This blog documents the photo-gathering roadtrips for RoadsideArchitecture.com (aka roadarch.com). That gigantic website covers buildings, signs & statues from the 1920s-1970s. The posts here offer about a dozen photos from each day of shooting. In winter, there are "news" posts about demolitions, removals, remodeling, restorations, etc.
This blog has always been intended for the “lesser” things on these trips, most of which don’t rate inclusion at the website. I’ve got about 10 more days to go for this trip. Be back soon….
Merry Christmas! What else would I be doing for the holiday (and my birthday) but working on my website and other related stuff.
Let’s start with a bunch of signs from Lakeland. The best part of this Sunset Motel sign was the giant sun panel on top which was removed in 2011. If you never knew that was missing, this is still pretty nice:
The Reececliff Restaurant opened in 1934 and is still operating. This sign could be from then but I’m guessing more likely 1940s:
Love this one — also still operating. The panels had been repainted just two months before I took this photo:
The panels and paint colors have changed over the years. Originally a used car dealer, I believe from the late 1960s:
The Luell Motel sign was obviously all neon originally — you can see the tubing holes on the block letters:
The Silver Moon Drive-in from 1948 — yes! — still operating. The structure on the left is the backside of one of the two screentowers:
Moving on to Tampa. This sign looks very old but with modern panels and bulbs slapped on top (notice the Deco-ish details peeking out at the top beneath “Cafe”):
These Greyhound bus signs were everywhere (early 1960s?) but only a handful are left now. Part of the reason is that Greyhound always takes their signs down when they close their stations. For more bus station buildings and signs, see my website: https://www.roadarch.com/bus/1.html
Probably not the original colors but I can’t find any vintage postcards to indicate what it might have looked like:
The Gem Box Jewelers sign is pretty far gone and I’m worried it will disappear one of these days. It sill has the Gruen Watches clock at the bottom:
This sign in Canton, MS shows you what this sign would have looked like originally. There is only one other like this that I know of (Willoughby, OH):
Let’s end this post with this one from Lake Wales — the larger of two entrance signs:
This was mostly a good weather day and I pounded through more than 100 stops.
Let’s start with some things in St. Petersburg:
This building was built for Tipton’s TV in the early 1960s:
Perhaps you are familiar with Twistee Treat buildings, or maybe not. They originated in North Fort Myers, FL in 1982. About 90 of them were produced after that. Since they are modular fiberglass, many were transported to other states. The company folded in 1990. In 2010, an Orlando company revived the chain and began producing new buildings which are very similar. So, how do you tell the old ones from the new ones? The two most obvious give-aways: the sides of the new cones are straighter and the counters in front of the windows are separate add-ons. For all the locations and the full story, see my website here:
Here’s a vintage location in Zephyrhills – note the singular, built-in counter:
There are four Twistee Treat locations in Tampa: one vintage and three modern. This is one of the modern ones – note the straighter sides and the 3 little counters. Also, note the difference in the ice cream cone that is substituted for the “I” in “TWISTEE”:
More from Tampa. I waited for sun but gave up. The octagonal clock appears to be original.
The Peter O. Knight Airport:
This adorable car sign was still animated and lit at night when I took this photo in 2009. How sweet is the sequential steam from the radiator and the exhaust smoke. I think the tires were also sequentially lit:
The neon was removed around 2011. And then around 2015, these ugly panels were installed. I’m kind of hoping that these flimsy panels were laid right on top of the porcelain with cheap glue so that maybe, just maybe, someday, someone with money and taste will restore the sign. If you like car signs, I’ve got a bunch here: https://www.roadarch.com/sca/cars.html
Here are a few more signs from St. Petersburg.
From blurry postcards, it appears that the peacock, metal details, and sign were there in the 1930s:
I believe there’s only one other McCrory’s blade sign that has survived (in Galveston, TX). I’ve got a lot of McCrory’s buildings in the department store section at my website here: https://www.roadarch.com/dept/other2.html
Let’s wrap up with two more signs from St. Petersburg:
One of the best signs in town but getting a little skanky looking now with the faded paint. I don’t think it’s lit anymore (note broken tubing):
I’ll be back in a few days with another post.
Happy trails, dj & the dogs (a sunset hike at home last week)
Fantastic weather and loads of great photos. I’ll focus on some signs for this post. Let’s start with this guy in South Pasadena at the Ten Pin Lanes:
From Gulfport:
In Madeira Beach:
A couple of signs in St. Pete Beach:
Shadrack’s:
From Clearwater Beach:
Let’s wrap up this post with a few shots from St. Petersburg:
A two-fer at a rare, still operating Rayco:
and lastly, for the rusty/crusty lovers among you:
I’ve got about 100 other photos to add to the website but I think I can muster up another post next weekend. In the meantime, don’t forget there are other photos over at my Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/
Happy trails! dj & the dogs
Speaking of trails… here’s a photo from today of my gang from today’s hike on the Shady Dell Trail in Ojai, CA:
Some rain, some clouds, some sun. Lots of fun stuff!
