15-04-2025
Newly found ‘ghost sign' tells historians about Sioux City's past
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) – History is everywhere in downtown Sioux City, and sometimes all you have to do is look up.
Sioux City was founded in the 1850s, and as the city has grown, many buildings of the past have been maintained throughout the years.
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'The earliest portions of Sioux City are what are today a part of downtown, so all of our downtown area is, to a degree, historic,' said Tom Munson with the Sioux City Public Museum. 'Yes, there has been redevelopment from that from the 70s and 80s and 90s up until today, and yes, a lot of things are gone, but there are some really nice clusters of historic buildings.'
Each building has a story to tell, and so-called 'ghost signs' help historians find out a bit more about that building's past.
'They tell us other stories about what may have gone on in that building,' Munson said. 'They may reflect the original owners, they might reflect products made by that particular company, or they may reflect later generations. I know there are several buildings in downtown that have multiple layers of ghost signs.'
Recently, an old Hamm's Beer advertisement was found just behind some siding at the Red Room Lounge on West 7th Street.
'It was built sometime between 1888 and 1890, and they opened a grocery store on that corner up until the 1920s when a plumbing business moved in,' Munson said. 'By the 1940s all the way up to the early 1960s, it was an ice cream parlor. First time it becomes a bar is in 1962.'
Each year, Historic Preservation Week is held to bring awareness to Sioux City's vast history, and Sioux City Public Museum officials say there's always two types of people that come out each year.
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''I remember this place from when I was younger and I want to learn more about it,' or the person is 'I've never seen this before and I want to learn more about it,'' Munson said. 'So you have the person who lived through an experience with that particular neighborhood or with that particular structure, and then you have the person who is just wanting to know all they can, especially newcomers to Sioux City.'
Historic Preservation Week will be celebrated from May 5 through May 10.
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