View allAll Photos Tagged Signgeeks
Montreal, Quebec
This was one of those discoveries you have when on a road trip. We were only in Montreal for a few hours on our 2018 getaway and I had stops I wanted to make. While heading from one address to another, we came across this and I made a snap decision that it was stunning and took a few quick shots. The sign said "hotel", but was it really? Yes, I discovered online -- it is indeed a hotel. It's a century-old home that has been transformed into a boutique inn. I would love to stay there!
Classic oldie at the boardwalk in Daytona Beach, Florida
UPDATE: This sign (the diving lady) has been moved -- it's still in Daytona Beach but now has a permanent display spot.
Route/US 20
West Winfield, NY
Autumn decorations decorate the lawn beside the charming sign at this upstate/central New York restaurant on US 20. They specialize in dairy (ice cream!) but an online peek at their menu shows they serve full meals from breakfast to dinner as well. It's just the type of place we like to eat at; we hope to be able to return one day to check them out.
The Blue Room is one of LA's coolest old dive bars. I have night photos of the sign too -- I will post one -- but this iPhone shot at sunset came out nicely, I thought.
Burbank, CA
Located at the south-east corner of Queen St. East and Beech Ave., in Toronto's east-end Beaches neighbourhood, The Garden Gate Restaurant -- known to locals as The Goof -- has been open for decades, serving Chinese-Canadian food (although, over the years, more traditional asian cuisine has been added to the menu, but sweet-and-sour everything continues to be popular and likely always will)) as well as traditional diner meals. Many memories for me here.
Photo 1 of 2 of Savannah's fantastic Thunderbird Inn, a vintage gem. The next photo is of the motel itself.
landmark neon sign for madam sophia's psychic & palm card reader along highway 99 in fowler, ca. shot with an iphone 5s, processed with various desktop apps.
Whatever it once was, it isn't anymore.
On Dundas St W, in Toronto (I'm not fully sure of the boundaries of the west-end neighbourhoods, being an east-ender, but I'm pretty sure this is in The Junction)
We had lunch here once and it was very good; if you like diner-style comfort food, Larry's is worth a visit.
Savannah, GA
UPDATE: Sadly, Larry's has closed.
On US 1; Saco, Maine
From the always-informative RoadsideArchitecture website, I learned that the now rare Little Miss weathervane rooftop Dairy Queen signs were first produced in 1961 and that they were internally lit and revolved. Unfortunately, this one is missing that weathervane.
The employees at this DQ were very friendly and helpful and seemed rightly proud of their sign. They even expressed regret that we were visiting on a gloomy day instead of a sunny one.
mamiya 6MF 50mm f/4 + kodak portra 160. lab: the icon, los angeles, ca. scan: epson V750. exif tags: filmtagger.
Encino, CA -- Encino Park Liquor: one of the coolest vintage neon signs in Los Angeles, so glad I finally got the opportunity to shoot it
We went back at night hoping it would be lit up, but it was not. In fact, it looked closed -- lots of places in the area had signs up that said "closed for the season". Obviously not a tourist town in the winter.
Lake George, NY
Always learning. I'd not heard of Chero-Cola before and was positive I'd not seen a sign for it, so I googled it and found the Wikipedia entry which informed me that, "In 1934, Chero-Cola was reformulated by Rufus Kamm, a chemist, and re-released as Royal Crown Cola."
For more details, here's the whole scoop:
Louisville, GA
We saw this and pulled a u-turn....couldn't miss shooting such a great old sign!
As I discovered, Puleo's has been a New England tradition for decades -- here is the info I found on their web site:
"In 1923 Charles Puleo affectionately known as “Charlie” began his career producing ice cream at the Essex Co-operative Creamery located at 80 Margin Street in downtown Salem, MA.
Starting in 1928, with a Model T Pickup truck, Charlie Puleo established his own business known then and now as Puleo’s Dairy. He began home delivery routes in the Salem, MA area from his processing plant located at 23 River Street. Growing steadily into the 1940’s the company moved into a state-of–the–art dairy and opened a seasonal roadside ice cream stand on our site at 376 Highland Avenue. An entire dairy renovation in 1989 culminated with a new dairy plant. We no longer sell our products out of the plant, however we continue to produce ice cream with Charlie’s same recipe from 1928 and provide home delivery in reusable glass bottles."
Salem, Massachusetts
First thing in the morning, as we were leaving Sherbrooke, Quebec, we found this. It was on my list to shoot (I'd seen it on Instagram and knew I wanted to see it for myself) and was thankful I had a lovely morning with a blue sky.
PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), not too far north of San Diego
In some parts of California, the PCH is California 101 and in other parts, it's California 1. I shot this sign on the east side, not too long after we left San Diego, heading for Los Angeles.
freeway lanes is still open for business on old highway 99 in selma, ca. shot with an iphone 5s, processed with various desktop apps.
Lakeland, FL ... The holes for the neon are there, but the neon is long gone. The holes for the bulbs are there, but they're long gone too. The store was busy though!
UPDATE: We drove by here in 2020; it's still a liquor store and the sign still stands, but the name is no longer "XYZ" and the sign has been changed.
mamiya 6MF 50mm f/4 + kodak portra 160. lab: the icon, los angeles, ca. scan: epson V750. exif tags: lenstagger.
Los Angeles, CA
Great architectural details here. Located near LA's Koreatown, this apartment building is almost 100 years old. Maybe older, I'm not sure -- but there is a photograph of the building dated January 1929 on GettyImages. I couldn't find any origin information about the name, however.
Boston, MA
From their web site: "Cantina Italiana’s historic location in Boston has been creating authentic Italian dishes for the North End community since 1931."
I can't help but wonder if the side of this sign, where the wine bottle drips down into the wine glass, was once-upon-a-time animated neon.