Another Ghost Ad

The building at 5110 N Broadway is a treasure trove of Uptown's past.  We posted a couple weeks ago about a "ghost ad" for Atlas Prager beer that can be seen on the building's south wall.  Then a reader pointed out that there's another, barely visible, ghost sign on the north wall of the same building.

Some detective work uncovered that this one is for Seipp's Extra Pale and the slogan above it reads "The Pure Food Beer."  Conrad Seipp's Brewery operated in Chicago (until it was torn down to make way for Michael Reese Hospital) from 1854 through 1932, going out of business just before Prohibition ended, when it could have gone back to brewing ale instead of soft drinks and near-beer.  It received the "100% Pure" designation from the FDA in 1907 ("It Meets Every Requirement Of The Pure Food Law").  So our "ghost ad" is around 100 years old... it must have been painted sometime between 1907 and 1920, when Prohibition became the law of the land and Seipp's Extra Pale was brewed no more.

We just think it's really cool that workers, now long-dead, painted what they thought would be a temporary ad for a product that became illegal just a few years later... and now, a century later, we can still see their handiwork as we pass by.

But wait, there's more!  The building at 5110 Broadway is now the sedate home to the Vietnamese Association of Illinois, but for years it housed the mother of all Uptown dive bars, the late lamented Lakeview Lounge, which closed its smoky doors in 2005.  Based on the beer ghost ads, though, we're thinking there must have been a drinking establishment at that location for many years prior to the Lakeview Lounge.  Anyone know?