I didn't actually know the meaning of the phrase "Charge of Quarters" when I found this sign, but I loved the look of it, and find the phrase quite an evocative one, making me imagine a toll booth with a 25 cent passage fee, or someone in charge of the sleeping quarters in a rooming house, or who knows what all. What I've learned is that "Charge of Quarters" is a military term, referring to a person enlisted to guard the front entrance to a barracks and handle administrative matters in a unit, especially after duty hours. So this sign would surely once have been hung just outside the Charge of Quarters' office, perhaps overhead in a hallway as it is double-sided, so that it could be read approaching from either direction. I like signs that that lend themselves to making meaning in different contexts, and so might hang this one near the washer and dryer, whether coin-op or no, or it would certainly be a perfect one to hang near the welcome desk at an inn, or in an accountant's office, or in the communal kitchen above the cup collecting $ toward coffee. Or wherever!
20" x 3 7/8" x 1/2". Very good condition, I might guess 1940s or so, black and creamy white paint on wood, with holes at either end for mounting.
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