Argyle Street’s Foremost Liquors Is Moving Down The Block — Without Its Iconic Sign
The Foremost Liquors marquee sign, 1040 W. Argyle St. July 30, 2025. Credit: Charles Thrush/Block Club Chicago
From Block Club Chicago: UPTOWN — Asia on Argyle’s Foremost Liquors is moving across the street this fall — but the shop isn’t taking its iconic marquee with it, the owners say.
After 45 years at 1040 W. Argyle St., the liquor store is moving to 1025-27 W. Argyle St. in October, said Ryan Hotza, who helps manage the store with his father, Jim Hotza.
After a series of disputes with the building’s landlord, the family-run business was “ready for a change of scenery,” Ryan Hotza said. That includes parting with the shop’s vintage sign.
Milwaukee’s landmark Pabst sign may get new lighting
From OnMilwaukee: A Milwaukee icon may soon get something of a new look.
The Pabst Brewery sign on the bridge that spans Juneau Avenue at North 10th Street in the Brewery District – on the site of what was once the world’s largest lager brewery, which is on the National Register of Historic Places – could get redder.
On Monday, Aug. 4, the City of Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission will consider an application from NID No.1-The Brewery District seeking to replace the current red neon in the sign with LED light strips.
14 Roadside Dinosaur Attractions Worth the Stop
Prehistoric Forest Amusement Park. Dave Lawrence
From Atlas Obscura: Onsted, Michigan, right off of the U.S. Highway 12, might, seem like an odd place to find an apatosaurous. But in 1963, this town with a population of less than a thousand was home to a whole cadre of life-size fiberglass dinosaurs. These “terrible lizards” were once part of The Prehistoric Forest, an attraction on the site of a real tar pit complete with waterfalls and a fossil digging area.
Sadly, the park fell into ruin over the years, but road-trippers can still see the decaying remnants. As bizarre as that may seem, it’s not even that much of an anomaly. Dinosaur parks were once popular roadside attractions in the United States. Although many have seen better days, there are dozens of them in various states of dilapidation scattered around the nation.
From “Warty Willy,” an animatronic stegosaurus in Akron, Ohio, to the Dinosaur House, a retired schoolteacher’s life-long passion project in Henderson, Nevada, here are some places to glimpse the ruins of the land before time.
After the Fire: The Restoration of Malmgren Garage
View of the facade of Malmgren Garage after the fire in 2020. George Kramer
From the National Trust: On September 8, 2020, the Almeda Fire ripped through the Bear Creek Valley in southern Oregon, destroying more than 2,500 homes and buildings between Ashland and Medford. In Talent, Oregon, (2020 population 6,282) the fire destroyed two entire blocks in the small downtown. The Malmgren Garage was the only building to remain on the east side of Talent Avenue. The rehabilitation of the garage as a cornerstone of downtown Talent after the fire would not have happened without the financial assistance of state and federal preservation programs.
Take a tour of New Jersey diners from today and yesteryear in photos
Staff, The Ridgewood News
From northjersey.com: Exterior view of the Ackerman Diner on Kinderkamack Road in Emerson, N.J., on February 12, 1968.
A Route 66 ghost town was ‘frozen in time’. Is it on the verge of a comeback?
An abandoned motel that once stood in Newberry Springs, California. The motel no longer exists, and other parts of the town have disappeared over time, but many predict a surge in visitors during next year’s centenary. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images
From The Guardian: The tiny desert cafe, caught in a desolate middle between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, had only been open for five minutes when the first customers of the day ambled in from the already blistering heat.
It was a Friday morning in June, sand swirling outside across the cracked street and towards the Bagdad Cafe’s front door. In the same parking lot, a 1950s-era sign advertised a motel that no longer exists. In the distance, only a few surviving businesses remained: a small community center, a veterans organization and a longstanding roadhouse bar popular with locals. A few miles to the north, an entire neighborhood was abandoned in the 1990s after mounds of blowing sand swallowed it whole; today, only rooftops and chimneys peek out from the towering sand dunes.
Despite the general ghost town-like atmosphere, the cafe’s early-morning visitors were giddy.