Day 19: West Palm Beach to Melbourne

This is apparently a new sign at The Peach art collective and Troy’s Barbeque in West Palm Beach, FL. I think it went up earlier this year:

The Hotel Evernia in West Palm Beach opened in 1925 as the Hotel Enoree. This sign looks more 1930s/1940s. The hotel became the Evernia in 1979 and this sign was adapted then.

There are Claes Oldenburg giant typewriter erasers scattered around the country: Las Vegas, Seattle, Washington, DC, and this one in West Palm Beach. He made them from 1989-1990. For more Oldenburg sculptures of giant things, see my website here:

https://www.roadarch.com/mim/old.html

Nozzle Nolen Pest Control in West Palm Beach was established in 1951. “Peanut” the elephant has always been the company’s mascot. This sign has been there since at least 1971. The text panel was updated at some point from a simple backlit plastic panel to this one with individual letters slapped on:

But the best thing is that the company still has these cute little mechanized elephants on the roof of some of its trucks. The elephant’s head bobs up and down when the engine is turned on. I have a video here at Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQbG9DtFCIP/

This motel in West Palm Beach had been built by 1961 (the postcard postmark below) and this sign was there then:

It was originally over on the left and there was apparently a neon crown sign installed on the roof. There was something else over on the right where this sign is now but I can’t make out what it was:

Reed’s Motel in Avon Park opened in 1957 as Bennett’s Motel. The original pole sign was adapted later for Reed’s Motel and the diving woman was added then of after that. She originally wore a one-piece bathing suit:

By 2002, the arrow panel had been replaced with a smaller one. Then, in 2004, the sign was badly damaged during Hurricane Charlie. However, the original diver which is about 15 feet long survived. The rest of the sign was rebuilt and by then the diver was wearing a two-piece suit. The text panels’ shapes were changed a bit and the arrow was reduced to about half the size of the original. Here’s a photo that I took in 2009:

In 2018, the motel became a Budget Inn. The sign was removed by Souther Signs which built the replacement: a boring, short monument sign. The diver panel is now displayed in the window of the Pure Grit Boot Company where I shot it this summer. I don’t know if the arrow or text panels were saved. For more diving lady signs, see my website here:

https://www.roadarch.com/sca/diving.html

This gorgeous Art Deco fire station is in Sebring:

This Twistee Treat in Sebring was built around 2015. For vintage and modern examples of these Twistee Treat buildings, I’ve got three pages worth at my website here:

https://www.roadarch.com/food/twistee.html

This trash can was installed by 2008. The turpentine industry has played an important role in the history of Lake Placid:

A few more buildings in West Palm Beach to finish off this post. Here’s an Art Deco detail from the Woolworth building. I have Woolworth buildings from all over the country here:

https://www.roadarch.com/dept/wmain.html