Côte St. Luc prepares to auction off hundreds of old street signs

BY MARTIN C. BARRY

Prior to replacing more than 1,000 of the City of Côte St. Luc's aging street signs, municipal officials are making plans for a special sale or auction, at which members of the public will be able to purchase the old street signs. "We're going to be spending about $300,000 on replacing every street sign in Côte St. Luc," Councillor Mike Cohen, who is responsible for toponymy on city council, told The Chronicle.

He said Côte St. Luc hopes to have the new signs installed starting this summer and into the fall. A template of the new model is to be unveiled this Sunday during a ceremony for the dedication of Irving Layton Avenue.

Because many of the old signs were installed during different periods of time, they're also inconsistent in their design. As a result, there are as many as 10 different street sign models all over Côte St. Luc.

Some of them haven't been replaced in about 50 or 60 years. Cohen estimates some of the signs could be as much as a century old. He said the idea of selling the old signs came up during council discussions on the model for a new street sign. "The question came up during one of my toponymy committee meetings as to what to do with the old street signs," he said. "Steven Erdelyi, who is my fellow councillor, and I, sort of shared the vision that we can have an auction." Cohen said the sort of interest such an event is likely to generate can best be compared to the sale of artifacts that took place when the old Montreal Forum closed.

The Forum's owners sold the building's seats, many of which ended up in private homes. Cohen, who grew up on Wentworth Avenue, said he personally might be interested in obtaining his street's old sign. However, all the details of how the auction would take place have yet to be finalized. Another option would be to hold a silent auction. "We will determine where the proceeds will go," he said. "We haven't gone that far yet, but I think it's something unprecedented, and I think there will be all kinds of people who will come forward. People who grew up in Côte St. Luc, who haven't been there for a long time, who are feeling nostalgic, they might want to buy it as a present for their parents. I can see certain streets leading to bidding wars."

Cohen estimates that the auction could include more than 1,000 old signs. He predicts the most popular will be the basic white ones with black lettering. Côte St. Luc also has a small number of electrically illuminated signs, such as the one that stands at the corner of Smart Avenue and Côte St. Luc Road. Because of the added complexity, he was uncertain whether those would be included in the auction.