Kern County Museum ready to Get Lit! on April 29
The San Joaquin Tractor and Italian Dante Association signs are new additions to the Mission Bank Neon Plaza at the Kern County Museum. See them in their restored glory on April 29 at the returning event Get Lit! Courtesy of Mike McCoy
From The Bakersfield Californian: Get Lit! will be back bigger and brighter than ever at the Kern County Museum on April 29. It returns with the addition of more neon in the growing collection of vintage signs.
Museum director Mike McCoy said the collection is now up to 40 signs, including recent additions such as San Joaquin Tractor, the Italian Dante Association and Regent Cocktails.
“Our neon collection just keeps growing,” McCoy said in a news release. “All of these signs are from long-gone local businesses or places that have changed locations. They really bring back memories from Kern County back in the day.”
Burnt orange — despite fire, Orange World plans to renovate and re-open
Some two dozen Osceola County Fire Rescue members put out a blaze Tuesday night at Orange World in West U.S. 192. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
Osceola News-Gazette: News of a fire at Orange World Tuesday night brought sadness to many longtime Kissimmee and Osceola County residents.
Orange World is a shop selling citrus, gifts and other local tourism-inspired trinkets on West U.S. Highway 192 between Polynesian Isle and Seralago Boulevards. But, it’s iconically known to residents — and frequent visitors — as “The Big Orange.” Built in the 1980s, it’s billed as the only building of its kind — at 92 by 60 feet, it’s “the biggest orange in the country.”
The fire broke out around 6 p.m. Tuesday, as some two dozen firefighters descended on the structure and kept the fire impacts to the back of the building, while preventing any damage to nearby businesses, including a Waffle House and Stayable Suites hotel mere feet from the Orange World building. But smoke and water damage will likely render inventory inside as a loss, said Mason Rahman, who with his family own Orange World and a number of other area businesses.
Tastee Diner Permanently Closed, Sold to D.C. Developer
From Source of the Spring: The sudden closure of Tastee Diner surprised the Silver Spring community on Wednesday after owner Gene Wilkes sold the restaurant to D.C.-based developer Roadside Development LLC.
According to Eater, Wilkes had been in talks with Roadside for the past year regarding the sale of the restaurant at 8601 Cameron St. in downtown Silver Spring.
What’s going on With Pioneer Supermarket’s Neon Sign?
Taking it down. Photo by David
From West Side Rag: If you’ve ever wondered how long the red neon sign with some letters missing above the Pioneer Supermarket on Columbus Avenue between 74th and 73rd Streets was going to sit up there like that, the answer is: until about 5 p.m. Wednesday, when it was taken down and replaced by a new sign. Tipster David walked by and snapped these pictures.
Don’t worry if you find the new sign less than thrilling. “It’s only temporary,” Daniel, one of the managers of Pioneer, told us on the phone. “The old sign is roughly 45 years old,” he explained. “They’re gonna repair it, and put it back up.”
Vintage motel signs in south Minneapolis go up for auction
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This vintage sign outside the former Aqua City Motel along Lyndale Avenue in south Minneapolis is up for auction, as Hennepin County, which now owns the property, converts the building to affordable housing. Courtesy of Joy Mulholland
From MPR News: If you’re a fan of mid-century modern décor, you’ve got a chance to super-size your taste for nostalgia in Minneapolis.
Hennepin County is auctioning off two 1960s-era roadside motel signs, long-dimmed neon beacons at former wayside rests on one of America’s main north-south arteries.
The decommissioned motels — Aqua City Motel and the Metro Inn — stand a block apart on the south end of Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis, the former route of U.S. Highway 65, which predated Interstate 35W and ran from Louisiana to Minneapolis (and linked to State Highway 65 that runs nearly all the way to the Canadian border).