Fresno Neon Sign Company Keeps The Fluorescent Tradition Alive In The San Joaquin Valley
Jonathan Flores and Santiago Bustamante are sign installers with the Fresno Neon Sign Company. They help maintain hundreds of neon tubes that make up the Tower Theatre’s marquee and tower. LAURA TSUTSUI / VALLEY PUBLIC RADIO
From Valley Public Radio: This year, the Tower Theatre in Fresno turns 80 years old. The theatre’s iconic marquee and tower have flashed fluorescent pink and purple since it opened in 1939.
“The Memorial Auditorium was built then, and so the Tower Theatre was really the very last of those big, glorious, neon-lit theaters,” says Elizabeth Laval, President of the Fresno Historical Society.
She says one of the theatre’s developers was A. Emory Wishon, who worked for the utility company San Joaquin Light and Power.
Community fights for Tifton ‘Pink Motel’
From WALB: TIFTON, Ga. (WALB) – One South Georgia community said the love for a historic motel should stop developers from demolishing its rich history.
People who live in the Town Terrace Motel, or the “Pink Motel,” in Tifton said they have nowhere to go if the property gets demolished.
“I’ve lived here for six years but off and on. But I love this motel because it was built in the 1940s,” said Shirley Ann Yawn, a resident of the motel.
How One Community Embraced and Saved its Oddball Roadside Attraction
The hula hoop tree in Jones County, Iowa has attracted notoriety from tourists and locals alike. JON ZIRKELBACH
From Route Fifty: Whether blown into his tree by a storm or tossed there as a practical joke, Jon Zirkelbach isn’t sure how two hula hoops ended up caught in its branches.
But five years later, he’s certain about one thing—the whimsy of dangling hula hoops has caught on in eastern Iowa. The once barren dead tree located on a two-lane road in Jones County has sprung to life, adorned with hundreds of colorful hoops.
“It kind of kept being more and more. Now, I don’t know, there’s 400 to 500 in there,” said Zirkelbach, a member of the Jones County Board of Supervisors.
Relight the Night brings 14th sign back to life in Old Town Pocatello
Idaho State University College of Pharmacy alumnus William Eames stands next to the Ukiah Rexall Drug sign that he donated to the Relight the Night committee. The sign was relit for the first time in nearly 30 years Wednesday night at its new home inside the Cottonwood Junction storefront on North Main Street in Pocatello. Shelbie Harris/Idaho State Journal
From Idaho State Journal:
POCATELLO — No neon sign relighting is too lofty of a goal for the Old Town Pocatello Relight the Night organization, a group that brought back to life Wednesday night a sign that traveled 800 miles to reach the Gate City.
The newest addition to Relight the Night’s growing list of neon signs to be restored and relit in Old Town Pocatello is a historic Rexall Drug sign that came from Ukiah, California, and now has a permanent home inside the Cottonwood Junction store at 141 N. Main St. in Pocatello.