History

founded his sign business in 1936 in Galveston with the purchase of a sign shop from T.G. Cordui (who himself had trained in France under the tutelage of the famous artist, Toulouse LeTrec) and an initial investment of $200.00. Jules was painting weekly marquee sign copy & poster pictorials for local movie theaters every Tuesday night, contracting with national advertisers to paint their large ads on old brick walls, and producing smaller painted signs by hand from his sign shop located on the 2nd floor at the NW corner of 22nd and Mechanic.

In 1942, Jules Lauve purchased an old tobacco warehouse near the Wharves at 2210 Strand, converted years earlier from housing cotton. The building on this site earlier hosted the city’s “Hay, Grain & Feed Store” for many years in the 1800s and was originally built in the late 1700s as a three-story building (with offices on the 2nd & 3rd floors.). The top two floors of the building were destroyed in the 1900 Storm, leaving a rare one story building in the heart of The Strand. Jules purchased an additional warehouse next door at 2214 – 18 Strand in the late 1960s. Today, the building is named the Jules Lauve Building. He operated his sign & billboard company (Jules Lauve, Jr., Inc.) from that site for more than 50 years, serving Galveston County and beyond along with his loving wife and children who worked beside him. Jules was regionally and state renowned through the 1940s for his own unique, original neon designs and metal creations, such as the four-cornered-palm-tree dance floor in the Balinese Room on 23rd & Seawall Boulevard and the Coca-Cola neon sign over the old Star Drug Store on Tremont Street (the oldest Coca-Cola sign in Texas).

Before his passing in 1998 and subsequent sale of the billboard company, Jules Lauve’s plant was recognized as the Oldest Outdoor Advertising Company in Texas.