April 2015 – RoadArch.com companion

Sunday was devoted to Orange County and some L.A. area stops. I got the dogs to the fantastic beach in Huntington Beach first thing for legal off-leash romping. I don’t mind getting up at 5:30am on the weekend for the ones I love. Maybe just a little. The coastal fog was still lingering in the morning as evidenced by this sign in Costa Mesa. This sign has mysterious origins since it appeared in the parking lot sometime after 2011. There is no “Midway Market” here — just an assortment of businesses like the Waffleholic Cafe which was awfully tempting. The other side of the sign is flat with painted letters rather than the raised, applied type like those on the side shown here. There are holes on each letter where the neon would have been:

Just down the block at New York Hardware is this sign strapped to a fence. Another super oldie with opal glass letters. Notice how the metal was perforated with little strips to connect those internal bits (the P, A, R, D) to the panel. Google Street View shows the sign has been there since at least 2008. And the company’s website shows at least two other neon hardware signs inside — as well as a nifty sputnik light fixture:
http://www.nyhardware.com/

I’m waiting to hear back from the owner about his collection and what he knows about this sign. I’ll update this description if I find out anything:

Back to Huntington Beach where it hadn’t gotten any sunnier yet. I’m a fan of this building even though it was built in 1985. Okay, so it is sort of a Disney interpretation of Streamline Moderne but I still like it. It originally housed the Bubbles Balboa Club restaurant. It was a sunny day when I shot this in 2008. The building was housing Bubbles Art Gallery then:

By 2013, the building was boarded up and vulnerable looking. Then, last year, it was put to use as Maverick’s Gastropub. Sorry to see the tile, block glass, and porthole windows on the doors are gone. But better than a new CVS drug store or something, right?

From Orange. Some real pretty shapes going on here. At first I thought that the “Angel” might be a reference to Angel Stadium in Anaheim which is visible just north of here. But I think this motel preceded the baseball stadium and the text doesn’t look like it’s been adapted:

Moving on to Zip’s Liquor from Anaheim — and a mystery sign right behind it:

The countless times I’ve been to Long Beach and I never noticed Don’s. That mottled, faded paint really gives this sign character. If this was repainted all pretty, it would ruin it, no?

One of the high points of the day was my visit to Back in the Day Classics in Carson:
http://www.backinthedayclassics.com/

The place has a big parking filled with incredible restored cars — but that’s really not my thing. I had actually hit the brakes a couple of years ago to shoot a Flintstones car. But I never knew about the treasures inside the building. There’s all sorts of candy machines, bicycles, toys, etc. All sorts of Americana… and loads of neon signs.

My visit was actually prompted by an email that they sent to me a few weeks ago asking for info about “Harbie” (Harbor gas station) statues. Piecing together the clues, it sounds like the statues came from Camperland in Garden Grove. There were five statues there. Just two of them were on display until they disappeared around 2011. Three of the statues had already been sold before Back in the Day got these two. At some point, they had been repainted. More examples & info about these statues at my page here:
http://www.roadarch.com/critters/sea2.html

Both statues were perched in the rafters so I couldn’t get a straight shot:

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Before I found the Harbies, I was blown away by this incredible nine foot tall Pep Boys statue. It can be yours for $27,000. The paint was completely faded away after sitting in a backyard in Lakewood for 10 years. This page shows what the statue looked like before Back to the Classics had it restored:

http://www.backinthedayclassics.com/mem_inventory_categories_details.asp?id={50E86F25-2F70-4833-B5AA-292888AF2602}

But I know, you want to see the signs. First, I must thank Brianna who gave me the royal tour. Just 20 years old and she really knows her stuff. Whatever they’re paying her is not enough!

I took loads of photos here and I’m only posting a few. Inventory is constantly changing so some of these might be gone by next month with new beauties replacing them. This Hotpoint Appliance sign is selling for $3,600:

The Navajo Lodge sign is going for $4,750:

The sign on top is modern and selling for a mere $435. The bottom sign has got to be vintage. I don’t see it listed at their website:

The Mordica Motors sign is cool. But the Western Union sign is way cooler, in my opinion, because of its age and rarity. This sign was lit with internal bulbs. The steel panels are perforated with translucent opal glass plates behind each letter. The Mordica sign is selling for $4,250. I don’t know the price of the Western Union sign (not listed at the website):

I don’t know what location this Boy’s Big Boy came from — but it’s “real” (not a reproduction). The sign is 92 inches in diameter and going for $25,000:

The Sundries sign is listed at $1,050. The Lincoln sign is going for $15,200:

The Kaiser sign is listed at $8,500.

This Pure Oil gas station sign is a doozie. The zigzag rings flash separately and each letter lit sequentially. The price is $12,850:

This fancy Pennzoil sign is selling for $6,295. I don’t see the two signs below it listed at the website:

There are lots of clocks for sale. This old octagon was one of my favorites. It’s going for $2,700:

This sign has really nice hand painting. This sign came from the Los Angeles area. It was installed on top of the main text sign and revolved. The neon was added by Back to the Classics during the sign’s restoration. Although I’m not a fan of adding neon to signs that didn’t have it originally, I’ll admit it’s a nice touch here and probably really improves its marketability. The asking price is $4,995:

Here’s a close-up of the tacos, unlit:

I hope you enjoyed the sampling of photos from this weekend. I’ll be taking a break from my hellish map project (just Mid-Century Buildings & Signs sections to go) to add these approximately 200 photos to the site.

The dogs and I will be back on the road soon for the Memorial Day three-day weekend. We’ll be up in the S.F. Bay area then.

