We ask: How did this iconic American
address plaque style come about?
Our friends at Crestview Doors have introduced a new product — vintage style Ranchero address plaques and number kits. Golly, during my Wonderbread years growing up in Southern California — in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista — these rustic address plaques were everywhere on the houses all around me. Crestview sent me a complete write-up detailing how they developed this new product — it’s interesting — and they also would love to hear from Retro Renovation readers to see if anyone really knows the genesis of this classic design, real Americana. Read on –>
David Erwin, co-owner of Crestview writes:
Maybe you noticed the Ranchero Number Plate on the Crestview Doors web site. Maybe you even wondered where we get them. Well, we make them, and this is the story (and the mystery) behind the product.
When we started Crestview Doors, we quickly found that the best research is done by hitting the streets. The door styles we sought to revive were barely represented in architectural literature or even mainstream magazines of the time. If we wanted to catalog real home styles from the mid-century, we needed to get out of the library and go look for original doors.
So we drove through mid-century neighborhoods photographing time-capsule entries across America. While we were doing that, we noticed these broken-board address plates everywhere. It’s an evocative and nostalgic vernacular detail that reflects the appeal of ranch living that permeated the middle-class architecture of the time. That’s our thing, so we decided to make it into a product.
First we cataloged all the style variations:
fig. 1 8 inch board. Vertical ends. Random size, angle, depth of points. 6 points on left, 7 on right. Hung over porch
fig. 2 6 inch board. Angled ends. Random, curved points. 4 points on both ends. Angle-mounted on wall
fig. 3 6 inch board. Reverse angled ends. Deep evenly spaced points. 5 points on both ends. Wall-hung with family name.
Then we settled on one design we thought would be versatile and represent the spirit of all the variations we had seen. It’s the 1702. Gosh it’s nice.
The angle is just right for hanging or mounting. The 5 points are deep without being jagged. The spacing is even but not overly mechanical.
We set out to decode the geometry behind the 1702 for our digital cutting tool. Getting the angle and depth of the points was easy, but not the spacing of the notches. We eventually discovered that a vanishing point did the trick.
Red lines show the angle of the points and notches. We chose to make the notches start at the depth of the longest point.
Blue lines show equal spacing between the points and notches. It’s kinda dull, and the first and last points are thinner than the middle three.
Drawing the blue lines down to a vanishing point evens out the width of the points and gives them a lively feel similar to the 1702 plate.
There are additional details that clip the points slightly so they won’t chip or fray, and round the hollow of the notches for painting, but that’s the basic design we went to production with.
So now the mystery: Why was everyone cutting notches in boards for house numbers and signs in the 50’s? Seriously, this is where we need your help.
Photo from westernclippings.com
Here are a few theories we have.
- The design referenced a time when actual broken pieces of wood were used for signs.
- Carpenters used leftover scrap to make these when the house was finished.
- These were available at the local hardware store.
- And our favorite: It was a common Jr. High shop project in the fifties. Jigsaw 101.
Does any of this ring a bell? We would love to hear your theories or stories.
Cheers!
P.S. It makes great house warming gift!
Thank you, David. I love the detail in your write-up — and such attention to detail sure shows in all your products, too.
I made a polldaddy poll, but if you have another theory
– or better yet, definitive information — let’s hear it!
My parent’s 1926 home has one of these signs. As there was a remodel done to the interior during the 1950′s or early 60′s, it might have been added then (the rest of the neighborhood has a different style). Have to get one of these for our ranch. Love them!
Hi Pam,
It may have been a design from one of those home woodworking magazines from the period. It was quite common back then for the man of the house to have a wood shop in the basement or garage where he built magazine racks, nick nack wall displays,napkin holders and various other home projects, my grandfather had one in his basement. I still have two corner tea cup display racks that he made for me.
John
Google “rustic camp signage” and select “Images” and you will see many examples of signs in this basic style and variations thereof. Camps and cottages used this style to evoke the sense that the sign was fabricated from a hunk of bark or natural unmilled piece of wood — a more “rustic” appearance which blended with the natural surroundings. Auto camps, summer cottages, Chautauquas and travel to the National Park system which were popular in the early decades of the 20th c. perhaps contributed to this jagged signage style becoming popular and marketed to the masses. Just a hunch.
