The Hi-View Restaurant in Villa Park, Illinois. I believe the restaurant has been remodeled a couple of times, but it still has this excellent old school neon slab out front.
Bright and night views provided. See you next year!
A ghost sign in downtown Nashville. There are quite a few ghost signs around town-Nashville has a pleasantly small town feel in places. This one caught my eye because it's right next to the Shelby Avenue Bridge, which crosses the Columbia River. It's pretty obvious that it was meant to be seen by travelers on the bridge, and that the wood door was for loading freight onto the second floor.
Hudson's Hornet was a revolutionary design in the early postwar years, featuring a "step down" design wherein the floorpans were dropped, allowing for the lower roof line that was the car's hallmark. It also allowed a lower center of gravity, which proved to be a bonus on the racetrack, and the Fabulous Hudson Hornet became a force to be reckoned with on the stock car circuit.
Unfortunately, this unique feature would also prove to be the car's downfall. When Hudson became part of American Motors Corporation, the step-down design proved to be difficult to update, and by the mid fifties the Hornet was definitely looking a bit old fashioned. After 1955, Hornets would be based on senior Nash models.
This one's about a '52, and features the Twin-H Power dual-carb engine, the one that made the Hornet's name on the tracks.
Santa's Village Is a Christmas-themed amusement park in Dundee, Illinois. Opened in 1959, the Dundee location was the third one built (the other two being in California), and was intended to be the hub of a chain of parks. However, no further Villages were built, the other two eventually closed, and the Dundee location became the last of it's kind.
The park featured rides, a petting zoo, access to a water park, and the Polar Dome, an ice skating rink. Popular locally for decades, but declining attendance and other issues caused the park's closure in 2006. It remained so until 2011, when new owners cleaned everything up and reopened some of the attractions.
I shot this in 2010, before the lights and sign were restored to working order.
Always a popular draw, steam locomotives are still a rare enough sighting in the United States that they draw a crowd wherever they go. Leviathan is a replica of a Schenectady Locomotive Works engine, built in 1868 for the Central Pacific Railroad. Leviathan was built entirely from scratch by the Kloke Locomotive Works of Elgin, Illinois.
It is a truly beautiful machine. Every detail is absolutely perfect, and the Leviathan is fully functional. It appeared at the Illinois Railway Museum this past summer, and I was fortunate enough to ride behind it for a short trip on the museum's main line. Fun, and possibly a unique experience for me.
I love finding alphanumeric phone numbers still in situ. They turn up all over the place sometimes-old business cards or matchbooks, old ashtrays, old signs, old boxes and sometimes, old trucks.
Pleasantly, this truck hasn't strayed too far from it's home in Elgin, either.
Old motels have some of the best vintage neon. This classic, Googie-tastic piece of the glassbender's art is in Wisconsin Dells.
I wish it had been sunnier when I shot this. I'll have to go back in the spring, and maybe see if I can get it at night too.
Cool tile entryway in Rochelle, Illinois. I'm pleased that it's still around-plenty of terrazzo entryways survive, bit tile breaks so easily that they're a bit rarer. Plus, they're usually just a tile pattern, rather than a logo like this one.
I can't remember what's in this storefront now but it's not a National Tea.
This is my uncle (well, great-uncle) Rodney's '50 Chevrolet. I hadn't seen it in years-he's getting on in years and it's harder for him to drive it these days-but he brought it out on Thanksgiving. I thought it was an excellent TtV subject.
Famous for being a car that goes very fast in second gear*, the Nash Rambler was a popular car in the compact segment. Sold under both the Nash and Hudson names, the model was discontinued in 1955, the new car featured modified Nash "Airflyte" styling, to better integrate with senior Nash models. This, in combination with economical engines and a low price, helped the Rambler to be the first really popular American compact car, and it remained in production until 1955, not long after the formation of American Motors Corporation.
In 1957, AMC was in need of a compact car, something to slot in between the tiny two seat Metropolitan and the larger family sized Rambler Six. Fortunately, AMC had retained the previous model's tooling and it was a fairly simple job to update the styling. The "new" car made it's debut in 1958 as the Rambler American.
The American was well reviewed, praised for it's low price and economy, and proved to be a popular car throughout it's three year lifespan. In 1961, all new styling appeared, ending the Rambler's visual links to earlier "Airflyte" Nashes.
Founded in 1879 by brothers Charles and Herbert Hatch, Hatch Show Print is quite possibly one of the most famous print shops in the world. Their first print job was for an appearance by the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, brother of abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Orders poured in soon after, and the Hatch brothers' work began to appear on buildings all over the south. The brothers printed posters for all kinds of events and businesses, and created some iconic images. The Hatch Show Print style is recognized all over the world, and the shop is still in business today, doing concert posters, handbills, reprints of some classics, and custom print jobs. It's a really neat place, and well worth a visit if you're in Nashville.
