vintage road signs

Markel Family Virtual Getaway–Day Six

Here we are, already at the end of our virtual vacation. After packing up the car, we had one more stop planned before we hit the road…a tour of Wrigley Field! (Pardon the blurry photo…it’s a picture of a not great picture I took in college!)

After visiting the Friendly Confines, we would have made our way to Rainbow Cone to enjoy the ice cream treat they’re famous for:

I love driving through the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago…there are so many cool vintage signs!

The final stop of our Memorial Day Weekend trip is always a meal at Portillo’s, where I get the Italian beef, dipped, of course!

And then home sweet home…no matter how much fun we’ve had, it’s always nice to pull into our driveway (and begin the process of doing all of our vacation laundry!).

Hollywood Motel

This sign at the old Hollywood Motel in Southgate, MI, reminds me a lot of the sign I photographed at the Greenway Motel in the Highland, IL, area last fall. It doesn’t have neon (although maybe it once did), but it does have a great retro shape and colors.

James M. Nederlander Theatre

The Chicago Theatre sign may be the most iconic in the Windy City, but there are other cool theaters in Chicago with photo-worthy signs, like the James M. Nederlander Theatre. Actually, until recently, this was the famous Oriental Theatre, so while this may not be a true vintage sign, it is an homage to the original!

Chicago Theatre

Is there anything more iconic than the Chicago Theatre sign?!? It’s a little different from the road signs I usually share (at the least, it’s way fancier, and certainly more famous!), but it’s definitely vintage!

Rainbow Cone

One more sign from our drive through Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood, and it’s the only one from a business we’ve actually patronized! The sign on the back of Rainbow Cone is small-ish, but it’s colorful, and as far as I know, fairly vintage. Plus, Rainbow Cone!

The Original Pancake House: Beverly

The sign at The Original Pancake House in the Beverly neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago might not be as bright and bold as some of its neighbors down the street, but it still has a great vintage shape and fun illustration!

Mr. Submarine

I have some vague memories of Mr. Submarine from my childhood, so I was very excited to see this sign when we were driving through the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago in May!

Janson’s Drive-In

Here’s another great road sign from our trip to Chicago in May:

And a bonus photo of one of their great menu boards:

Maybe someday (next year, perhaps?), we’ll stop and have a meal there!

Fox’s Beverly

This has been a good summer for photographing vintage road signs, and the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago was an especially good location to find a bunch of them, starting with Fox’s Pizza: