“Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs...” goes the 1970 song by the Five Man Electric Band. In this case, I’m referring to signs around Norwich, especially some historic signs I’ve had the pleasure to restore since moving back to the city a few years ago.

There was the Norwichtown Green sign and then the 100-year-old sign on the Buckingham Memorial Building.

About a month ago, I got a message from Jason Vincent of the Norwich Community Development Corp. asking if I would restore the Uncas Monument metal sign at the Uncas Burial Ground on Sachem Street.

I had seen the poor condition of the sign some time back and thought I would get to it, but other priorities took over and I forgot about it. I told Mr. Vincent “sure,” and then contacted Patrick McLaughlin at Public Works (They had given me the OK to do the Norwichtown Green sign) and got the OK from him.

Early this month, I began by wire brushing the oxidized metal to get rid of loose flaking. Next was painting the whole sign black (background). After that dried, I applied white paint to the tops of the raised letters with a piece of a small cell sponge and dabbed the paint onto the letters.

This requires a certain amount of pressure to make sure the letters get coated evenly. Of course, that pressure varies and there is usually some “over-dab” that gets white paint on the black background.

I went back the following day to black out all the “over-dab” and paint the frame around the perimeter white and then touch up some letters that weren’t fully coated. I’m happy to report that the sign is now more readable and can tell the story of Uncas, who was chief of the Mohegan Tribe that made Norwich possible by selling 9 square miles of land to the colonists who came up from Saybrook.

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