SOCIETY for
COMMERCIAL
ARCHEOLOGY
Advocates for America’s
Roadside Heritage
From the SCA Archives
Take us for a Test Drive – Now you can download tour guides from SCA conferences dating all the way back to 1980. See for yourself just how fun it is to be a member.
TOUR GUIDES | PAST EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
SOCIETY for
COMMERCIAL
ARCHEOLOGY
Advocates for
America’s
Roadside Heritage
From the SCA Archives
Take us for a Test Drive
Now you can download tour guides from SCA conferences dating all the way back to 1980. See for yourself just how fun it is to be a member.
TOUR GUIDES | PAST EVENTS | UPCOMING EVENTS
SOCIETY for
COMMERCIAL
ARCHEOLOGY
From the SCA Archives
Take us for a Test Drive
Now you can download tour guides from SCA conferences dating all the way back to 1980. See for yourself just how fun it is to be a member.
TOUR GUIDES | PAST EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Advocates for
America’s
Roadside Heritage
ALERT: Lucy the
Elephant
Endangered!
The Society for Commercial Archeology is a national organization devoted to celebrating the 20th-century American roadscape.
And we want you to join us.
What will you get? The prestigious SCA Journal twice a year, our SCA Road Notes newsletter four times a year, password access to all articles published to this website, discounts to our annual events and conferences – plus the good feeling that comes with being a part of a great cause. All for just $45 annually ($35 for students).
See what we do, subscribe to our free email newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
This summer, SCA members and guests traveled to the Philadelphia area for SCA@Blobfest. Where are we going next? See upcoming events.
The Society for Commercial Archeology is a national organization devoted to celebrating the 20th-century American roadscape.
And we want you to join us.
What will you get? The prestigious SCA Journal twice a year, our SCA Road Notes newsletter four times a year, password access to all articles published to this website, discounts to our annual events and conferences – plus the good feeling that comes with being a part of a great cause. All for just $45 annually ($35 for students).
See what we do, subscribe to our free email newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Upcoming Events
JOIN US JULY 13 – 15 FOR SCA @ BLOBFEST 2018!
Mod Betty of Retro Roadmap and SCA invite you to the Philadelphia area for our terrifyingly terrific 2018 tour! We’ll experience part of Blobfest, an annual festival commemorating the original 1958 camp classic, THE BLOB, before heading west to along the historic Lincoln Highway through Amish Country to the quirky Haines Shoe House. Our weekend will wrap up with a special SCA-exclusive tour of Philly’s best commercial architecture.
SCA Articles
Favorite 5: Toronto
A vintage “Five Fav” (then known as a “Favorite 5”) from back in the day when our newsletter was printed in black+one.
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Pontiac Hood Ornaments: Chief of the Sixes
When news broke in 2009 that General Motors was closing its Pontiac division, historic photos of the automobile were legion in the press and
key among them were images of the dramatic Pontiac hood ornaments such as the amber-headed chieftain that took center stage.
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SIZE DOES MATTER! – SCA Member Produces “Giant” Documentary
Amy Elliott and her co-producer, Elizabeth Donius, surveyed fifty small towns across the country which boast the "world's largest" something. This article originally appeared in SCA Road Notes, Winter 2004. World’s Largest had its debut in 2010 at the SXSW Film Festival.
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Ain’t No Valley Higher: The Spin on the World’s Largest Revolving Sign
FULL ARTICLE By Douglas Towne – The internet is rife with dubious claims of eagles swooping down to carry away small children. Overlooked, however, is the day a raptor saved a Phoenix man’s life with its wing.
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Miss Alma Makes a Bee Line: A Story of One Woman and Two Auto Trails
As the first female transcontinental highway booster, Alma Rittenberry had promoted her Jackson Highway not only as a memorial to the former President nicknamed “Old Hickory,” but as a progressive path to get farmers out of the mud and a source of “financial and cultural gain” for the North and South.
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Five Faves: Seeing Ghosts in Upstate New York
MEMBERS ONLY – Should we let ghost signs fade or should we repaint them? This is not an easy question to answer. Repainted ghosts can anchor a neighborhood’s rehabilitation effort. But repainting also means the ghosts are no longer ghosts.
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SCA Articles
DOWNLOAD/BUY
SCA Journal Back Issues | SCA Road Notes Back Issues
Road Trip!
From the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Jersey Shore, with stops at just about every diner in between, we love our road trips! Join us, and join us on our next adventure.
Upcoming EventsJournal & More
Among the many benefits of SCA membership are our two outstanding printed publications, the SCA Journal and SCA Road Notes. Excerpts here, with full access for members.
Why You Should JoinGet Published!
The SCA offers quality publication opportunities for preservation professionals, academics, authors, independent scholars and enthusiasts. We can’t wait to publish you!
Submit Article or IdeaNo ads. Which, given what we’re into, is kind of ironic.
The Society for Commercial Archeology is an all-volunteer organization funded entirely by our members and donors.
News & Advocacy
SCA Weekly News Review: 9/10-9/16/18
Taking time away from his graduate studies in historic preservation, Jeremy Ebersole recaps this week’s commercial archeology news.
Photo: Oyster.com
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Photo: Oyster.com
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SCA Weekly News Review: 9/3-9/9/18
Before heading off to Brazil, SCA board member Raina Regan took the time to gather quite a nice collection of offbeat roadside stories.
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Pennsylvania Blobfest Roadtrip: Introduction
This summer, Kevin Patrick, Professor of Geography and Regional Planning at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, led a large group of intrepid SCAers on a three-day roadtrip down the Lincoln Highway to Blobfest and then deep into Pennsylvania Dutch Country. We are publishing Kevin’s tour guide in 3 installments.
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SCA Weekly News Review: 8/26-9/2/18
SCA president Michael Hirsch curates this week’s news review.
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News & Advocacy