Oh — and don’t forget, a couple dozen other photos from this weekend over at Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

Take care,

I took a little weekend jaunt to the L.A. and Orange County areas to shoot some stuff that’s been on my list for a while. Lots of remodeling, repainting, etc. and some things that I only found out about recently.

Callahan’s Restaurant in Santa Monica opened in 1946 and closed last year. Here’s my photo from 2013 (note Callahan’s was on the white side of the building on the left):

Thankfully, things have not changed all that much. Ingo’s Tasty Diner opened in the space last month and the interior still has a similar & only slightly fancier look. There still the counter & booths. The exterior is now painted entirely white. I’m relieved that the terrazzo and Vienna Pastry are still there. The signs have been scaled-down a bit. Actually, pretty classy.

I’ve passed this Bill’s Liquor sign in Santa Monica hundreds of times during the day but never stopped for it. Today, with the sun right on it, I realized it was truly an ancient ripple tin sign. So, most likely, very late 1920s or 1930s. Although there are probably a dozen layers of paint on it, you can still see the little vertical grooves [clicking on photos at my posts gives you a larger view]

I shot this sign at night for a blog post last year:

This nifty bank building in Reseda looks like it’s been boarded up for years. I’m hoping that it will eventually find a tasteful tenant or developer that will preserve this graceful gem. It was built in 1961 as a Metropolitan Savings & Loan. By 1974, it was an Allstate Savings & Loan. After that, I don’t know. The wavy roof & exposed beams remind me a lot of these Dairy Queen building which seem to have been only built in California:
http://www.roadarch.com/eateries/dq7.html

Another change I was fretting about in North Hollywood that didn’t turn out badly. The Starlite Room in North Hollywood opened in 1955. This sign might have been from then — or it might have been added in the 1960s. This photo was taken in 2013 just before the bar closed:

Later that year, new owners changed the name to the Starlite Cantina & changed the text a bit on the sign. I wish the “Cantina” font was more vertical like the original — but, hey, can’t complain too much:

I stumbled upon this bizarre scene in Silver Lake. The abandoned Sunset Pacific Motel and surrounding palm trees got a limewash treatment as an art project. The building is scheduled to be demolished and the limewash is supposed to wash off when it rains. But, since it only rains about once a year for 10 minutes in Southern California, I don’t know when those palms will look normal again. The lime is supposed to be safe for the palms but many people are worried about the birds. More about this project here:
http://www.theeastsiderla.com/2015/03/artist-to-white-wash-silver-lakes-bates-motel/

and here:
http://laist.com/2015/04/18/photos_whitewashed_motel.php

This was another little surprise in Los Angeles: this wonderful streamline apartment complex. Poking around on-line today, it looks like it was designed by Milton Black and built in 1936. A two-bedroom goes for about $2700:

This Schwinn sign in Los Angeles is looking very sad these days. Here’s my photo from 2008:

And now:

Since the store was open, I stopped in to get the scoop. Safety Cycle is actually in the building next door now so they no longer own the sign. The fate of this sign will be up to the developer. That space is empty now but work is going on. Of course, Safety Cycle would like the sign to stay since it’s advertising for their store. But if it gets much worse, maybe they won’t want to be associated with it. The City might even want to see it gone at this point with all the tagging and rust. I’ll nudge MONA (the Museum of Neon Art) in hopes that the museum might want to get moved to the top of the list in case the owner decides to remove the sign. This sign was never animated and, as far as I know, was not mass-produced by Schwinn.

This cigar sign is in a back alley at The Grove shopping center. The panels appear to be old but the neon looks fresh. I know nothing about its history:

This Norge Ball, beat-up as it is, was also a pleasant surprise to me. The laundry is long gone and Benny’s Market looks like it’s been there for decades. Too much time and trouble to remove it from the pole on the roof I suppose. There are two other Norge Balls in Los Angeles — one as crunched as this one, and one in great shape. There are only about 60 of them left around the country:

http://www.roadarch.com/signs/norge.html

Some good and bad news about the Royal Viking Motel in Los Angeles which closed last year. It promptly reopened as the Pod Inn and adapted the signs. This nice neon sign was stripped of the neon channel letters. The panels were painted a peachy orange and backlit plastic Pod Inn letters were installed on the faces. Here’s the sign in 2012 — I’ll spare you what’s replaced it:

At least the sign around the corner was left pretty much intact — just the name change. From 2012:

and today:

Just as I pulled off a freeway exit, I heard a “pap, pap, pap” sound that I knew immediately had to be a tire thing from the frequency during acceleration & deceleration. Sure enough, a rear tire was impaled by a giant bolt but no loss of air yet. There was a Pep Boys straight ahead — but a two hour wait. I found another small tire shop “Loco’s Tires” which patched the tire in 5 minutes. Not even enough time to find out who “Loco” was. Passing by the Pep Boys again, I spotted this little sign at Tony’s Shoe Repair which shares a corner of the building:

I’ve seen this one many times from the 710 Freeway and finally got off to shoot it. Melmac Dinnerware is now highly collectible. This must have been the factory for all those nifty melamine (plastic) plates & cups:
http://www.amazon.com/Melmac-Dinnerware-Gregory-R-Zimmer/dp/0895380854

Spring makes me miss all the magnolias, dogwood, forsythia, tulips, etc. back East. But we DO have purple jacaranda trees here!

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And we also have some not so natural trees. This faux pine cell tower was in East LA. which made it even more humorous:

Two more signs for this post. These two are just a couple blocks apart: This one at Ed’s Welding:

I think Chase Equipment is gone now. The place seemed to be selling used car parts:

That’s it for now. I’ll try to get you a post with some of Sunday’s photos later today.

RoadArch.com companion

Month: April 2015

Orange County Goodies

L.A. & O.C. Getaway