Northwest Side garage full of hidden-gem classic, muscle cars to go on auction block
The Klairmont Kollections Automotive Museum, 3117 N. Knox Ave., will close next month, and its collection of nearly 300 cars and road art go on the auction block Sept. 19-21. Mecum Auctions
From the Chicago Sun-Times: In 1967, Larry Klairmont bought his first keepsake car, a 1951 Rolls-Royce.
By 1974, he had added a few more cars to his collection, including a 1946 Lincoln Mark II and a pair of other Lincolns from 1957 and 1965.
Years later, “He was buying cars by the dozens,” said his son, Alfred Klairmont.
At its peak, the collection totaled nearly 600 cars.
Historic Oleander Hotel Added to National Register of Historic Places
Oleander Hotel
From the Lafourche Gazette: GRAND ISLE, LA – The Oleander Hotel, a two-story structure that has withstood time and storms on Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island, has officially been added to the National Register of Historic Places—a significant milestone in the campaign to preserve and restore one of the last historic hotels on Grand Isle.
The Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation confirmed the hotel’s listing on July 25, recognizing the Oleander as a rare example of Louisiana Coastal Vernacular architecture, a style that has all but vanished from the island due to repeated hurricanes and development.
Wildwood’s neon sign maker is trying to keep the classic motel signs lit
Old and in-progess neon repair projects at ABS Signs on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025 in Wildwood, NJ. © Monica Herndon/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS
From
But inside Randy Hentges’ neon workshop on Park Boulevard, in the middle of Wildwood, one of the last great neon destinations, the palm tree repair is underway.
Glass tubing is being fashioned to match the old patterns, some of which were done by his father before him.
The Family Drive-In in Stephens City Could Close Soon
From Northern Virginia Magazine: The Family Drive-In in Stephens City, one of the last drive-in movie theaters in Virginia, might soon be forced to close. The drive-in’s management posted on Facebook last week that the family that owns the property had listed it for sale.
While there was no sale pending at the time of the post, “that could change at any moment,” it said.
“We had hoped to be able to purchase the property and keep the drive-in around for many generations to come,” the post continued. “Unfortunately, at $1.5 million, the drive-in simply could not continue to exist as the monthly expense on the mortgage would be 3X the current rent and the business would immediately begin to lose thousands of dollars a month.”
Beloved N.J. diner closed for good after 50 years, will become weed dispensary
The Collingswood Diner closed Aug. 10 after over 50 years in business. (Christopher Burch | NJ Advance Media)
From NJ.com: A New Jersey diner that was in operation for more than 50 years has closed for good.
The Collingswood Diner served its final meals this past Sunday, and the building will become a weed dispensary, owner Jimmy Papandreou told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Papandreou, 72, has owned the eatery since it opened in 1974 at the intersection of the White Horse Pike and Route 130 in Oaklyn.
“I’m happy,” Papandreou told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I want to enjoy what I have left.”
Community effort underway in Petaluma to restore famous hatchery sign
The hatchery sign outside the former Poehlmann Hatchery in Petaluma dates to the 1930s, and is a popular sight harkening back to the city’s glory days as the “egg capital of the world.”
From NBC Bay Area: In a city that prides itself on living in the past through rows of historic downtown buildings and shops, the aging neon chicken sign on Petaluma’s main thoroughfare seems to perfectly fit the aesthetic.
The yellow neon chick perched above the words “restaurant” and “the hatchery” on the rust-colored sign is something of an unofficial landmark on Petaluma boulevard — a vestige of the days when the city called itself the “egg capitol of the world.” But just like the city’s egg industry, the sign’s glory days were long ago.
“Gradually the neon has disintegrated,” said Mamie Strong, who inherited the sign along with the historic Poehlmann Hatchery-turned business complex from her late husband. “There’s only one small piece of his back right now that lights up.”
The Daily Heller: A Sign That Hand-Painted Signs Are Not Obsolete
From Print: Don’t let vinyl, plastic or light-emitting diodes dull your senses. There are hundreds of sign painters around the world who, like their craft-honored cousins in letterpress printing, keep the old arts from becoming olde by offering their talents as viable services.
Over the past few years I’ve celebrated the role that sign painter and historian Sam Roberts has played in bringing the past into the present, and tracing the roots of the present back to the past. His BLAG (Better Letters Magazine) has become a clearing house for precision work by contemporary sign and showcard makers, and has invigorated the art of lettering ingenuity.
The current summer 2025 issue continues the tradition but with a distinct new twist, thanks to the help of guest editor Mark Oatis, founder of the Letterheads 50 project. The temporarily retitled magazine, IOAFS (International Organization [of] Adverturesome, Fearless Signpainters), showcases “a robust band of artists” that deserve a dedicated issue, at least once every 50 years. The issue takes the art and craft seriously but does not take itself so seriously. The work on the following pages reveals the joyful skill and artful expertise that hand-made sign painters take in replicating the pre-illumination era of lettering iconoclasm.