Neon signs disappear from city streetscape
Business owners cite high cost of upkeep in phasing out lights
The signs are victims of closing businesses, high maintenance costs and city fees that some companies aren’t willing or able to pay.
Neon signage used to adorn many buildings in Chicago’s cityscape, from downtown to neighborhood business districts from Howard Street to 111th.
But through the years, many of the signs have disappeared, the victims of closing businesses, high maintenance costs and city fees that some companies aren’t willing or able to pay.
With the signs’ disappearance, a certain electricity and energy has vanished as well, according to Preservation Chicago Executive Director Ward Miller.
“The signs are really a significant feature of our Chicago skyline, and we’ve lost quite a few of them over time,” Miller said recently.
This week, a large sign that reads “Car Town, Fine Automobiles, OK’d Cars” that has stood alongside a used car shop at 850 N. Western Ave. for decades is disappearing. What’s left of Car Town is set to be demolished and the sign carted off to a buyer from California.
The buyer paid $7,500 for the sign itself and $5,000 for its removal, according to Karen Biazar, a real-estate consultant with North Clybourn Group. Biazar said the intention was never to destroy the sign, and it will now be used for a restaurant.
While this fate is far better than a scrap yard, its loss will have an impact on the look and feel of the block.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, used car shops and their signs lined Western and Cicero avenues from one end of the city to another, according to Miller.
“I remember being intrigued by the brightness and cheeriness of the signs,” Miller said. “They had a sort of a carnivallike, celebratory atmosphere about them.”
Lou Mitchell’s, 565 W. Jackson Blvd., installed its neon and overhanging signs in the early 1950s. One of the restaurant’s current owners, Nick Thanas, said people come from all over the world to take pictures with their signs.
While they may help attract business, the old signs also require a lot of upkeep.
The restaurant recently replaced 114 lightbulbs on its hanging sign, and the specialty bulbs needed for the sign are not cheap, Thanas said.
During his 30 years as an owner, he has replaced every single one of the transformers in the neon sign, each one the size of a small car battery.
To even get a sign in the first place, business owners must pay for a sign permit and public way use permit.
To get an initial sign permit, you need a zoning review and a review from the Buildings Department. An on-site zoning review costs $200, and the Buildings Department review costs between $50 and $1,000, according to the Buildings Department.
University of Chicago Law professor Beth Kregor said the entire process of permitting signs is incredibly complicated. People will buy a business with a historic sign and learn a permit was never issued for the sign.
In addition, public way permits for any sign that extends beyond the building must be renewed by business owners every five years.
Despite the additional expenses, Thanas said the restaurant has never really considered replacing its signs.
No one makes neon signs like his anymore, and more modern LED lights just do not have the same effect, according to Thanas.
“It’s not the same,” Thanas said. “It’s the difference between vinyl and CDs.”
Italian Village restaurant, 71 W. Monroe St., in the Loop, is also the proud owner of a large neon sign.
The Capitanini family opened the restaurant in 1927 and installed its sign in 1962. They wanted a sign that read left to right, like a newspaper, instead of up and down like many traditional neon signs.
This unique shape causes the sign to stick far out from the building, making it visible all the way down Monroe, according to General Manager Joe Deininger
The sign used to turn off after hours, but eight years ago, Deininger convinced the Capitaninis to keep it on all night.
Like Lou Mitchell’s, Italian Village has no plans to change its signage.
The real risk of losing iconic signs, like these, comes when owners sell off historic property. Even if the building is protected under a landmark status, the sign may not be, preservationists say. There are two main types of landmark designations in Chicago: landmark buildings and landmark districts.
Landmark district protections could apply to features like signage, but that is not always the case, Miller said.
Sometimes signs are landmarked along with individual buildings, such as the signs on top of the Drake Hotel. Other times, just the building itself is landmarked and not its signs.
The Santa Fe railroad sign that used to sit on top of the Railway Exchange Building, 224 S. Michigan Ave., is an example of the latter.
Preservationists like Miller fought hard for the buildings along Michigan Avenue to be named a historic district.
In 2002, their efforts paid off, and a 12-block span of streetwall was designated the Historic Michigan Boulevard District.
In 2012, it was announced the iconic Santa Fe sign would be replaced with a Motorola sign for the building’s new owner.
Miller was shocked to learn the sign was not protected under the landmark district.
The sign is at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, but moving the sign lost part of the city’s history and continuity, Miller said.
Chicago needs to do more to encourage owners to maintain old signs, possibly through protections or ordinances if landmarks are not an option, Miller said.
“If there is some way to include these ideas and these features into the broader spectrum of landmarks protections, I think that’s worthy of a robust conversation,” Miller said.