Subject: Re: Historic Paint colors for commercial buildings From: Brian Bigler <usemeum@mhtc.net> Message-ID: <df27f88c-d37f-2cb7-c3a4-6f69b0399ee3@mhtc.net> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2018 17:20:39 -0500
You are correct in that many buildings were painted with white lead
paint - especially if you are talking about buildings of the 1860s.
After that commercial buildings were often of two or more colors.
Window sashes or mullions / muntins (dividers that held the glass in
place ) were often painted black as it was believed that it made the
windows look bigger and made these dividers invisible when viewed from a
distance. A dark green with lamp black added was also used. This same
color was used for window shutters as well,
Many old hardware and pharmacy catalogues have paint sample pages that
consist of small squares of heavy paper painted with color choices that
could be ordered. There are some of these catalogues in the archives of
the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society that date to as early as 1890.
These colors were pretty basic: dark reads (like the barn color), dark
green, Indian orange / red, gray white and black,
Industrial buildings seem to take on the colors of what they were
selling - example the 1880s hardware store in Mount Horeb has two shades
of reds, a terracotta color and black sashes and an implement store had
the colors you would find on horse drawn wagons and other wooden farm
equipment- deep greens, oranges, shades of yellows, etc.
Good luck with your project - sounds interesting,
Brian J. Bigler - Mount Horeb
Information based on several research projects of 19th century
commercial buildings
On 8/29/2018 6:36 PM, Katie Kirby wrote:
> 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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