Staff Writer
The Old Iron Inn has added an antique bed and breakfast sign to the front garden situated along the walkway from the driveway to the front of the Caribou business located on High Street. This isn’t just a new sign, in fact it’s a rather old sign and carries with it a rather interesting story.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Kevin and Kate McCartney, owners of the Old Iron Inn Bed and Breakfast on High Street in Caribou, have recently added an old new sign to advertise their business.
Kate and Kevin McCartney, proprietors of the Old Iron Inn Bed and Breakfast, found this old/new sign during a visit to the Cotswold’s region of England, five years ago.
Following a long day of driving on the left side of the road, the McCartneys came upon an antique fair that was just closing down for the evening. The Caribou couple sent inside to find most of the dealers already packing up their wares but when they went outside again, they met a man preparing to strap a large metal sign to the top of a small car.
The sign was made of wrought iron, measuring about two-and-a-half feet by three feet and was attached to a 12-foot metal pole. McCartney was immediately interested in the design of the sign and inquired if he could take some photographs, with the intention of finding someone in Maine who could make a duplicate to use at the local business.
The dealer knew little about the history of the sign, but had obtained the item in Wales. Perhaps not interested in not having to haul the large and heavy sign home again, he offered to sell it. Kevin and Kate McCartney purchased the sign, hoping they could figure out a way to get it back to Maine.
The first step after purchasing the sign was to remove the 12-foot pole. After asking around the area , a hacksaw was borrowed and the metal post sawed off. The remaining sign was still large enough to completely fill the back of their small rental car.
The McCartneys spent much of the next morning looking for a carpenter to construct a crate for the sign. The Cotswolds are a rural region of England with few obvious shops. Asking for directions kept bringing them to a pet store, which did not seem to make sense, so they continuing looking. As it turned out the pet store indeed also contained a small carpenter’s shop. The owner had a business on the side building coffins for deceased but loved animals.
While the pet shop owner built a crate for the sign, Kate and Kevin were able to visit the storage facility for the British Museum, the English equivalent of the Smithsonian Institute, in nearby Wroughton. But that’s a another story for another time. After much talking a waving of arms, the proprietors were able to manhandle the crate containing the old/new sign onto the airplane and through customs, finally reaching northern Maine.
The cherished sign spent five years behind a piece of furniture in the dining room at the Old Iron Inn, later deigned to the space underneath the Jeepster in the garage. Kate McCartney recently asked if something could be done with the sign as an anniversary present. A new post was welded onto the sign. Jim Berry, having considerable experience erecting such posts for the Maine Solar System Model, assisted in digging a hole and pouring the foundation for the post.
The old/new sign, after a lengthy flight and an even lengthier time of out of sight but not out of mind, has now been erected next to an antique coffee grinder in a front garden at the Old Iron Inn Bed and Breakfast.
Other outside editions to the already wonderfully groomed yard at the business will be obvious next spring when the recently planted 300 tulip, daffodil and crocus bulbs erupt in color. The gardens at the High Street business will be part of the garden tours scheduled for next year’s Caribou Sesquicentennial Celebration.
