Website Updating: Dinosaurs, Department Stores, and Signs

From the Dinosaurs section, this sculpture in Huntsville, AR has been painted many different colors over the years. Here’s a photo I took in 2019:

And here he is now from StreetView:

A fourth dinosaur on a trailer has been added to the group at the Tourist Information Center in Clayton, NM and they were repainted around last year. Here are the three of them in 2012:

and what StreetView shows now (note that the broken Triceratops horn has also been repaired):

From the Department Store section. There are always a few Woolworth or Kress buildings that get demolished every year when I do this project — but not this year! This Kress building in Gadsden, AL was restored recently with the siding removed above the ground floor and the original curved entrances revealed. From 2010:

and from the 2024 StreetView:

The Kress building in Brunswick, GA has been through a lot. In 1958, the store expanded and created a continuous look from the two buildings with this facade — my photo from 2009:

In 2019, the decision was made to unmerge the spaces and in 2024 this is the result. Why, oh, why those dark gray tiles? OK – I do give them credit for reproducing the sign at least:

The ugly facade on the Kress building in Laurel, MS:

is being restored:

On to a bunch of signs — sorry, pretty much all bad news — from the SCA article companion pages. The actual signs section will come much later in these posts since I always start with the smaller sections and work my way to the huge sections.

From the Camera Signs page: this former Idaho Camera sign in Boise, ID is gone now. The store closed in 2020 and the sign was adapted (my photo below). The building was demolished last year:

Street View shows what the sign looked like originally:

I emailed Vangie Osborn, THE person responsible for saving Boise signs, and she sent me a photo of YESCO removing that sign and its tripod-shaped poles. It’s safely stored at the Yanke Machine Shop for now – along with the company’s earlier neon sign:

From the Cars Signs page: the Coachbuilt Motors sign in Columbus, OH is gone now:

From the Diving Woman Signs page: the remaining diver panel in Jacksonville, FL and the poles that supported it are is gone now. I hope someone saved the plastic panel. The original sign from late 1950s/early 1960s:

The 1960s sign version – my photo from 2009:

A close-up of the diver from 2021:

The Villa Capri Motel in Coronado, CA is opening as a boutique hotel, The Bower, in February. The diver is now on the side of the building and the text sign is now next to the top floor bar:

From the Flames Signs page: these cute signs in Clairton, PA are gone now. The restaurant closed last year and the sign were promptly replaced with boring modern backlit plastic signs for Steel Grill 51:

This sign in Sioux Falls, SD is also gone. The business moved last year and I don’t see the sign at the new location:

This relatively recent sign (2009ish?) in San Jose, CA…

…was hideously adapted last year:

This sign in Carmichael, CA is gone now:

From the Working Men Signs page — this sign next to I-95 in Twin Oaks, PA which advertised for the AmQuip Crane Rental business is gone. Just the brown pole remains.