WHIMSICAL GARDEN SIGNS

As you look at the photographs on the website of our Railway Gardens, you will note that all the buildings and gardens are named. The naming of sites started when Stephen and Cheryl found it a convenient way to let one another know where they would be working (or relaxing) on the property. From this grew the idea of sign posts to help guests navigate the property.

An artist in Illinois painted these Burma Shave signs for our property. According to The National Museum of American History, “In the early years of motoring, the Burma-Vita Company found a novel way to advertise its brushless shaving cream. Burma-Shave advertising signs, with their humorous, serial jingles, were spaced far apart on the roadside and made sense only to someone traveling at 35 miles per hour. From the 1920s to the 1960s, motorists had fun piecing the rhymes together, one phrase at a time, and reaching the wry, witty punch line.”