Day 30: More Illinois

Let’s start with some animal statues. This one (with little smaller versions at his feet) is in Beloit, WI. I shot a nearly identical one (just different paint) in Flora, IL. Google Lens turned up a bunch around the country and for sale. The have the same biscuit in their moths, the gravity-defying ears, funky feet, and super skinny tails. I don’t know who made these — probably just mass-produced in China or some such but they look very much like Patrick Amiot’s recycled metal sculptures — examples at my website here: https://www.roadarch.com/collect/4.html#Amiot

This bronze “Babysitter” sculpture is installed in front of the Boone County Fairgrounds in Belvidere:

This fiberglass Daffy Duck statue was produced by Warner Brothers for one of their stores and is now installed inside the Volo Auto Museum in Volo:

This fiberglass Bulldog is installed in front of the high school in Durand. There are identical statues in Beloit, WI, Winslow, AZ, and maybe elsewhere:

This fiberglass chicken statue was installed on the roof of the Henny Penny restaurant in McHenry. The building now houses a vet but the statue remains. There are a few other surviving statues like this still on display around the country:

This “Magical Thinking” sculpture is in Rockford:

Moving on to some buildings. This modular parking kiosk with ticket machines in Rockford appears to be mid-century:

The M&M Dari-Ripple is in South Beloit. While it may look suspiciously like a Tastee-Freez building, it never was:

This Frostie Freeze is in Janesville, WI. There’s another nearly identical building, same letters and paint, in Fort Atkinson, WI:

This fireworks store in Beloit, WI was built for the Harvey House restaurant chain. The illustration below shows the concept for the location in Topeka, KS which is still there but repurposed:

This building in Loves Park was a former Carvel ice cream stand. More examples of these buildings and info about the chain at my website here:
https://www.roadarch.com/eateries/carvel.html

A former Taco Bell in Waukegan. More photos and info about these early buildings at my website here: https://www.roadarch.com/eateries/tbell.html

Moving on to the signs. This one is at a check cashing place in Rockford:

This sign hangs above By the Dozen bakery in Harvard:

This sign is in Janesville, WI:

This bar sign is in Loves Park:

This shoe store in Beloit, WI closed just a couple months after I took this photo. Everything was auctioned off including this sign for $100!

The neon popping cork feature on this sign in Belvidere has been broken for many years. I assume it was animated:

How about a few bowling signs? This one is also in Belvidere:

This one is in Loves Park. There were at least three other identical signs with different names in nearby cities for other bowling alleys owned by the same company:

This single-sided sign is in South Beloit:

And this one is in Woodstock. If you like this theme, I have 11 chockfull pages of bowling signs at my website here:
https://www.roadarch.com/sca/bowling.html