   

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.