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West End Ghost Sign Restored in Boston, Holt & Bugbee

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A ghost sign advertising Holt & Bugbee lumber products has reemerged on a brick wall in Boston’s West End, six stories up and barely visible for decades across a narrow alleyway. The mural, painted long ago directly onto the brick, had faded nearly out of view until preservation advocates and the lumber company itself teamed up to bring it back. Fully restored now, the sign once again promotes the same Massachusetts company that put it there generations ago.

In June, the West End Museum installed a permanent plaque at the site crediting Holt & Bugbee Co., WMS Brothers, West End Productions, and the museum itself for completing the restoration, according to the West End Museum. The plaque formally links the neighborhood’s commercial past with its modern residential identity.