According to the excellent Savannah Agenda, Luis Posada, who owns the Uneeda Biscuit mural at the corner of Price Street and East Perry Street, is hoping to save it with selective restoration. He will appeal to the Historic Sites and Monuments Commission to stabilize it without making it look new. Here’s hoping.

The mural, which adorns the side of a circa 1854 block of row houses, proclaims: “Everybody Knows Uneeda Biscuit”. The other text indicates that they cost 5 cents and were sold “In Packages”, a big improvement over the barrel crackers found in general stores that were apt to quickly go stale.The two faded boxes at bottom right and left displayed the National Biscuit Company logo. They were once red but have now taken a pinkish tone. My best guess for the date of the mural would be circa 1900-1910.

According to the Society for Commercial Archaeology, the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) spent $7 million from 1898-1908 to put Uneeda Biscuits on everyone’s mind and these murals became ubiquitous. This was unheard of at the time and was even more wide-ranging than Coca-Cola’s iconic mural campaign. At one point, it’s estimated that 30 million people a day saw one of these murals. Like other icons of their age, they are largely endangered today.

Savannah National Historic Landmark District, National Register of Historic Places