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Scaffold Signs (page 10)

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Hi Hat Diner
Clearfield, UT
Murray
Laundry Tower [gone]
Murray, UT
The Hi Hat Diner sign might be from the 1950s. [map]

The Murray Laundry was established in 1910 and remained in operation until the 1970s. The company moved to this location in 1931. The water tower and sign were probably built then. The tower was filled with water from artesian wells located on the site. In 2018, the tower was restored with replica panels. The sign now advertises, with backlit plastic letters, for the Artesian Springs Apartments which are now located at the base of the tower. [map]

Cache Valley Bank
Logan, UT
Union Pacific Railroad
Salt Lake City, UT
This Cache Valley Bank is housed in the Thatcher Building which was built in 1915 for the Thatcher Bank and the Hotel Eccles. There was originally a different triangulated horizontal scaffold sign on the roof for Thatcher Bank. In 1933, the name was changed to the First Security Bank of Logan. I assume that the sign was rebuilt then to its corner facing structure. First Security operated here until 2001 when the sign was updated for the new tenant, Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo moved out in 2015. In 2018, the sign got its current look for the new tenant, Cache Valley Bank. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2. [map]

The Union Pacific Railroad depot was built in 1909. An earlier version of the sign featured a clock at the center of the shield. The current sign was probably built in the 1950s. This logo which spelled out Union Pacific Railroad at the top of the shield was developed in 1950. For more, see this website. [map]

Walker Center
Salt Lake City, UT
2014: 2022:
The Walker Center Building was built as the Walker Bank Building in 1912. In the late 1940s, a local radio station built a radio transmitter tower on top of the building. It was abandoned in the early 1950s and Walker Bank converted it into a weather beacon. The tower was removed in 1983 because of a change in local sign ordinances. However, the tower was rebuilt and relit in 2008. The 64-foot-tall tower is lit in different colors to indicate the weather forecast. Blue is for clear skies, flashing blue for cloudy skies, red for rain, and flashing red for snow. All that survived of the original tower was the letter "W" which was installed at West Valley High in Salt Lake City in 2014. In 2022, the sign's neon was replaced with LED tubing. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2. [map]

Rio Grande Depot
Salt Lake City, UT

2014:

2022:

The Rio Grande Depot was built in 1910 for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The station closed in 1999. The building now houses the Utah State Historical Society, the Utah History Research Center, the Rio Gallery, and the Rio Grande Cafe. In the 1940s, a rooftop sign was installed with the letters "Western Pacific" below "Rio Grande." That sign faced three directions. The later sign from the 1950s only faced one direction. The "Western Pacific" letters were removed in the 1980s. In 2019, the scaffolding was declared unsafe and the sign as too difficult to maintain. A new double-sided sign with LED tubing replaced it. The old neon sign went to the Utah State Railroad Museum at Ogden Union Station in Ogden, UT. For more, see this website. [map]

More Utah:
Farr Better Ice Cream (Ogden)
First Security Bank (Salt Lake City) [gone]
Welcome Sign (Ogden)

Bristol Slogan Sign
Bristol, VA & Bristol, TN
FFV Cookies & Crackers
Richmond, VA
The Bristol Slogan Sign is not only one of the oldest examples of these signs, it is also one of the oldest signs in the country. It was built in 1910 for $1,100 and stands at the state line of the twin cities of Bristol, VA and Bristol, TN. All-electric city slogan signs were quite common in the early 1910s. This list from 1914 shows dozens of them. The 60-foot-wide sign was built by the Greenway Advertising Company in Knoxville, TN and shipped to Bristol by rail. The sign was donated to the city by the H.L. Doherty Company, the new owner of the Bristol Gas & Electric Company. Doherty had a tradition of erecting signs in cities where they operated. The Bristol sign was lit with 834 clear white bulbs. It was originally installed on the roof of the Interstate Hardware Company store. At that time, the text at the bottom of the sign read "Push, That's Bristol." The slogan was meant to encourage the town's commercial growth.

In 1915, the sign was moved to its present location on the street. The sign was a dramatic spectacle at night since there were no streetlights at the time. In 1917, red chasing bulbs were added to the arrows and green bulbs to the center of the pulsating starburst. In 1921, there was a contest to develop a new slogan. The text at the bottom was changed by Greenway to "A Good Place to Live." That increased the number of bulbs to 1,332. In 1977, significant rust was found on the sign during a repainting. A "Save Our Sign" campaign begun in 1982 raised $7,700 and led to the sign's reconstruction in 1989. The sign was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. In 2010, a centennial celebration was held for the sign with speakers, music, and cake. The sign's four-watt bulbs are replaced quarterly by the city's two utility companies. The bulbs have been lit with different colors for special events a few times. In 2012, the sign was lit in pink for breast cancer month. In 2016, the bulbs were changed to maroon and orange for the "Battle at Bristol" football game. This year, the incandescent bulbs will be replaced with LED versions. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2. [map]

FFV Cookies & Crackers were once baked here by Interbake Foods with the Famous Foods of Virginia label. Interbake was originally founded in 1899 as the Southern Biscuit Company and this building is from then. The company closed this factory in 2006 and it has been vacant since then. In 2013, the building was converted into the Cookie Factory Lofts. The sign is still there and has been relit. For more, see this website. [map]

C.F. Sauer Company Extracts
Richmond, VA
The C.F. Sauer Company began producing flavoring extracts in Richmond, Virginia in 1887. By 1927, Sauer was the largest producer of extracts and spices in the country. Vintage advertisements indicate that the company's chef character had been developed by 1915. The single-sided, incandescent bulb sign was installed on the roof around 1925. It is still animated and lit at night. An electrician tends to the sign monthly. When the company relocated to the adjacent building in the 1960s, the sign was lifted by helicopter and moved from one roof to the other. The sign is 60 feet wide and composed of 1,200 incandescent bulbs.

The sign features a chef stirring and adding extract into a bowl. The chef's right arm repetitively stirs while his left arm is lit in two stages to create the pouring effect. After two drops of vanilla fall into the bowl, the word "vanilla" is gradually spelled out, emanating from the bowl in red continuous script. After four more drops, "vanilla" is slowly turned off in the same left to right pattern. The word "Sauer's" flashes on and off. The bulbs around the outside edge the sign chase clockwise continuously. The sign was restored around 2006. These photos are from 2009. For more, see these websites: 1, 2, 3, and 4. [map]

Mill Mountain Star
Roanoke, VA
The Mill Mountain Star is the world's largest man-made illuminated star measuring 100 feet tall and 88 feet wide. It was built in 1949 by the Roy C. Kinsey Sign Company which still maintains the sign. It was erected on a mountain overlooking Roanoke which is known as the Star City of the South. The Star was built for the Christmas holidays but it was so popular that it became a permanent fixture. Its 2,000 feet of neon tubing hums loudly enough that the sign gets turned off at midnight so that neighbors can sleep. The star is normally lit white but has a tradition of red lighting for city traffic fatalities and national tragedies (e.g., JFK's assassination, the Challenger space shuttle explosion). For 4th of July holidays and since September 11th, the star has been lit red, white, and blue. The sign was renovated in 2006 by the same company that worked on the H&C Coffee and Dr. Pepper signs. For more, see this website. [map]

More Virginia:
Berry-Burk & Co. (Richmond) [map]
Hotel John Marshall (Richmond) [map]
Ingleside Golf Resort (Staunton)
Stonewall Jackson Hotel (now Hotel 24 South) (Staunton) [gone]

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