N.J. sign maker returns to repair Dentzel sign he crafted

Matt BeneduceMcGrath runs his fingertips across the green Smalts glass that acts as the background to the Dentzel Carousel sign he designed and built 11 years ago.

“This is my best piece of work that I’ve ever done,” said the 55-year-old Logansport native who has been in town since late last week to touch up the sign. “This is my favorite.”

BeneduceMcGrath, who has made a living as a sign maker in New Jersey for about three decades, designed and helped build the 12-foot-by-5-foot, 600-pound sign with wooden trim and letters made of urethane.

He remembered the nine months it took him, a mechanical engineer, licensed electricians and a civil engineer to put it all together. The Cass County Dentzel Carousel board hired BeneduceMcGrath to come back and touch it up.

“Weather takes its toll,” he said, as the sign sat inside on wooden horses. “They don’t make paints like they used to.”

Pictures of a younger BeneduceMcGrath sit behind the counter at the community staple. On Monday, a grayer goatee circled his smile as he described the touchups he had to make. It was the first time he has had to touch it up since it was built.

“It’s a lot of fun to come back and remember the turning points of the job,” he said. “It’s fun all over again... You remember the challenges you had.”

BeneduceMcGrath said he recalls the molds to build the arch across the top of the sign were among the most challenging. Details were added, and some were removed, the artist recalled, as he expressed the importance of the three seconds the average mind gives a sign.

“The sign is the voice of the building,” he said. “It sets the mood in any situation.”

The 1975 graduate of Logansport High School credits a lot of his beginning to Mike McManus, a local artist whose work he called “crisp and clean. His work was simply perfect.”

Though BeneduceMcGrath usually makes trips back to Logansport either annually or every other year, it had been three years since he returned this time.

“What makes a town is the people,” he said. “You always come back to the ones you love.”

He said traveling through town, when he was not working on the sign, and seeing businesses open in otherwise abandoned buildings brought a smile to his face.

“It’s good,” he said of the efforts being made at The People’s Winery and The State Theatre. “Any time you see some positive step forward, it’s exciting. I got to see that this time, and it’s a big thrill.”

BeneduceMcGrath said he was welcomed with the assistance of Logansport firefighters, who helped bring the sign down from the exterior wall. He said he loves how the community appreciates the carousel.

“We have something here that is a piece of history for every kid that has ever lived here,” he said. “We have an absolute masterpiece.”

BeneduceMcGrath said he was honored to be chosen to make the needed painting and Smalts glass improvements to the sign. He hope his hands have the opportunity to care for this favorite work of art in another decade.