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I think the "Fireproof" angle was more a response to the many gigantic urban fires of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It wasn't just warehouses advertised as "Fireproof," it was any building made of concrete, steel, and brick -- theatres, ballparks, apartment houses, anything like that. There was a low asbestos-and-steel building behind the theatre here which opened in 1923 as "The Fireproof Garage," and was build shortly after a disastrous fire which had wiped out the entire block.
Meanwhile, so far as Ghost Signs are concerned, do you know the work of Frank Jump? He's a New York-based photographer who's done a lot of documentation of the city's old painted wall signs. His book, "Fading Ads of New York City," is a must for any coffee table.
I know the book (we have it, but many of our books are in storage as we are going to move) - and, yes, he's done a great job. We are a sucker for books that capture / document "old" New York.