SitemapOver the course of its 105-year history, Trinkle Signs and Display has done work for some of the biggest businesses to come out of the Youngstown area.
“We did Arby’s signage nationwide from this little shop. That was probably the most fun because we were shipping stuff all over the country every day,” says owner Bob Page. “Strouss’ department store, we were kind of like a division of that store because we did so much work for them.”
That history will come to an end July 4, Page says, as he closes the shop, 24 Fifth Ave., on his birthday.
“It’s bittersweet. [I’ve been] here a long time [and] worked with my father and I’m kind of sad but happy [to be] doing something else,” Page says. “I’m going to do a little work out of the house; things that are easy and don’t require a bunch of space and my wife and I have gotten into restoring an old lot building and we’re about to start restoring a second one. That’s going to be my part-time retirement job.”
The store was founded in 1915 by Earl Trinkle. Page’s father, Ward Page, joined in the late 1950s and the father and son worked alongside each other for many years.
“He and a partner [Barney Carnes] bought the company. About that time, I’m in high school, [so I was here] helping out and started going to YSU,” Page says. “[I walked] up and down the hill every day and my dad’s partner was the artist, he was getting older, so someone was going to have to take over, so I started working to perfect that skill.”
Among his teachers was Carnes, who started at Trinkle Signs in the 1930s, did sign work not only for Youngstown businesses but lettered buildings and water towers. He also had a small company in southern Ohio consisting of a panel truck that had his equipment, his ladders, brushes, paint and a dark room. He would paint barns for Coca-Cola similar to the work commissioned by Mail Pouch Tobacco.
“He’d paint a barn, take a picture of it, develop the picture in the truck, stick it in the mail to Coca-Cola,” Page says. “When they got it and saw everything done correctly, then they’d put a check in the mail [for him.]”
The skills needed to make signs – not just for businesses, but political campaigns, local institutions like the Youngstown Symphony or YMCA and development groups like Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. – has changed since Page joined the company.
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