Super Signage

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NEW YORK (page 1)

Lombardo's
Restaurant
Albany, NY
Westgate
Shopping Center
Albany, NY
Bob & Ron's Fish Fry
Albany, NY
Colonial Car Wash
Albany, NY

Lombardo's Restaurant (aka Lombardo's Grill) has been serving Italian food since 1932. The sign is not the original but it is from the 1930s and was restored in 2000.

The 90' tall Westgate Shopping Center sign and mall are from 1957, built during the building boom along the Central Avenue strip. The sign features neon and chasing bulbs. Some of the wording has been removed from the sign (it originally read "Welcome to Westgate Shopping Center) and the clock was replaced with a Price Chopper sign. In 2005, it appeared that the sign had been recently repainted (photo at right). For more, see this website.

Bob & Ron's Fish Fry is just a block or two from the Westgate sign. The restaurant opened in 1948 as Bob & Art's. It moved to this location in 1952. In the late 1950s, the name was changed (slightly) and the sign was either altered or replaced with this one. The fried fish is Atlantic cusk served on a roll. For more, see this website.

The Colonial Car Wash is right next door to the Fish Fry. It was built in the 1950s. This chain has six locations in Albany and Schenectady.

For more about Central Avenue, see this website.

Northway Inn
Colonie, NY

The Northway Inn and signage were built in 1960.

Paragon Paint
& Wallpaper [gone]
Colonie, NY

Paragon Paint & Wallpaper had this giant paint can sign dating from 1960. It used to revolve at one time. In 2004, Verizon Wireless took over the building and cut the paint can off the sign. They kept the small rectangular sign at the bottom and put the Verizon logo on that. For more paint can signs, see this page.

Central Motel (now Scottish Inn)
Colonie, NY

In 2002, the Central Motel looked like it had been closed for many years. In the summer of 2003, extensive work on the motel rooms was underway and the sign was partly dismantled. By 2005, the sign was replaced with this one (at least the flowerbox and pole are still there). The old motel's features are also intact.

Oliver's Candies
Batavia, NY
Bel-Aire Motel
Niagara Falls, NY

Oliver's Candies opened in 1932. The sign was built in the late 1940s and was origincally part of a canopy in front of the entrance. In the 1950s, it was built into the freestanding sign. The flashing bulbs had to be made steady to comply with a local ordinance. For more, see their website.

The Bel-Aire Motel and sign are from the early 1960s. It is one of the few functioning animated neon signs left on Niagara Falls Blvd.

Kem Cleaners
Erie Blvd.
Schenectady, NY
Kem Cleaners
Union St.
Schenectady, NY
Kem Cleaners
Scotia, NY

Kem Cleaners is a local dry-cleaning chain with about a dozen locations. The Erie Blvd. sign is at their original location from the 1940s. Their Union St. and Scotia stores have similar but toned-down signs. For more, see their website.

General Electric
Schenectady, NY
Photo-Lab
Schenectady, NY

The GE sign is a huge incandescent display spanning nearly the full width of its headquarters where the company began. General Electric has been using the same GE logo since 1900. It was circular in design to fit in the center of an electrical fan. I'm assuming this sign is from the 1920s or 1930s. I have heard that they changed the white lights to red and green for the Christmas holidays but I don't know if they still do.

The Photo-Lab features a terrific old glass-faced storefront with freestanding block letters above its retractable canopy.

Henderson's Drugs
Penn Yan, NY
Allied Building Products
Utica, NY
Pine Crest Motel
Utica, NY
Coral Isle Swim Pools
Vestal, NY

Henderson's Drugs was founded in 1956. They have four other locations (Geneva, Montour Falls, Seneca Falls, and Syracuse). This one has the most interesting signage. For more, see their website.

Allied Building Products maintains this animated, older neon sign above its modern one. It also fondly uses its "Rocky" character in another modern sign on the front of its building. Allied appears to specialize in roofing materials.

The Pine Crest Motel is still open and looks much better than their sign does. Most certainly, there must have been a nice neon pine tree on the sign originally.

Coral Isle Swim Pools opened in 1960. They have a full-sized swimming pool directly behind this sign. They have now expanded to sell hot tubs and game tables (e.g., billiards, ping pong).

Parsons Mobile Homes
Endwell, NY
Endwell Motel
Endwell, NY
Tasty Donut
Endwell, NY
Spankin-Kleen Launderette
Liberty, NY
Town & Country Building
Liberty, NY

Parsons Mobile Homes is now known as Parsons Recreational Vehicle.

The Endwell Motel still has this original sign and motel rooms. The restaurant is now China Lake (Chinese food).

The Tasty Donut may have been part of a chain as there was another location Binghamton, NY. The store started out as Mister Donut and later altered the sign (see this Mister Donut in FL). The similarity between this sign and the one at Bradenton Donuts (Bradenton, FL) makes me wonder if this store didn't also have a folded plate roof at one time. There was another one in Dearborn, MI which is now gone.

The Spankin-Kleen Launderette has a cool façade as signage. It looks like 1940s or so to me.

The Town & Country Building is from the late 1800s. It has been a dry goods store, a vaudeville house, movie theatre and clothing store. The current façade design is from 1953 when it was occupied by the Town & Country Men's and Boy's Shop. That business closed in the early 1990s. The building was nearly demolished but it is now being restored and nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. For more, see this website.

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