Let’s start with this special guy in Winter Garden. A miniaturized RV on top of a vacuum form sign. Includes doorknobs, skirting, and what looks like functioning doors!
This sign in Clermont started out, in probably the 1960s, advertising for the Crest Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge. It read “Crest” on the top panel and “Restaurant” on the lower panel sans cocktail glasses. The crest panel was black with its text panel in yellow; the restaurant & cocktail panels were red. Later, the lower panels were painted light blue. Around 2009, the text was reworked, glasses added, and the panels were painted green. I think the neon may still be lit:
I was relieved to see the half-dino from the ~1970s (never finished) was still there in Brooksville — more about this guy and other Florida dinosaurs at my website here: https://www.roadarch.com/dinos/fl.html
This incredible statue display in Gotha is in a residential area: zebras, lions, elephants, a hand with a finger pointing upward, Roman soldiers, and horses. More about this place at my website here: https://www.roadarch.com/collect/3.html
Orbit was getting bigger and looking slightly more manly at this point. He’s about nine weeks old in this photo (currently about four months). His feet are still ridiculously big and will probably stay that way.
Built as the Tahitian Motor Lodge in Holiday around 1969. Now the Holiday Hotel & Resort. The roofs are somewhat similar to the A&W “pagoda” (aka “pilgrim hat”) roofs developed in 1965 by Trachte: https://www.trachte.com/wp-content/uploads/history/1965-l.jpg
Let’s wrap up this post with this beauty at the Showcase of Citrus in Clermont. Eat-it-All ice cream cones have been around since at least the 1960s, maybe the 1950s. From the weathering & sides of the can, I think this sign is from that era but it might have been built much later & painted with the brand:
A four-day weekend at home so you will be hearing again from me soon enough.
Some sun, some clouds, some rain… but a productive day, nevertheless. Full steam on Florida shooting at this point in the trip.
This one is in Reddick (yes, the sign is really leaning):
In Citra:
Another Citra sign:
A nice hand-painted & maintained welcome sign – would have been glorious in sun:
Yes, Silver Springs:
From Ocala:
Two entrances, two signs for Uncle Roy’s — also in Ocala — shot just after a torrential downpour:
At a former Heilig-Meyers furniture store in Ocala. Scottish characters still appear on some signs, used as a symbol/stereotype of frugality:
This Lorito’s sign in Ocala has been through a lot. It looked pretty nice in my 2009 photo:
Just a few months later, it was knocked over by a driver and badly damaged. The sign was repaired and neon fixed. Instead of painting, they used vinyl overlays on the panels. They changed the font of “Italian Kitchen”, not for the better. But hey. Around 2017, I think they painted over the vinyl because it was getting pretty faded. So, here’s how it looked in September:
Let’s close with a couple more signs from Ocala. Apparently, they were both produced by the same sign company — maybe the motels were even owned by the same person? They both had the same style backlit smiling sun panels. Here was the Sun Plaza which I shot in 2009:
Unfortunately, in 2015, the owner decided his initials were nicer than the sun:
Apparently, the original sign looked like this in the 1950s:
The surviving sun sign in Ocala – don’t it make you smile?:
These three days were rough — clouds and rain every day, just about all day long. I would check the weather on my phone to see if there was any better area to shoot but pretty much all of AL, GA & FL was the same situation. So, I would sit & wait, grow impatient & shoot some things that were less important, move on and, once in awhile, the sun would come out. I finally gave up on Alabama but I’d get some later in the trip. So, this post will focus on Florida.
Here we are in Marianna. These signs are safely around the back entrance since the pharmacy has a different name now:
This odd-building is in Tallahassee:
A modern sign in Tallahassee inspired by the Welcome to Las Vegas sign:
This Uncle Sam is located at the Tallahassee Automobile Museum. I confirmed this week that this is the very same statue that I shot in Clarksville, TN in 2007: https://www.roadarch.com/giants/uncles.html
In Salem (of course) – note the rainbow which lasted a few minutes. Recently repainted – GoogleStreetView from 2018 shows the sign completely faded to white:
The Ship House (never a real ship) in Horseshoe Beach. Built in 1978 — right on the water:
A former Gulf gas station in Gainesville. It’s housed a series of restaurants in recent years:
The Krispy Kreme in Gainesville from 1968:
Evidently, this beauty in Cross City which I shot in 2009:
… was painted over last year (or, more likely, those are new plastic panels) and backlit plastic letters were added to both signs (three if you count the little vacancy sign). Heartbreaking. It’s hard to be glass-half-full about the surviving shape. Yeah, coulda been a rectangular plastic box but…
I think this one was repainted earlier this year. And I guess they gave up on the neon and put some really cheap LED rope in the channel letters. It must look like a real wreck of a scribble at night (if it’s still even lit!):
Let’s end on a more positive note. This cutie Humpty-Dumpty statue is part of a hospital billboard (“We’ll Put You Back Together Again”) in Tallahassee.
