Vegas Vic vibrant again on Fremont Street
From Fox5: LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Absence makes the heart glow fonder.
After months spent with his lights shut off, the 72-year-old iconic neon sign known as Vegas Vic is lit up again.
“This is such a great moment for Las Vegas to have Vegas Vic in his full glory, glowing on Fremont Street,” Aaron Berger, executive director of the Neon Museum Las Vegas told FOX5 Thursday.
New effort to restore iconic gas station in northern Arizona
From AZFamily: PEACH SPRINGS, AZ — Peach Springs, along historic Route 66, is a small town off the beaten path that helped inspire the movie “Cars.” But it’s really just a rundown eyesore now. However, those who call the area home are working to restore a gas station that, for 75 years, was the centerpiece of Peach Springs.
Northeast of Kingman, Peach Springs used to be buzzing with activity. Gas stations and motels alike were strategically scattered up and down the “Mother Road” to draw in drivers. But after Interstate 40 bypassed Peach Springs, the local businesses in the small town started to feel the pinch as not many drivers would stop there and tourism suffered.
After years of despair, Hualapai tribal members are now working to restore an iconic gas station. Charlie Vaughn, a council member of the Hualapai Indian Tribe, is excited to see the landmark restored to its former glory. “It’s our history. There was so many gas stations here. This was a popular tourism spot coming down Route 66 and this gas station represents that history. So in this repair, we really want to fix it so people can really come down and see this gas station as a historical monument,” he said.
Owner of iconic Philadelphia Melrose Diner reveals plans for new building with Action News
A famed South Philadelphia diner will be demolished in a matter of weeks, according to its owner.
From WPVI: PHILADELPHIA — A famed South Philadelphia diner will be demolished in a matter of weeks, according to its owner.
Melrose Diner, which sits on the triangle block of West Passyunk Avenue, Snyder Avenue, and 15th Street, has been an institution in the neighborhood since 1956.
Owner Michael Petrogiannis said while he plans to tear it down instead of a mixed-use six-story apartment building, a new version of Melrose Diner is part of the plan.
Want to own the old Shawmut Diner? You could scoop it up for as little as $10 at auction
Shawmut Diner, seen here in a file photo, was a place for breakfast, the morning paper and coffee, and gossip. Standard-Times File Photo
From South Coast Today: DARTMOUTH — You can buy an iconic piece of New Bedford history for as little as $10.
The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office and the state are putting the former Shawmut Diner up for auction, according to a BCSO news release. The online auction, hosted by Auctions International, started Thursday afternoon and runs until July 27.
The old Shawmut Diner served patrons for decades at the corner of Hathaway Road and Shawmut Avenue in New Bedford. Longtime owners Phil and Celeste Paleologos, seeking to have the diner be used to help inmates learn the restaurant business, donated the diner to the BCSO following its closure in the spring of 2014, including funding the move from its former location to the BCSO off Faunce Corner Road in Dartmouth.
Malls are disappearing all over the US. Should this Calif. mall be a historic landmark?
The Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey, Calif., on June 15, 2023. Andrew Pridgen/SFGATE
From SFGate: When does a building become worth protecting? What are the criteria? Age? Location? Does it come down to the architect? Is it the time in history, or the place it was created? Or is it more about the building’s potential now, including whether it can be restored, perhaps not to its original form, but to suit the needs of future users while somehow maintaining its integrity?
Turns out, it’s all of these. Homes, buildings and structures — especially those in California that were built starting in the middle of the 20th century— are in a race against the clock. Tastes change and eyesores can either be forgotten or become icons. And much of the pendulum swing depends on how much support a place has from its community, preservation experts say.
One of the best examples of this will-they-won’t-they preservation back-and-forth is Monterey’s Del Monte Shopping Center, which, since its completion in 1967, has been hiding in plain sight. The mid-century gem was built at the height of California’s freeway conversion, near the intersection of Highway 1 and state Route 68 on the Monterey Peninsula.
Northlandia: The Duluth park that honors a historic street surface
Granitoid Memorial Park in Duluth’s Chester Park neighborhood honors the legacy of Minnesota’s first concrete street. Jimmy Lovrien / Duluth News Tribune
From the News Tribune: DULUTH — This city’s streets are infamous for their potholes.
But in the early 1900s, several streets in the Chester Park neighborhood were ahead of their time in quality and durability as they were the first streets in Minnesota paved with concrete.
Today, Granitoid Memorial Park — a small triangular park and garden where 25th Avenue East, Seventh Street, Clover Street and Irving Place meet — serves to keep the memory of the unique method of road construction alive.
Patented in 1907 and installed in Duluth in 1909 and 1910, the method was among the first designed for automobiles. But since horses and buggies were still being used, it needed to accommodate both.