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In Charlotte, North Carolina, iconic examples of urban signage aren\u2019t simply pointed to and admired\u2013they\u2019re being registered as historic landmarks. \u201cWe feel like protecting things that make Charlotte unique is important,\u201d Diane Althouse, executive director of Historic Charlotte Inc., has told The Charlotte Observer<\/em>.<\/p>\nFun and funky commercial masterpieces like the JFG Coffee sign, spangled by incandescent light bulbs, are being rescued from warehouse ignominy and restored to even higher visibility, in this case with a $15,000 grant.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are drawn to these signs for a lot of different reasons,\u201d the Observer<\/em> story says.<\/p>\n Now they tell us! It\u2019s a great idea to keep highways sign-free, but when the icy winds of Lady Bird Johnson\u2019s beautification blew across the state of Maine decades ago, the rules (no off-site commercial signs within 660 feet of a federal highway) were horizontally applied instead of interpreted, so in the name of compliance, we lost brain dazzlers like the huge incandescent \u201cDrink Coca Cola\u201d sign that lit up Congress Square for generations.<\/p>\n Many of Maine\u2019s most entertaining urban signs were struck down in order to legislate beauty, and they came down in a hurry. Oh, some people missed them\u2013notably artist Jon Legere, who took every opportunity to include vanished signage in his nostalgic cityscapes of Portland\u2013but for the most part, anyone who dared to speak up for commercial iconography must have felt like \u201ca lion in a den of savage Daniels.\u201d<\/p>\n Even sadder to consider nowadays is the fact that the law\u2019s original language was not bereft of exemptions, allowing for signs \u201cdetermined by the State, subject to the approval of the Secretary, to be landmark signs\u2026or historic or artistic significance, the preservation of which would be consistent with the purposes\u201d of the Highway Beautification Act. So why wasn\u2019t this provision seized upon and Portland\u2019s most characteristic signs given the landmark status they deserved (and needed to survive)?<\/p>\n For those of us who don\u2019t remember some of these signs and therefore can\u2019t mourn them (but loved the unforgettable Domino Sugar sign in the movie He\u2019s Just Not That Into You<\/em>), have you noticed that the B&M Baked Beans plant in Portland has been without its famous rooftop sign since July 13, 2009, when the wind blew down, and subsequently destroyed, the 10-foot by 70-foot landmark? Isn\u2019t that an empty feeling? Now multiply that sense of loss across a whole city. Though plant manager Art Hemmerlein promises, \u201cThe new replacement sign [by Sign One, Inc.] will be a better, green situation, using LED lighting and just one-third of the power of the previous sign,\u201d it still wasn\u2019t quite up at press time, awaiting better weather.<\/p>\n The crowning irony: In its heart, Portland Public Library\u2019s new 17- by 21-foot digital screen that\u2019s going to transform Monument Square is (shhh) a sign.<\/p>\n
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