The Guth Music Ghost Sign

The oldest wall in this register, and the only one that exists twice. Sometime between 1919 and 1925, a sign painter whose name the record hasn’t kept lettered the east wall of the Katt Building at 312 Steele Street: an advertisement for Guth Music and Sonora “clear as a bell” Victrolas.

The building

The Katt Building went up in 1913, built by August Katt and Son, its two-story front divided into two stores — a music store and a garage. By 1915 it was advertising Victrolas, Amberolas, and sewing machines. Charles (C.A.) Guth bought the businesses in 1919, and the wall was painted as his advertisement in the years that followed.

How Algoma lost it

The sign faded the way ghost signs do, and at some point — the record doesn’t say when — the wall was painted over. Mermaid Melody — Protector of the Harbor (2024) stands on that spot today.

The re-creation

In 2025, Yonder re-created the sign on a different wall at 402 3rd Street, three blocks from where the original stood — the full project is here. One sign, two walls: the place that lost it, and the place that carries it now. This entry marks the first; the map’s hollow mark stands where the original was.

What the record needs

A photograph of the original sign at 312 Steele, from any year, in any state of fade. The year it was painted over. And the name of the painter who lettered it, if any ledger or memory holds one. We host photographs permanently, credited to the people who made them — if you have any of this, tell us.

Sources

• Yonder Art Land project records (the 2025 re-creation; the 2025-07-29 dispatch)
• Katt Building history as documented on the Yonder project page (August Katt and Son, 1913; C.A. Guth, 1919)