To me, they always looked like old wooden roof shingles – hence the term “hanging up your shingle” I guess. It’s kind of evocative of the old west, along with split rail fences and wagon wheel yard decor that one often finds on mid century “ranches”
I love that style of address plate. Super cute! I have always thought along the same line that Diane talks about above – lake cottage and Summer cottage and heck, even rustic cattle ranches. The feeling that the house was created right out of the land that it sits on. So, I vote “other”.
I agree with the rustic, rancho, wagon wheel decor theory.
My dad went to trade school and learned woodworking. It was always a big hobby for him as well as being useful for making things around the house. We had a cottage on a lake growing up and he made address signs like that for our cottage. I remember it fondly.
I haven’t seen them around here in many years, but I DID see them in every campground we went to years ago. It seemed to be popular to hang one up around your trailer or motorhome or even near your tent. To me it is a vacation thing, to put it on a summer home or cabin, vacation camp or when travelling, with a name and state. It brings camping and fun to mind for me. Phil says it was a common item for boys to make in woodshop in school in the fifties and sixties, not too difficult and by all means useful.
Speaking of these street number signs, why can’t someone make decent numbers any more? They are all slanted or curvy, or with funny bottoms and ends, and the ones are awful. They just don’t look nice! I just want some simple plain block numbers with nice twos and threes and rounded eights, not some fancy scripty things that are just ugly to me. Just a pet peeve of mine. I have been here in this house for over eight years now and still haven’t put my street number up on the house, because I can’t find anything that I like!
Janet, how does the pizza delivery man find you?
Well, we don’t get pizza delivered, but there is a number on the mailbox. Unfortunately, 132 is across the street, 136 is the next house up from them, and we are 139 so that really gets the FEDX and UPS guys confused!
Janet, probably a dumb question, but have you looked at Home Depot? I found numbers for our ranch house there. I like simple, plain, and to the point numbers myself. lol
You are probably violating the law. Most building codes require the address in (at least) 4-in high numerals, visible from the street. Around here (Denver/Boulder/Aurora), if you don’t have the address visible, you will be given a violation warning, and then, if you don’t comply, a ticket. I don’t think the cities care if the pizza guy can find you, but they do care that the fire department or the police can!
I also got my sleek, non swirly numbers at Home Depot.
I’m thinking it was more in with the western/ranchero style as well. To me it looks like a broken piece of fence/wood hung up with numbers on it. Kind of like today, when we beat up our furniture to make it look “rustic”, or make paint look “chippy”. I think it was the style, and if you didn’t have a piece of broken wood lying around you had to cut it to look so.
I have no theories like all of the good posters above me, but when I was walking in my neighborhood this morning I noticed, for the first time, a battered old address plate exactly like these hanging from a sidewalk lamp post. One of the things I love about this blog is how it causes me to see things I’d never noticed before, so thank you Pam!!
Also, of course I took a trip over to Crestview Doors and they are now making wood awnings. Which is making me supremely happy.
Any chance it was part of the Daniel Boone/Real McCoys popularity?
I was just telling my husband that I wanted one of these for our 1953 ranch! I agree on the Western/Ranchero style listed by others readers.
I’d love to know more about these, too. No one has mentioned this, but the wood and numbers remind me of a mailbox topper we had at our house when I was a kid. It had the same scalloped ends and it was a flat black color. It was about a foot long and our long last name barely fit on it. The letters were a hammered aluminum style, and as one of the earlier commenters here said, I wish a more mid century style of both numbers and letters were available.
Uncle Atom, I have the exact mailbox topper that you are talking about in your post, and I absoutely love it. We were able to find the hammered aluminum numbers and letters, so ours is adorned as it would have been back in the mid 50′s. It’s a double bar, so the jagged bar sits on top of another piece of wood that has a rounded edge. Address on the top bar and name on the one beneath it. I wish I could attach a picture! There’s only one other mailbox in our neighborhood that still has it attached. I have the original mail order sheet, and you could get a mailbox topper, a large sign for your yard, and a couple other options. The elementary school down the street has the large sign still in place. It is wonderful!
My father-in-law had one of these hanging from his sidewalk lamp post when I met my husband years ago. I know he made it, maybe from a kit, because he made the lamp post, light socket and glass and all, back in the day when alot of handy homeowners made alot of the stuff around the house; he was the king of tinkerers. When the lamp post finally fell over, that was the end of it. His house was built in 1955.