Oh, and they have this awesome neon sign out front!
Old school sign for the Ottawa Times newspaper. The whole building has a very old fashioned, Daily Flash vibe to it.
We've seen the old Santa Fe station in Mazon, Illinois before, but I felt this was such a great TtV shot that it was worth revisiting.
A 1940's Chevrolet one ton truck, that has, as far as I can tell, been in the same ownership since it was new. One of several vehicles on this property, all disused and all going to ground.
This week's Neon Friday post is a bit of a mystery. This simple sign is in the town of Pontiac, Illinois, along old Route 66. I've been through Pontiac a couple of times, but this was the first time I noticed this particular sign. It's kind of hard to see-there's a metal awning just below it (those are the awning's supports you see in front of the sign), so you can't really see it unless you're across the street.
I have no idea who J.E. Brady was, or what J.E. Brady did. The building has a martial arts academy in the storefront now. This sign looks to be in really good shape-the glass is intact and it's not especially rusty. I wonder if it still works, and have this odd fantasy that it's on a timer and still lights up every night at 6 pm.
Having grown out of the Southern Engine and Boiler Works of Jackson, Marathon Motor Cars were built in Nashville, Tennessee for just four years, between 1910 and 1914. Then as now, it was common for auto manufacturers to buy in parts and assemblies, but Southern chose to engineer and make everything in-house.
Initially badged as Southerns, the company changed the name to Marathon and moved to a new factory in Nashville. The cars were well regarded-probably because of the total control the company had over it's engineering-and demand soon outstripped supply. However, like so many other early auto manufacturers, management didn't keep up with engineering, and within a few years the company ceased automobile production.
The factory complex on Clinton Street in Nashville still stands, and has been partially converted to retail and gallery space. In addition to some old signwriting, some old logos have been lovingly recreated on the factory walls, including this beauty.
A 1952 or 3 Packard sedan. I think it's a 300 or maybe a Patrician, but there were no badges to suggest this. It was sporting an Ultramatic automatic transmission, though.
I found this car in a tiny rural town in Illinois, parked in front of a rundown repair shop amidst a complex of grain silos. I don't know how long it sat there but I went by a few weeks later and it was gone. I've said it before, it's best to just stop and look when you get the chance.
Nashville, as seen from the historic Shelby Avenue Bridge.
I like this shot, even though it doesn't show the AT&T building's distinctive silhouette. It has it all-newer, modern buildings (the AT&T and the Bridgestone Arena), as well as the classic 1957 vintage Life and Casualty Building (with it's neon "L&C" sign on the top.) But, you can also see a corner of historic Broadway, and the vintage storefronts along 1st Avenue North. It represents both sides of Nashville's personality-the modern, efficient city of tomorrow and the rowdy, countrified town of yesterday.
Opened in 1931, Sprague's Super Service was a large gas station and cafe along Route 66, on what was then the outskirts of Normal, Illinois. It housed several different restaurants and stations, and was used until 1976. This old sign is the only one that remains, although the building is still in very nice condition.
Now on the National Register of Historic Places, there are hopes that this Route 66 classic can be reopened.
Ford's Edsel was meant to be a separate, all new brand to compete with GM's midpriced Oldsmobile and Chrysler's DeSoto. It was a spectacular failure. Popular belief is that the car's styling-mostly conventional but with that unusual vertical grille up front-did the Edsel in, along with it's weird name. In reality, it was a combination of things, including poor build quality, pricing that didn't quite slot between Ford and Mercury, and marketing that promised more than the cars delivered. In addition, a recession in 1957 and '58 hampered sales of midpriced cars-Studebaker eliminated the Packard brand, AMC focused on economy cars instead of larger Nashes, and Chrysler saw sales of it's DeSoto brand fall drastically. The Edsel didn't have much of a chance, and was gone within three years.
That said, I've always kinda liked the Edsel. Stylewise, I think it compares favorably with most other American cars of the period. This one's a '58, and I believe it's an unrestored example as well.
Located on the outskirts of Lexington, Illinois, is the remains of the Oasis Drive-In. Literally by the side of Route 66, it was a popular burger joint for decades.
The building is still standing, and is in pretty decent shape, although I have no idea what it's used for. The old canopy provides cover for a few old cars, and the old sign is still there, missing letters and all.
Vintage trailer from the Kitchen Made Pies company. Best I can tell, this was a regional bakery from the 50's through to the 80's, at which point the company went out of business. A friend of mine came up with a bunch of mentions of this firm in various business case studies, so whatever they did it must have been noteworthy, at least at the time.
I would guess this trailer is from the sixties-it has that really old look to it. Spotted in the town of Towanda, Illinois, along old Route 66.
A classic Baldwin 4-6-4 steam locomotive, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. Dating from 1930, this big boy served with the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy.
I like this shot. It really has that analogue, TtV look to it, and encapsulates everything I like about this technique.
