“Dragovich Barn: Sign on a Hot Tin Roof“
by Bill Vint – Summer 2014 edition of the ‘Mail Pouch Barnstormers’ newsletter
Victor Dragovich was 10 years old in 1938 when three men came to visit his father, and asked about painting a Mail Pouch Tobacco advertising message on the family’s year-old dairy barn just south of Merced, California.
At the time, Victor’s wife Lorraine said, a little extra income to help pay the taxes was welcome, so the men painted the traditional “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco, Treat Yourself to the Best” on the barn’s tin roof, and a second sign on one end of the barn.
Fast forward to 2012: Victor and Lorraine Dragovich, now in their mid-80s, had just learned a highway improvement project was now going to re-route Highway 99, the famous Golden State Highway that passed alongside their property. They were not going to see their aging barn, with its rusted roof and failing siding, destroyed. So they decided to x it up. After all, the frame – built by Mennonite builders back in the ‘30s – was as solid at the day it was built.
Then along came Steve Gale, who works for APG Solar. He asked about allowing his company to paint their logo on the end panel facing Highway 99, where hundreds of thousands of cars would see it every year. He understood the significance of the Mail Pouch advertising concept. But in addition to serving APG’s interests, Gale and APG Solar CEO Brent Jerner – a life-long resident of Merced, realized the “Mail Pouch barn” was an historic landmark.
It wasn’t long before APG Solar found the Mail Pouch Barnstormers, and the Barnstormers began discussions that led to a $1,000 Barnstormers’ restoration grant that helped restore the historic sign on the Dragovich barn’s roof. The project was completed in May 2014.
The Dragovich barn is a rare example of a Mail Pouch barn with signage painted on the roof. It appears to be a concept unique to California dairy barns, with their low profiles and metal roofs, and close proximity to busy highways. But Barnstormers’ research also found only one other similar barn in California – near San Luis Obispo – and that barn’s roof was replaced within the past few years, eliminating the Mail Pouch sign.
The Dragovich barn sign also “disappeared” more than once, but kept coming back.
“The painters came back and repainted the sign a couple of times,” Victor said, “but the roof got kinda rusty and faded out, so my dad (Mike) painted over the whole roof. But the paint faded and the sign came back. People gave me hell for painting over it. ‘Treat yourself to the best’ used to be there, but you can’t see it any more.”
APG Solar retained a local artist, Deanna Schmitz, to paint their logo on the end panel, facing Highway 99. It covered a badly-deteriorated Mail Pouch sign that also fell victim to repairs of the siding. But it was the Mail Pouch sign on the roof that was uniquely important, so APG retained Schmitz again to restore that sign.
“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.”
The project also thrilled the Dragoviches and their neighbors, Willie Bylsma and his son Wes, who operate Double B Dairy.
“We want to thank everyone connected with this project,” Lorraine said, breaking into tears. “I love old things; I’m old myself. It’s very emotional to have the sign done.”
Lorraine said when she and Victor got married in 1946, they were milking a dozen cows. After they installed milking machines, their herd grew to 150 cows, milked in shifts. In 1990, they sold their cows the Bylsmas, who considered changing the name of their business to “Mail Pouch Dairy.”
“When people asked where our dairy was located, we’d ask if they know where the barn with the Mail Pouch sign is…and we’d tell them we’re right next door,” Willie Bylsma grinned. “A lot of older guys know what it meant, but we decided it would be too much trouble to explain otherwise, so we decided to stay with Double B, which is the name we’ve had for past several years.”
The Dragovich barn is no longer in use except for storage, and what’s in store in its future is unknown. The Dragoviches want the barn and its sign to be preserved, and they hinted it would be nice to eventually sell to the Bylsma family, which already has purchased most of the surrounding farm land.
For now, the barn and sign are safely in Victor and Lorraine Dragovich’s hands. “As long as I’m around, the sign will be, too,” Victor said.
If they eventually sell to the Bylsma family, the Bylsmas also have a fondness for the California landmark.
“It’s been on there for as long as I can remember,” Willie Bylsma said. “It’s nice to have the sign back.”
For more on this barn, see MPB 05-24-01.
