I love finding great typography on buildings. The older, the better. Northampton in particular has a lot of this — look around you downtown and you’ll see examples everywhere. There are many faded signs on buildings all around town, including right across from my own workplace. I’ll take some more pictures some time and post them up.
This particular example is right next to Thornes. I’m pretty sure there used to be a sign over it, since I only just recently noticed this. Love the lettering and the details.
Hand-painted advertising in general is a fascinating, dying art. If you’re interested in learning about it, check out Ghost Signs: The Dying Art of Hand-Painted Advertisements.