Estate

Estate, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

You see a lot of those little rectangular vacuform signs around-they were ubiquitous at one time and a lot of them have remained. Usually you'll see one or two segments on a given sign, but this one has eight-a definite record for me! Anyway, this carbon dated beauty is in Ottawa, Illinois.

Do they even make these signs anymore?

The Times

The Times, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Old school sign for the Ottawa Times newspaper. The whole building has a very old fashioned, Daily Flash vibe to it.

Steak House

Woody's Steak House, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

This sign is on a pole near the corner, in front of a smaller building with a restaurant in it. Clearly, it's been repurposed from some other building, although I don't know if it was just relocated from this restaurant's previous location. Clearly it used to spin (and maybe still does-it's in good shape, and I bet it lights up nicely), but that big C-clamp pole is awkward.

This is down in Ottawa. I should really go down there and check it out at night, along with the Sands and Monte's.

The Sands

The Sands, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

This beauty is from the days when independent motels were the norm, rather than the exception. They always seemed to have these really cool names, often based on larger, more famous hotels. I can't imagine how many Sands Motels there must have been-The Sands in Vegas was very well known, so it would be a natural to copy.

This is a pretty well preserved old school Googie styled motel, complete with flagstone exteriors and funky lights. And dig the hourglass motif on the sign!

Monte's Riverside Inn

Monte's Riverside Inn, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Happy Neon Friday!

Ottawa, Illinois is a medium sized town at the confluence of the Fox and Illinois Rivers. I'd planned on going down there for a while now-it has a nice downtown area-and finally did it because I found myself in front of a sign that told me I was only twenty miles away. I mean, once you're that close, you may as well go, right?

Imagine my surprise when I saw this gem as I passed over the Fox River. Monte's has been around for a while and is a classic old-school restaurant. This sign is just gorgeous, and I have to find the time to go back down and shoot this at night, and more importantly, eat at Monte's!