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Scaffold Signs (page 5)

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Derrick Truck Stop
Greenwood, LA		 Lamp Lighter Lounge
Metairie, LA		 Hotel Pontchartrain
New Orleans, LA
This Derrick Truck Stop sign is probably from the 1950s. The neon is now missing from the channel letters. [map]

The Lamp Lighter Lounge sign is probably from the 1950s. [map]

The Hotel Pontchartrain was built as an apartment building in 1927. In the 1940s, it was converted into a luxury hotel. [map]

Falstaff Brewery
New Orleans, LA
2010: 2019:
The former Falstaff Brewery features a 185-foot-tall sign tower. It was built in 1952 and operated as a weather beacon until the brewery closed in the 1970s. The building remained vacant until 2007 when conversion into apartments began. In 2011, the weather-forecasting sign was restored. The tower and weather ball are lit in the same weather-predicting color patterns as they were originally. The Falstaff letters indicate changing temperatures. When they are lit from bottom to top, it means temperatures are rising. When lit from top to bottom, it indicates temperatures are falling. When the letters flash, there is no change expected. The 11-foot-tall steel letters were replicated to conform with local regulations. The requirements included that the sign would need to withstand 130 mile per hour winds.

The sign's weather ball was also refurbished. It provides further weather information. Green, red, and white neon are used to predict rain, showers, approaching storms, cloudy or fair weather. Weather beacons and weather balls were particularly popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Dozens of them were built in the U.S. and other countries. Two weather balls from this time period are still operating in Flint and Grand Rapids, MI. The Falstaff Brewery Building also has a Gambrinus statue on the roof. For more, see these websites: 1, 2, and 3. [map]

Hotel Monteleone
New Orleans, LA		 Herrin Storage & Transfer Co.
Shreveport, LA
The Hotel Monteleone opened in 1886. This sign is probably from the 1930s or later. [map]

The Herrin Storage & Transfer Co. was established in Shreveport in 1911. This warehouse is still operating as an Allied Van Lines location. This sign is probably from the 1950s or 1960s. [map]

Mid-City Motor Hotel
Shreveport, LA
The Mid-City Motor Hotel was built by the early 1960s. This sign is probably from then or earlier. The building is now for apartments. [map]

More Louisiana:
Kean's (Baton Rouge) [gone]

Shell
Cambridge, MA		 Teddie Peanut Butter
Everett, MA
This Shell sign was constructed in 1933 by the Donnelly Electric Manufacturing Company. It was originally installed with a twin sign on top of the company's headquarters building in Boston. Around 1948, this sign was moved to this location while the other sign was dismantled. It is 68 feet tall and featured animated neon. The sign is still located at an operating Shell gas station. In 2011, just weeks after these photos were taken, a replica sign using LED lighting was installed. It cost more than $200,000 to produce it. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2. [map]

The Leavitt Corporation began producing Teddie Peanut Butter in Boston, MA in the 1930s during the Great Depression. "Teddie" was the name of one of the manager's sons. When the company moved to Everett in 1960, this sign was built and installed on the building's roof. It is about 70 feet long. Locals recall that the sign's neon text flashed on and off sequentially and that the bear may have had neon as well. The neon stopped working by the late 1960s and the sign has been lit with floodlights since then. Originally, the bear most likely had blue eyes and held a slice of bread in his left hand. He was depicted as such and in the same pose in 1950s advertising and product labels. The sign is repainted as needed. For more, see this website. [map]

Big Bunny Market
Southbridge, MA

The Big Bunny Market sign is installed on the roof above the store's entrance. According to the store's management, it was built in 1962. The eight-foot-tall bunny statue was added soon after that. There were two of them at this store and another at the Stafford Springs store. The Stafford Springs bunny was stolen. The second one at Southbridge was removed for repairs and never went back up. It was loaned to a salesman who changed the statue into a penguin for a frozen food promotion. The statue was never returned as promised. The bunny that remains was stolen by a fraternity around 1997. It was located and retrieved.

According to another source, the bunny statue was built and installed in 1958. The sign was already there on the store's roof but the letters were different. There were no letters spelling "Market" and there was a round panel with a Bugs Bunny look-alike. [map]

More Massachusetts:
Boston Wharf Co. Industrial Real Estate (Boston) [map]
Walter Baker (Boston)
YMCA (Boston) [map]
Sheraton Commander Hotel (Cambridge)
Swift Cleaners (Greenfield) [gone]
Lowell Sun (Lowell)
Thorndike Mills (Palmer) [gone]
Louis J. Kirsch Jr. Realtor (Waltham) [gone]

Domino Sugars
Baltimore, MD		 Goetze's Meats
Baltimore, MD
The Domino Sugars sign is 120 feet wide. The company claimed that the sign was the largest neon sign east of the Mississippi River. The sign was built in 1951. The sign had 650 neon tubes and was lit with solar panels. The plant is still in operation. In 2021, it was announced that the sign would be replaced with new letters containing LED tubing instead of neon. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2. [map]

The Goetze's Meats double-sided sign remains on the roof of the former Goetze meat packing warehouse. [map]

More Maryland:
Home Mutual Life (Baltimore)
Cumberland Motel (Cumberland)

McNally's Shoes
Allen Park, MI		 Harbortown
Cafe
Benton Harbor, MI		 House of Ludington
Escanaba, MI
McNally's Shoes opened in 1945 and is still in business. [map]

The Harbortown Cafe looked like a new restaurant when this photo was taken in 2011. From the size of the letters and the vertical format, it looks like this "Food" sign probably came from a truck stop. The cafe has closed by 2015 but the sign was still there. By 2018, the building was still vacant but the Food sign had red plastic installed over the neon. This sign might originally have had plastic panels in front of the neon. [map]

The House of Ludington hotel has been around since the late 1800s. This sign has been here since at least the 1940s. [map]

Bean Bunny [gone]
Saginaw, MI
The Bean Bunny neon sign was built in 1947. It is 35 feet tall, 50 feet wide, with 12-foot-tall letters. The sign is mounted on the Klein-Berger grain elevator. The giant pink jackrabbit was the symbol of the Michigan Bean Company's Jack Rabbit Beans. The sign went dark since 1985 but was relit in 1997. In 2006, the building was sold but the new owner allowed the sign to stay. In 2021, the sign was removed before the building was demolished. It has not been determined where it will be displayed.

More Michigan:
Hotel Doherty (Clare)
Ambassador Bridge (Detroit)
Hostess Cake (Detroit) [gone]
Hotel Yorba (Detroit)
Music Hall (Detroit)
Peninsular Paper Co. (Ypsilanti) [map]

Scaffold Signs
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Scaffold Signs
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