If you’re wondering what happened to Day 11 and 12 (last post was Day 10), let’s just say there was a little rain. A lot of rain and grumpy sitting around. These two days were not much better — mostly cloudy and gray. So, I lumped them together for this post to give you some colorful moments.
I shot a couple of Dowdle Gas signs — you’ll how dreary my situation was. Anyway, among my passions is signs with depictions of flames. The article that I wrote about them for the SCA Journal (Society for Commercial Archeology) is at the printers but I also have a page here with lots of other signs: https://www.roadarch.com/sca/flames.html
This one is in York, AL:
This one in Meridian, MS is shorter but wider and I’m guessing that it’s older:
These two appliance privilege signs are on a vacant hardware store building in Eutaw, AL:
From Tuscaloosa, AL where I waited around half a day for the sun before giving up:
These two are on the facade of Charlie Joseph’s restaurant in LaGrange, GA. I love the detail and steam coming off of the meat on each of these. These single-sided plastic signs were mass-produced but I have only seen a couple of others still on display:
Let’s talk about what happened to this Greyhound Bus station in Tuscaloosa, AL. Here’s this snippet from Google Street View from 2013 when the building was already vacant and apparently that pink chalk or tape on the right was an indication of what was to come:
Shortly after that, it became a Dunkin’ Donuts – my photo from this summer’s trip:
Here are a couple of other signs in Tuscaloosa:
This top hat is at the Burch & Hatfield Tuxedo shop:
On the very outskirts of Tuskegee, AL – the long-abandoned, former Torch Cafe which shared the Standard Oil gas station building in the background:
In Brewton, AL:
This giant Pepsi can recycling machine is in Atmore, AL:
This Piggly Wiggly supermarket statue was installed in 2019 at the Milton, FL store:
And last one for this post, the tile mosaic at the entrance to the former Greyhound station in Pensacola, FL:
There will be more Oklahoma at the end of this 30-something day trip. I was in the Oklahoma City area on this day waiting to pickup the new kid in the middle of the day. Here he is — six weeks old. Orbit’s first minute on grass and he really didn’t know what to do or what that stuff was. A few days later, he was running in it like a champ. As of writing this post, the boy is 3 months old and doing great. His nose has gotten way bigger and he’s pretty muscled up from all the exercise he’s getting.
This pole sign is installed at a former Dairy Queen in Anadarko. The curl at the top is unique to DQ. Around 2013, the stand became Dairy Freeze and the DQ lips logo in the middle of the ice cream and the curl outline were painted over. The building is just a boring box now:
This one is in Chickasha:
For the rest of this post, I’ll feature just some of the signs at the Muscle Car Ranch in Chickasha:
After picking up Orbit in Konawa, I wrapped up some nearby stops, leaving OKC for later on in this trip. I hit the highway and drove thru the night to Meridian, MS. Another post in a few days.
With only about three hours sleep, I managed to get a full day’s shooting in, motivated by the great sunshine. A good thing, too, as my weather-luck would run out half-way through Florida.
Let’s start with a couple of signs. This one in Konowa — an ice cream stand at a gas station:
From Wewoka. Evidently, the arrow got crunched a little by a truck?
This pretty little thing in Seminole:
The cafe/bus station building that goes with the sign:
From Pauls Valley — my guess, due to the location of this sign, is that it was located elsewhere and then moved here to the production plant:
In Ardmore: a recycled Mr. Burger building and two signs:
A vitrolite (structural glass) facade in Ardmore (not enough sun to show how truly nice it was). I hope it survives with the next tenant:
and just three doors away this fun mid-century wonder:
How about a couple of former gas stations? This one in Pauls Valley:
and this former Phillips 66 (now a pot store) in McAlester:
And let’s end with this sign. I’m crazy about C-152 Lectras and would probably drive 10 hours out of my way to shoot one. There are very few left though so that’s not a problem. These bulb signs are stationary but, when the sequential flashing bulbs on the arms are working (rare!), they are hypnotizing. Info and the survivors at my website here: https://www.roadarch.com/sca/roto4.html
