Another old picture from a stray wander around Schenectady, already 10 years ago. On an old concrete wall underneath the railroad tracks, along the parking lot at Broadway and Liberty, the remnants of some old painted signs were tucked under a tangle of vines, and the only bit that could be made out was the sign-painter’s mark, the logo of Ran-Zee Signs. Unfortunately, we’ve never found much about this company.
An obituary from 2004 says that Michael DeMartino was the owner and operator of Ran-Zee Signs on Albany Street from 1959-1997. A graduate of Nott Terrace High School, he attended Republic School of Sign Painting in New York City, and was employed for several years at ALCO where he used his skill applying gold leaf lettering to the locomotive engines. He was also a free lance artist.
We don’t know where else his mark may be found around Schenectady or the surrounding cities . . . I’m hoping there are still plenty of his little marks to be found. If you want to see this one, though, we’d recommend searching for it in the winter, because this was the state of the vines in 2011:
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