vintage road signs

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:

Zehnder’s Restaurant

In honor of National Fried Chicken Day, I thought I’d share a related vintage road sign from last month’s trip to Michigan. Zehnder’s is one of two restaurants in Frankenmuth famous for fried chicken dinners, and while it’s not the restaurant we ate at while we were there, I did love its sign!

Wheaton Grand Theater

I have fond memories of seeing movies at the old Wheaton Theater when I was a child. These days, it looks a lot different, mainly because it’s currently sitting vacant, but I was happy to see that the old sign is still hanging above the marquee.

Vintage-Style Signs at Cabana Bay

Since I shared pictures of the neon display at Laumeier Sculpture Park yesterday, I thought today I’d take a look back at our vacation this summer, and share my favorite vintage-inspired signs from Cabana Bay Beach Resort. They might not be original to the era, but they definitely catch the spirit of mid-century signs!

Neon Signs at Laumeier

Did you know that Laumeier Sculpture Park doesn’t showcase only sculptures? I actually didn’t realize that before our recent visit to see a non-sculpture exhibition on display in the Aronson Fine Arts Center: “David Hutson, Memory & Desire: A Personal Exploration of Neon Art, Past and Present.” As the name suggests, this exhibition focuses on the work of David Hutson, and includes restorations of local neon signs, as well as original neon work by Mr. Hutson. While the original work is fantastic, my interest was in the vintage neon signs, and I was definitely not disappointed!

This exhibit will be on display at Laumeier through January 13, and I highly recommend it…it’s a fantastic glimpse into the past!

Greenway Motel

In my continuing search for great vintage road signs, I came across the Greenway Motel in the Granite City/Mitchell, IL area. I’m sure it looked even better when it still had neon, but it has that great retro shape and aesthetic that I love. Old Route 66 may not be a major thoroughfare anymore, but you can still find some great throwbacks to when it was!

Ted Drewes

Would you believe that with all the vintage road signs I’ve photographed, I’ve never intentionally gotten a picture of the iconic Ted Drewes sign? I have photographed it once before (it’s actually the first use of the “vintage road signs” tag on this website!), but it wasn’t a great picture, and I wasn’t even getting the shot for the purpose of capturing the sign…instead, I was capturing a moment of celebration after a Cardinals game. Anyway, I figured I should correct that oversight, with a picture of the Ted Drewes sign in all its glory!