RE: Historic Paint colors for commercial buildings

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JAMES R DRAEGER (jim.draeger@wisconsinhistory.org)
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 19:52:41 +0000



From: JAMES R DRAEGER <jim.draeger@wisconsinhistory.org>
Subject: RE: Historic Paint colors for commercial buildings
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2018 19:52:41 +0000
Message-id: <DM5PR06MB348127085DD124FF0CC4CEDF950F0@DM5PR06MB3481.namprd06.prod.outlook.com>

Paint was quite commonplace by the 1860s or so and pigmented as well, so I am not sure that you will find a “common” color. I would expect that any store would have been painted rather than whitewash to create a more hygienic and easily cleaned surface. White lead paint was used widely. The cheapest paint color was red, which was pigmented with inexpensive iron oxide. That is why so many barns were painted red. Not sure if that is helpful or not.

Jim

Jim Draeger State Historic Preservation Officer

Wisconsin Historical Society 816 State St Madison WI 53706 608-264-6464(o) Email: jim.draeger@wisconsinhistory.org<mailto:jim.draeger@wisconsinhistory.org>

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From: localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu [mailto:localhistory-request@listserve.uwec.edu] On Behalf Of Katie Kirby Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 6:36 PM To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu Subject: Historic Paint colors for commercial buildings

We've got a small building we are turning into a country/general store exhibit and facing some challenges when deciding on paint colors. We would like to represent what general stores looked and felt like in the Northwoods at the turn of the century.

If I'm assuming correctly, most rural commercial buildings were white (white lead, whitewash?), but what about trim or accents? In this photo you can see the trim is a different color but as it is a black and white photo, it's hard to tell what it would have been.

Does anyone have experience with this and could tell us what the most common paint colors for commercial general stores in a logging town were? My internet research has not been very fruitful at all. Thank you!

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