Years ago, before the proliferation of billboards, barns were great highway advertising mediums. One such barn south of Merced has sported a vintage chewing tobacco ad on its roof for years and may be in line for some needed upgrading.
The Dragovich barn on Worden Avenue near Highway 99 was built in 1937 and gained a Mail Pouch Tobacco sign a year later. It's badly faded and barely recognizable now, but there's a move afoot to get the vintage advertising sign restored and the former milking barn's redwood planks repaired.
Steve Gale, sales and marketing manager for APG Solar, recently commissioned Merced artist Deanna Lynn Schmitz to put the company logo on the barn's side; he said they are already getting calls on it thanks to the ad.
Gale also is looking at helping to find national funding to restore the original Mail Pouch Tobacco rooftop logo, believed to be one of about 20,000 across the country painted between 1890 and 1992.
"It's kind of a fun project," Gale said. "They (tobacco signs) are more prevalent back East but there probably are only 1,000 left. It's more folk art."
Victor Dragovich, 84, was just a child in 1938 when three men painted the Mail Pouch Tobacco sign on the barn's roof. He remembers his brother didn't like the sign but he doesn't recall who painted it or how long it took. He said the barn was repainted in 1946 and then again in the 1950s.
Dragovich said the barn has a tin roof, and the tobacco ad was painted over but the design has come through again. He's not sure how much rent the tobacco company paid his father for the ad but thinks it helped pay the taxes over the years.
His wife, Lorraine, said the Grade B dairy barn was in use until 1975, when a new dairy barn was built. The lower part of the original barn has been braced but needs more repairs.
"It's a landmark," Lorraine Dragovich said. "My husband grew up in the house next to the barn and was a little boy when it was painted. I didn't realize there was so much history behind it. Years ago I remember signs along the highway, like the Burma-Shave signs and one for Smith Brothers cough drops at Trinidad Road."
Mrs. Dragovich said a lot of people want them to keep the barn and its logo preserved. She once paid $450 at an auction for a painting of the barn done by a Chowchilla artist.
Schmitz spent 78 hours on the 10-by-20-foot solar logo. She specializes in large, colorful flowers, like sunflowers, and giant suns and would love to paint more large buildings and barns.
"It was a wonderful experience. It was so much fun," Schmitz said. "Truck drivers on Highway 99 would honk at me when I was painting it. It was really upbeat, very cool and an honor to paint the old barn."
Gale said 1970s beautification efforts may have seen many old barns torn down in the name of progress. Now some of the remaining barns have been designated historic landmarks.
The Wheeling, W. Va., tobacco company commissioned about 20,000 barn paintings in 22 states. The accompanying white capital lettering also exhorted viewers to "Treat Yourself to the Best."
Research shows the Dragovich barn is one of seven Mail Pouch Tobacco barns left in California. The others are near King City, Lodi, Gilroy, Paso Robles and San Francisco.
Schmitz will graduate from Merced College next spring with an associate degree in office administration. She also is majoring in art.
Reporter Doane Yawger can be reached at 385-2407 or dyawger@mercedsun-star.com.
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