NORTHAMPTON — After 25 years of sitting atop the Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium sign, two women — well, figures in the shape of women — have a new look.
They’re clad in bright, fresh colors — one in green and purple, the other in orange and red. They both hold trays of treats. One of them has light skin, and the other, dark.
Ben Coggins, owner of the Main Street candy store at 141 Main St., said he’d thought about restoring the sign in recent years. Eventually, Mike Henderson, a local painter who worked on the store’s interior a decade ago, told Coggins he’d bring the carvings — originally done by an artist who specialized in carousel horses, Coggins said — back to life.
“It was such a work of art originally that we just didn’t want to lose that sign,” Coggins said.
It was Henderson’s idea to give the figures different skin colors, Coggins said.
“It’s a more diverse world,” he said. “We’re all headed in the right direction, so we worked to reflect that.”
Coggins said he hopes the sign will stand out, and be well received, in an artistically inclined neighborhood like Northampton. So far, he said, customers have already appreciated the restoration.
“People say, ‘I never knew it was up there,’ or, ‘My god, I can’t believe how different it looks,’” he said.