SOCIETY for
COMMERCIAL
ARCHEOLOGY
Advocates for America’s
Roadside Heritage
SOCIETY for
COMMERCIAL
ARCHEOLOGY
Advocates for America’s
Roadside Heritage
SOCIETY for
COMMERCIAL
ARCHEOLOGY
Advocates for
America’s
Roadside Heritage
Photo: Vintage Wisconsin Dells
The SCA is the oldest national organization devoted to the signs, structures and experiences of the 20th-century American roadscape.
Subscribe to our free email newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And become a member, enjoy our great publications, SCA Journal and Road Notes, and join us on our next adventure!
NEW FEATURE! SCA member and tour master Kevin Patrick’s long-running Facebook series, Dr. Patrick’s Postcard Roadside, is now collected here.
The SCA is the oldest national organization devoted to the signs, structures and experiences of the 20th-century American roadscape.
Subscribe to our free email newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And become a member, enjoy our great publications, SCA Journal and Road Notes, and join us on our next adventure!
NEW FEATURE! SCA member and tour master Kevin Patrick’s long-running Facebook series, Dr. Patrick’s Postcard Roadside, is now collected here.
The SCA is the oldest national organization devoted to the signs, structures and experiences of the 20th-century American roadscape.
Subscribe to our free email newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And become a member, enjoy our great publications, SCA Journal and Road Notes, and join us on our next adventure!
Upcoming Events
ZOOM TOUR: Mike’s Upper East Side
JUNE 17, 2020 at 8PM: Join Michael Hirsch of the Society for Commercial Archeology and New York Neon author Thomas E. Rinaldi for a ZOOM TOUR through New York City’s Upper East Side. FREE FOR MEMBERS – REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
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SOLD OUT! 2020 Summer Tour
AUGUST 7-9, 2020: Join us for a marvelous mid-century weekend this summer in Queens, New York, as the Society for Commercial Archeology and Retro Roadmap co-host NYC: The Golden Age of Air Travel – SCA Summer 2020 Tour.
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News
SCA Weekly News Review: June 6, 2020
Weekly posts, they take some time, but posting’s easier, when you get to rhyme. SCA News!
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SCA Weekly News Review: May 31, 2020
Five stories of signs in “transition.” But it’s not all bad news!
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SCA Weekly News Review: May 24, 2020
What does that giant red “R” stand for? This, and other bits of commercial archeology, awaiting you in the news.
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SCA Weekly News Review: May 17, 2020
An unsurprisingly Milwaukee-centric weekly news review from soon-to-be-resident Jermey Ebersole.
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Articles
White Tower Takes on Pittsburgh
By Brian Butko – Part archive, part personal recollection, in this article from 2015, the author traces White Castle's celebration of the hamburger and the chain's response to commercial demands from the 20s on.
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New Spin on the Big Apple: Bus Turntables
FULL ARTICLE by Peter Kennedy – In the 1940s, mid-town Manhattan had nine bus terminals. To centralize bus service, the New York Port Authority built a terminal on 8th Avenue between 40th and 41st streets.
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Safety on the Interstate: The Architecture of Rest Areas
FULL ARTICLE by Joanna Dowling – Reduced now to nothing more than a place to pee, rest stops, officially “safety rest ares,” remind us not only of the early history that they seek to depict, but of our twentieth century transportation history that we seek to preserve.
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Common Ground: Landscape Mosaics at the Wisconsin State Office Building in Milwaukee
By Lillian Sizemore – Professor Marjorie Kreilick-McNab’s suite of 10 hand-cut modern mosaic murals for the Wisconsin State Office Building in Milwaukee deserve landmark designation and historic preservation.
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Vanishing Points: The Video
Cliff Leppke, author of the SCA Journal article, Vanishing Points: Phillips’ Postwar “New Look” Service Stations, also produced this video as part of his conference paper presentation.
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Vanishing Points: Phillips’ Postwar “New Look” Service Stations
By Cliff Leppke – Phillips’ postwar stations were examples of the “New Look,” an abstract art influenced design aesthetic that became the zeitgeist of the 1950s.
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