All lit up: Tulsa’s stretch of Route 66 now features over 50 neon signs
Ken Busby Greg Bollinger
From TulsaPeople: Route 66 has attracted travelers from around the world in its near century of existence. Lately, those cruising through Tulsa’s 28-mile stretch of the Mother Road will notice a fresh glow of neon lights adorning local businesses.
“We thought, ‘What’s a way we can impact the 28 miles of Route 66 in Tulsa and do something meaningful?’” says Ken Busby, executive director and CEO of the Route 66 Alliance. “And the thought was, ‘Oh, neon signs! We have some, but we could use more.’”
Sign from beloved Michelle’s ice cream shop missing from storage
CBS
From CBS Colorado: The search is on for a piece of history from downtown Colorado Springs. A neon sign for Michelle’s, a once-beloved ice cream and chocolate shop, has disappeared from storage.
Michelle’s opened in the spot on Tejon in 1954 but closed in the early 2000s. The Colorado Springs Downtown Development Authority originally took the sign when another business moved into the spot, hoping to restore it.
Savona Mill’s transformation into office, retail space nearing completion
Turner Ave – Construction on the mill at 528 S. Turner Ave. began last February (Charlotte Business Journal)
From WSOC-TV: CHARLOTTE — Portman Holdings is just months away from wrapping up redevelopment of Savona Mill, an adaptive-reuse project in Charlotte’s historic West End.
Construction on the mill at 528 S. Turner Ave. began last February. The first phase is expected to deliver in June and will include 180,000 square feet of office space and 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, a rooftop deck, an outdoor plaza that leads to an amphitheater for live music and public community events.
New Year, New Look For Two Mint Hill Businesses
Woof ‘n Hoof’s sign and horse have undergone a makeover
From The Mint Hill Times: MINT HILL, NC – The new year brings a new look to two well-established Mint Hill businesses.
If you’ve driven through Mint Hill’s downtown lately, you’ll notice some changes to the Woof ‘n Hoof. In place of the sign advertising “pet supplies and feed,” the new sign features the clean white silhouette of a dog and cat on a bright blue background.
Pennsylvania and New Mexico universities score National Park Service grant to preserve Route 66
A gas station on the historic Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico. (Tony Hisgett/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0)
From The Architect’s Newspaper: On January 19 representatives from the University of PennsylvaniaStuart Weitzman School of Design announced that it and project partners at the New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) had scored a National Park Service (NPS) grant for the preservation of the legendary Route 66 cultural landscape in Tucumcari, New Mexico, a small city about 175 miles east of Albuquerque.
“Learning from the Mother Road,” will use geomatics, archaeology, and the “technical humanities” to better understand and preserve “a landscape of movement that defines the Route 66 corridor.”
This Lubbock Restaurant Is a Vintage-Sign and Neon-Fixture Utopia
Texas Country Reporter
From the Texas Monthly: At Cook’s Garage in Lubbock, Texas, owner Rusty Cook has accumulated enough vintage signs to cover both the inside and outside of the entire restaurant. So many signs, in fact, that he had to hire someone to maintain them all. That’s where Rebecca Welch stepped in. A professional neon glass bender, Rebecca is responsible for restoring the restaurant’s numerous neon fixtures to their original charm and vibrancy. See more in the latest dispatch from Texas Country Reporter.