Back to some photos from this past weekend’s trip. Let’s start with Andy’s Donut Stop in Richmond. This cute sign is gone now (replaced with more retro style plastic panels, see below):

There was a similar painted sign on the side of the building:

But! The store added some fancy raised letters on the front and side of the building AND a giant donut later last year and/or earlier this year. I guess they dropped the “Stop” from their name (and the cute donut-shaped stop sign shown above from their branding):

This clock sign in San Francisco has been painted over for many years. It was probably a jewelry store sign originally:

This sign in San Francisco‘s Chinatown had ghost Chinese characters above the business name (whatever that was originally):

A couple of years ago, it was painted over — here’s the current look:

The Kaye’s Footwear sign, next door to the sign above, was also repainted that same green color at the same time. I suspect it’s the same building owner having all the signs repainted. Usually, new paint is a good thing — but not when it wipes out the history and detail of the original patina. This sign on the corner of the same building might have been green, brown, and gold originally. I’m sure the letters and characters were also painted on the panel behind the neon:

And here’s the current look.

The wrong time of day to shoot this sign in San Francisco — but here it is anyway:

Speaking of repainting… this sign in San Francisco also got hit with green paint. I don’t know what the original color was but here’s the look until just a few weeks ago:

and now… I’m not sure how I feel about the bright green but the indisputable good news is that the neon was restored by Jim Rizzo of NeonWorks:

This sign in Oakland was built for Glenn’s Hot Dogs by 1961:

Glenn’s closed in 2016 and the sign was adapted for this BBQ place. Too bad about the dimpled panel with stick on letters (above):

Then, last year it was adapted again for Ghost Town Brewing. I can report that the middle panel revolves as it did originally:

I finally got these two signs for the Capri Motel in San Francisco in better light:

The vitrolite panels and glass block facade for Concord Jewelers from 1946 in Concord have been preserved. Here’s the before:

But there’s something very sad about wings and burger businesses:

Last shot/stop on this trip was in Lathrop to shoot this giant John Cerney-like painted mural sign at the Dell Osso Family Farm. The place was closed but that didn’t stop me from crossing behind the closed gate to shoot it. I was treated to all kinds of trespassing alarms and a recording saying something like the police had been called. Oh well…

I’ll be adding the photos from this trip to my website now. Then, hopefully, I can wrap up the mid-century modern building section updates post before the May and June trips.

Happy trails,
dj & the dogs