Historic Houston Signs

[editor]

As soon as I saw this, I knew the HAIF modders would be interested in it.

It's a Flickr set of hundreds of googie/mod/retro roadside signs. The group behind it is called Society in Decline. There are quite a few gems in there.

[dbigtex56]

Does this topic belong on an architectural forum?

Yeah. I think it does.

Wish I had a digital camera a couple of years ago. There are (were?) several examples of signs which had been updated on the 'right' side when downtown streets were converted to one-way. The opposite sides were left as they were when first erected. Why update signs that motorists cannot see?

Being a pedestrian sometimes has its priviliges.

[Lone Star Rooster]

Sort of along this same line of thinking...

I miss the good old Holiday Inn "Great Signs," which I recall from early childhood road trips in the late 70's and early 80's. Remember the flashing star atop the sign, and the blinking arrow? For me, thinking of those signs brings back great memories of family vacations, talking with other families during early-evening dips in the courtyard-style Holiday Inn swimming pool (do mid-level hotels even have pools anymore?), and having a real breakfast in the Holiday Inn restaurant in the morning (do mid-level hotels even have sit-down restaurants anymore?).

Alas, those Great Signs are all gone now, victims of corporate cost-cutting and highway "beautification."

[Dan the Man]

I think I remember a classic Holiday Inn sign on the West Loop across from the Galleria. The building is now a "Courtyard Marriot" or something.

[torimask]

Came across a folder in the Chronicle Morgue Files labelled "Signs" with a number of clippings and a few fun photos of some of the Houston-sized signs. Sorry, they only let you use your phone (despite having a small flatbed scanner in my bag) so some of these are really rough.

[torimask]

a few more:

[sevfiv]

I have a Houston Press (?) article that has Kirby signs...the Big Frank's sign is in it I believe. I'll have to dig it up!

[Subdude]

Thanks for posting those.  I realize that at the time they might have been considered trashy, but to me some of those big signs had a lot of character.  Bubba the Roach and the shrimp especially!

 

 

[estreeter]

what about the lobster at gaido's?  anyone have a picture of it?

[Earlydays]

It was a crab at Gaido's in Houston...that crab is now at Gaido's in Galveston.

[torimask]

I think it was both, sort of? Crab and "Two Gun Shrimp" were both Gaido's: http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-1960s-POSTCARD-GAIDOS-RESTAURANT-HOUSTON-TEXAS-22-/261530181439?pt=Postcards_US&hash=item3ce469df3f

[Montrose1100]

I think the Burj Al Piano is still there, I pass by it every so often on 59 (Fort Bend Music Center).

[sevfiv]

I have a Houston Press (?) article that has Kirby signs...the Big Frank's sign is in it I believe. I'll have to dig it up!

 

 

It was the Texan Newspaper from November 1988:

[Purpledevil]

Big Frank's...makes me think of John Robertson, who owned the franchise in Memorial City Mall. Coolest man ever, he was always good for a freebie dog and a drink when we youngsters were a little short on funds, after blowing it all at the arcade.

[Libbie]

Does anyone remember a big neon sign of a huge, moving loaf of bread slicing and re-slicing itself? My memory of it is from the 1950s, and it was either on top of the South Main Sears or very close to it--clearly visible from Sears, anyway; possibly it was farther away but clearly seen from Main as one faced Sears. The bread advertised was Fair-maid Bread, (which was soon after bought by Rainbo Bread). Am I the only Houstonian who remembers it?

[IronTiger]

Probably not, but I (a non-Houstonian, though my work paycheck did come from Houston last summer) think that it might've been either on the row of buildings between 59 and Wheeler (razed a number of years for light rail) and not Sears.

A little Google digging does find a neon "bread slicing" sign for Fair-Maid, but it was at Buff Stadium (the big Fingers store on I-45 S that closed several years ago)

[Purpledevil]

This bad boy still stands proudly at Shipley's on Ella Boulevard just north of 34th.

[Libbie]

Probably not, but I (a non-Houstonian, though my work paycheck did come from Houston last summer) think that it might've been either on the row of buildings between 59 and Wheeler (razed a number of years for light rail) and not Sears.

A little Google digging does find a neon "bread slicing" sign for Fair-Maid, but it was at Buff Stadium (the big Fingers store on I-45 S that closed several years ago)

 

Thanks! Either that was it, visible from a distance beyond Sears, or another one was, long ago, on Sears itself or on a close-by building (I think it was actually on or near Sears, but who can perfectly reconstruct a visual memory from age five?). I didn't manage to paste it, or its link, but in the caption they called it the         "Fair-maid Moon," because at night it rose up like a bread-shaped moon behind Buff Stadium.