My theory was always that it was a nod to the big Western trend (look how big Western movies were in the 1950s), but I have no data with which to support my claim
I think it was popular because it had a little more style than a rectangle. Scalloped edges might have been too sissy.
Probably easy to make and it didn’t have to be perfect to look good, so it became popular on the range and on the ranch in the ‘burbs.
I am amazed that the address on the ranch house I grew up in was on a sign like this–and still is–and I’d never once given it a thought. In fact, I had to ask my kids, “Did Grandma’s house have this kind of address sign?” They both looked at me like I was crazy while confirming that it did.
This picture is from a recent rental listing; the people who bought it from my parents 10 years ago have kept it as a rental. It’s kind of sad to see it in the less-than-perfect condition my parents kept it in, but it’s nice to know that no one has yet torn out the yellow or green bathroom.
You can kind of see the white zig-zag address board below the porch light and right above the original Nutone intercom.
Does anyone else have a house-wide intercom system? My parents had the radio playing softly throughout the house every day while I was growing up.
http://f.cl.ly/items/0j0U0p3b2v0F1w3J051h/house.jpg
Like you, we had one as kids and it was great! We had a Nutone AM/FM, intercom system. Very cool back then and even now, IMO.
It was considered cool to have a central intercom system made by Nutone in the ’60s & ’70s. They ended up being used seldom.
As late as the mid 1970s, Mr. Fuerst’s industrial arts class students at Marquette Middle School in Madison, Wis., were cranking these out, along with an accompanying bracket made during the metalworking portion of the class. I know my older brother made one (which was never hung at our house) but I don’t think I did. There were two options for edges — either jagged edges or smooth S-shaped edges. It wasn’t uncommon to see them here and there in the neighborhood.
I went to their site to order one of these and at $33 it seemed like a pretty fair price. But when I went to checkout it was $25 for shipping which seemed overly extreme. Anyone know where you can get these without getting charged so much for shipping?
My grandparents have a sign like this. I think they’re great!
I have to agree with everybody who is saying it was a nod to the “old times.” Americana nostalgia was big in the 50s (probably bigger than the atomic look we associate it with now.) It reminds me, too, of those black eagles you always see hanging above garages. I’m not sure where that came from either, but I’m certain it was another nod to the past.
Nice but when I went to buy one the kit is $33 and the only shipping option available is $25.
I vote for the broken fence/western ranch style for the reason. But, maybe there were industrial arts boys back then making them and selling them like the current dudes who keep coming around painting the addresses on the curb for money.
I like my vintage script numbers..my husband nearly threw them away when we had the house painted..I almost choked him. Instead, I painted them black (were brass) and then he thought they were cool.
The question remains: Do you install the plaques horizontally, or on an upward slant. These were indeed used everywhere, all over the country. I seem to recall most of them being slanted. And to think: We removed them and replaced them with fancier plaques. (That seems to be the new American way.)
I think the custom started when homebuilders finished a home and wanted to put an exclamation point on it. They were probably proud of what they had built, took a piece of wood that was left over, and made the plaque. Then it became a custom. (Back then, no one would have thought of simply slapping address numbers on the house.) I’m sure their process was not as elaborate or detailed as yours. They probably just cut the wood, put the numbers on, and hung it. I’ll bet the “points” and “notches” were not evenly spaced at all.
I just built one of these signs for my house using the drawings above, a scrap of wood, a handsaw and some inexpensive brass numbers from Home Depot. It looks great on the big oak tree at the foot of our driveway and adds a little arts-and-craftsy charm to our mid-century ranch.
Here’s a pick of my handywork.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/178927_10151148092290784_683785546_n.jpg
I have one of these on my 1952 home. I’m sure it’s been there since the house was built. I love it.
We bought some Neutraface numbers for our house a couple of years ago. I had been wanting some of those for quite a while and was very excited when I installed them on the house. Now I feel I made a mistake and wish I had made one of these signs instead. They have been growing on me lately and seeing this leaves me thinking about what could have been. Maybe I can come up with something to put out by the street and put one out there….
Our house is more midcentury modest so the Neutraface numbers are a little out of place but I have thought they look okay. One of these classic signs would fit so much better.
I don’t even find the ranchero number plaque on their website anymore. I tried searching on the Crestview site and nothing comes up.
I was looking for it yesterday, too, and noticed it was gone. I will reach out and ask them the status…