NEW JERSEY STATE OF MIND

A simple brick wall in the state’s — maybe the country’s — most desperate city.

Corner of Broadway and Jefferson, Camden.

One side of the wall exhorts you to “Drink Coca-Cola … Sold Everywhere 5¢.”

The other side advertises “Croker’s Tammany House” and “Poth’s Extra Beer.”

In the early 1900s, Poth’s Camden Beer made the riverfront city famous the way Schlitz made Milwaukee famous.

Croker’s Tammany House, which opened in 1903, was a popular neighborhood tavern for a then-vital, flourishing Camden.

The Tammany House closed in the 1930s, but the fabulous faded ad lives on.

The ads are called ghost signs — striking, spectral reminders of the infancy of American advertising, pitching products fundamental (shoes, clothing, furniture) and frivolous (potions “guaranteed” to cure any ailment).

They were painted by men called “wall dogs,” who worked not with laptops and computer graphics but a brush and a bucket of paint.

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The signs are a vivid short course on the state’s rich commercial history, a glimpse into a golden age when Bamberger’s was the toast of Newark, when Paterson and Van Dyk were synonymous, when Camden Pilsner was the king of beers.

From Newark to Camden, Weehawken to Atlantic City, ghost signs — shadowy, flickering presences — remain.

They’ve outlasted wars, depressions, recessions, presidencies, celeb burnouts and long-gone fads and trends.

These ghosts cling to life on buildings across the state and nation.

They’re easy enough to spot if you take the time.

Just look up.

Peter Genovese: (973) 392-1765 or pgenovese@starledger.com. Twitter: @NJ_Munchmobile and @petegenovese.