The historically significant boot-shaped sign atop our building dates to the era of opal glass lettering on advertising signs in the early days of electricity but before neon. The opal glass letters were illuminated from inside the sign. Researchers of Americana believe this is one of the last surviving examples of such a sign in the shape of an object. Our sign was erected in the early 1900s by the Montgomery Shoe Factory — a glorified name for a shoe repair shop — that occupied the property before NewSouth bought it in 2000. The celebrated African American folk artist Bill Traylor is believed to have worked at the Montgomery Shoe Factory.