This is a big one covering nearly 400 pages at my website.

From the Car Dealership section. Here’s a theme: from classy or fun to blah. This Cadillac dealership in Denver, CO…:

… looks like this now:

This former West Point Motor Car Co. dealership in West Point, MS…:

… has been remodeled:

This unusual facade in Afton, WY from around 2006…:

… has either been removed or covered up:

This former GMC-Pontiac dealership in Jacksonville, FL has been demolished for a gas station:

Moving on to the Diners section. The Handlebar Diner in Mesa, AZ closed last year but it reopened in January as the Steadfast Diner:

This diner in Montreal, QC was either moved or, more likely, demolished. A big apartment building going up there now. I never got to shoot this one but Google has this from shortly before it disappeared:

This diner in Allston, MA was either moved or demolished around 2023:

Mickey’s Windham Diner from Willimantic, CT…:

…was moved to Philadelphia, PA in 2018. is now sitting at the back of the vacant lot…:

… where it will eventually be installed at the front of this development known as the Wayne Junction Diner Apartments. The diner will be used for seating with a “possible ice cream shop” next to it:

Moving on to the Statues section. This wood-carved gold miner in Weaverville, CA is gone now. The former owners of the motel took him with them when the business changed hands.:

This one really hurts. I loved this foam cowboy in Albuquerque, NM. He was built in the 1970s for a carpet store. There’s a Jeep sales/parts store there now and the statue is gone. I assume he was destroyed:

The statues at Capital Pawn in Tampa, FL are gone. The store closed and the property has been developed for a car wash:

This basketball player at a sporting goods store in Orlando, FL…:

… was remodeled for the building’s next tenant, Bronze Kingdom, in 2021. But now the building houses Roboland and the statue is gone. I doubt it was moved, most likely destroyed:

The giant, gold Buddha statue from around 1961 was painted red in 2020 and people complained:

In 2023, he was painted gold again but this time more of a brownish gold:

The International Fiberglass 14-foot-tall giant man at Richwood High School in Richwood, WV...:

… was knocked to the ground in 2019. He was repaired and repainted and looks even better now. The image at StreetView is tiny but I found these photos at the high school’s FB page:

… and back on top of the scoreboard (with a bigger axe and no helmet):

These wood-carved statues in Kemmerer, WY were installed in front of a rock shop by 2003. By last year, a different business had moved into the building and these statues were gone:

Two Statues of Liberty are gone now. This one in Lyons, KS at a chiropractor’s office:

and this one at a tax office in Williston, ND:

I never got to shoot this carved statue of Malabeam in Grand Falls, NB:

In 2017, there was this photo-op cut-out “pose as Malabeam” thing installed in the park and folks went crazy about the racial insensitivity of it:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/malabeam-cutout-grand-falls-1.4442063

That was probably the kiss of death for the old statue since it prompted discussions about it. In 2020, it was replaced with this politically correct version:

Let’s end this post on a positive note (although you may not be able to sleep tonight). Winnie the Witch in St. James, NY was built in 1976 and was rebuilt at least a couple of times. Here’s a photo that I took of her in 2007:

The garden store on the property closed in 2018 and the statue continued to deteriorate. From the 2021 StreetView, she seemed doomed:

But miracles sometimes happen and a local group of folks came to her aid in 2023 and got her restored. This video tells the story:

https://abc7ny.com/winnie-the-witch-st-james-long-island-roadside-attraction/13996588/

Here’s what she looks like now:

One more bit of good news. This mermaid statue in Mounds View, MN was built in 1967 but it was put in storage in 2018:

I was skeptical that it we’d ever see it again and assumed it was probably destroyed. But no! In 2023, the City bought the statue from the Mermaid Entertainment Complex for $1. Late last year, she was moved to a shop for complete restoration. She’s currently laying there in the snow while the City is deciding where to put her when she’s done:

We are now into the bigger sections with more than 100 pages. I’m less than 1/3rd of the way thru this winter project. For the next post, I’ll be starting on the Animal Statues section. I still have Theatres, Art Deco, Eateries, Gas Stations, Signs, and Midcentury Buildings to go.

Happy Trails,
dj & the dogs

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