For this edition of "Beyond the Mid-South," I thought it would be fun -- especially in this current age of limited travel -- to revisit my July 2016 visit to one of the coolest places on earth, the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati. If you've never been, I highly recommend it! But for the time being, you can get a feel for it from my photos below. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, for the most part. Please enjoy!
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| Starting off outside. The man on the ladder is simply painted on the wall. Wile E. Coyote level precision! |
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| There is a tour, but you're also allowed to wander around and get a bunch of photos. Which clearly, I did. |
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| I found the schematics for the McDonald's sign almost as fascinating as the sign itself. You'll be seeing more of the sign throughout the post. I circled back to it several times. |
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| There was a little "downtown" area with recreated storefronts like this. Not all signs in the museum are neon, but most are. |
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| Yes, the cars do spin around the globe! |
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| As a DeSoto County resident I quite liked this sign :) |
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| Unless it was legitimately called "Kroger's" back then I cannot excuse the apostrophe-S |
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| These were some of the best low-light photos my old phone ever took. |
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| I loved this sign! Or series of signs, as it were. |
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| Outside the building are several signs that are either awaiting restoration or are too big to fit inside the building (even with as large as the space is). It is my understanding that they periodically obtain and/or restore new signs to add to the collection inside the museum. |
Until next time, have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!
Retail Retell
Cool stuff! I need to make my way up to Cincinnati someday! There's a lot to see at this place, although I especially liked seeing the McDonald's sign, the Howard Johnson sign, and the Holiday Inn "great sign".
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's definitely a fun place to visit!
DeleteThis is some neat stuff. That Burger King sign does not feel quite at home without it saying "Home of the Whopper" right below it though! I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, but if not, this is what I mean: https://flic.kr/p/2h8W1Re
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the Home of the Whopper, you probably know that in Australia, Burger King is known as Hungry Jack's and that they continued to use the older, now more or less the current, style of Burger King logo. Well, anyway, in Australia, many people use the name "Macca's" to refer to McDonald's. It seems some McDonald's locations in Australia have even started to call themselves Macca's with signage and all! That's a bit unusual for a company that's usually pretty strict about their name and logos: https://flic.kr/p/24Z5dMh
Anyway, this museum is pretty neat. I didn't even know that such a thing existed, but I've never been to Cincinnati before. I've been to Cleveland and Akron and there is some interesting retail in that area that I was fortunate enough to be able to visit.
I will say that I'm glad that I don't have to pay the light bill that this museum must pay, lol, but it's good that there aren't too many burned out light bulbs in the signs. Some retailers are known for not being too concerned about replacing bulbs in their signs. The local Target in this area was once such retailer in the 1980s and that led to the Target having all kinds of strange names at night, lol. arget, Targe, a get, Tar et, etc. You get the idea, lol.
Ha, fair enough! Who knows, they might own one somewhere in their collection and it's just not on display.
DeleteWow, that's strange! You don't see them calling themselves "Mickey D's" on any signage around here. Wouldn't that be weird?
I wasn't aware of it either until we took this trip! I think my mom was actually the one who discovered it when planning our itinerary. I'd recommend it if you ever find yourself in the area.
LOL! Yep, it's probably not very cheap. As for burned out bulbs, they really take good care of these signs in restoring and preserving them, so I wouldn't really expect to see any issues like that. Much unlike actual stores like you mention, haha! The Walmart in my town (not kidding) has been just "r" for several months now...
Mike B here: I'm so glad you posted this. What a great place. The Beaman pontiac sign! It stood at 1525 Broadway in Nashville for many years.. probably up up until 2009 when pontiac went away. They have a smaller version of the sign still up at their building at 14th and mcgavock st.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I didn't realize that sign had a Nashville connection! How cool! I just Googled it and it looked great back in the day. Hopefully the museum is able to restore and display it appropriately. I have a soft spot for Pontiac, although I actually like the final logo more so than the older one -- probably because that's the one I'm more familiar with :)
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