Illumination: Edmonton’s Neon Sign Museum

by all | 31 March 2015 12:11 pm

By Peter Saunders
The Neon Sign Museum opened in Edmonton on February 21, 2014. The first of its kind anywhere in Canada, this open-air museum showcases a collection of historic neon signs along the façade of a Telus utility building on the southwest corner of 104 Street and 104 Avenue.

The debut of the museum on that cold winter day last year represented the culmination of many years of planning and many volunteers’ efforts. The city’s own heritage planners collected 12 iconic signs, eight of which were then restored and installed on the side of the building. The Alberta Sign Association (ASA) organized the restoration work, with a number of its member companies offering their time to the project.

Humble beginnings
The project has its roots in 2002, when Edmonton heritage planner David Holdsworth saw an old Canadian Furniture sign being removed and wondered where it was headed.

“When he found out it was bound for the dumpster, he saved it,” explains Tim Pedrick, president of ASA and Hi Signs/The Fath Group. “He put it away and began to collect others as he became aware of them.”

As Holdsworth’s collection grew in Edmonton’s artifacts centre with no end in sight, archivists felt the pinch and suggested the need for 
a new home for the signs. So, in 2008, the idea for the museum was born. Holdsworth approached ASA board member Tom McGeachy—then vice-president (VP)—to see if any local professionals would be willing to repair the signs for free.

“He didn’t have a specific location lined up for the museum yet, but he knew he wanted it outside,” says Pedrick. “We at ASA got involved in 2009 and began discussing ideas.”

Meanwhile, Linda Wedman of the Edmonton Business Council for the Visual Arts (EBCVA) joined the effort by helping raise funds and searching for a suitable location. While she did not work directly for the municipal government, 
she was able to convince the city 
to pay for a $180,000 ‘frame’ grid, specially engineered to support the signs, which would eventually be incorporated into the building under an agreement with Telus. The frame would also be somewhat ‘futureproof,’ as it could hold up to 30 signs in total.

The chosen eight
In 2011, the same year Pedrick was named ASA’s president, eight of the vintage neon signs were chosen and distributed to ASA member companies to restore. McGeachy reached out to these companies and, essentially, handed the next sign in the pile to each one in turn.

“It was especially fitting to have Blanchett Neon involved, as half of these signs were originally built by them,” says Pedrick.

Canadian Furniture
Sam Dolinko began working in Edmonton in 1933 and opened Canadian Furniture in 1936. At 
the time, furniture stores and ‘exchanges’ had found commercial opportunities with each wave of immigration, as newcomers settled into their homes and upwardly mobile families refreshed their furnishings whenever they could afford to do so.

Dolinko and his wife Cila’s son Max also managed the store, which continued to thrive in the 1970s and ‘80s. It finally closed in 1998, after more than 60 years in business.

Facing the scrap heap in 2002, the sign was donated by Caryl Dolinko and restored by Blanchett Neon.

Canadian National Railway
Salvaged from a Calgary freight building before it was demolished, donated by the Alberta Railway Museum and now restored by Newlook Signs, the Canadian National Railway (CNR) sign is typical of those that were used to indicate freight and telegraph services along railways in Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.

Cliff’s Auto Parts
Donated by Edmonton’s municipal government and restored by Advantage Signs, this sign was for an auto parts business—owned by Whilliam Choma and managed by Phillip Fath—that operated from 1959 until at least 1976, moving several times.

Drugs
This sign may have originally been installed on the Armstrong Drug Store, but the story remains unconfirmed. Armstrong opened on 103 Avenue in 1907 and continued to operate at that location for almost 90 years, closing in 1993.

The sign’s original run was much shorter, however, and it was found in an office complex’s basement in 1910. Donated by Edmonton’s municipal government, the sign has been restored by City Neon.

Mike’s News
One of Edmonton’s most distinctive neon signs depicted an engrossed Toronto Star Weekly reader wagging his foot. Mike’s News opened in 1912. The sign was installed in 1934 and remained illuminated until 1979, when the newsstand moved.

The sign was then donated to the city’s artifacts centre. It has now been restored by Newlook Signs, requiring more than 1,200 hours of labour.

Northern Alberta Railway
Like the CNR sign, this one sat in a barn 
at the Alberta Railway Museum before it was donated for Holdsworth’s project. It was restored by Landale Signs.

Originally, the sign was installed on Canadian Pacific’s office building in downtown Edmonton, which served as the railway’s headquarters (HQ). Northern Alberta Railway (NAR) actually comprised 
a group of small railway operators, which were eventually taken over by Alberta’s provincial government, consolidated and leased to Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and then CNR.

W.W. Arcade
When the W.W. Arcade building opened 
in 1912 at Edmonton’s main commercial intersection, it was known as the Goodridge Block and the ground floor included a barbershop, a men’s wear store, a pool hall and a wine, liquor and cigars store. Offices were housed on the second and third floors.

W.W. Sales Hardware took over the main floor in 1932 and the building was renamed in 1942. The sign remained until the hardware retailer moved out in 1991. The Edmonton Downtown Development Corporation (EEDC), which subsequently received federal funding to restore the building, donated the sign for the museum and it was restored by Hi Signs/The Fath Group.

X-L Furniture
X-L Furniture, a carpet and furniture cleaning business, opened in 1952, moved in 1955, was rebuilt in 1961 and expanded in 1972 and 1986. Its iconic neon sign was installed in 1961 under a rental arrangement with Blanchett Neon and then it was repainted and repaired as needed over the following years.

Current X-L co-owners Al and Wayne Struzynski donated the sign for the museum in 2013. As such, unlike most others in the collection, it was still somewhat in working condition when PM Signs restored it.

A daunting effort
While work began on restoring the neon signs, the venue for the museum was not secured until 2012.

“There were waves of enthusiasm about the restoration work, but the sign industry in Alberta was busy enough with its regular business while the museum was being figured out,” says Pedrick. “For a while, it seemed it would never get done.”

There were also delays due to the daunting nature of the necessary repairs. McGeachy, co-owner of Newlook Signs, had not anticipated each restoration would take hundreds to thousands of man-hours.

“The Canadian Furniture sign was so beat up, they pretty much had to rebuild it,” Pedrick says. “Some signs had to be gutted while others were lightly retouched.”

In December 2013, the municipal government suddenly informed the sign companies they only had until February 2014 to finish the work.

“Although efforts had ramped up in the summer of 2013, now the pressure was really on,” says Pedrick. “I had to beg and plead with the companies to get them done.”

Finally, in mid-February, 17 installers 
and 22 sign professionals gathered in -28 C 
(-18 F) weather to install the eight restored neon signs on the Telus building.

“It required tremendous co-ordination,” says Pedrick. “We got the street shut down and there were eight pieces of installation equipment. We got a lot of news coverage.”

Fortunately, the installation was successful and all eight signs were up and running in time for the official public unveiling the following week.

Other than the delays, Pedrick says the entire process moved smoothly because the city, Telus, ASA and the sign companies were all working together with a common purpose.

“This project benefited from a lot of bridge-building and co-operation,” he says. “We like to celebrate things in this city.”

Future additions
The other four of the city’s 12 collected neon signs are to be installed this year, while three more from outside donors are now in various stages of restoration.

“We’re getting donations and offers from 
all over,” says Pedrick. “We will acquire more that have a strong connection to the city or 
the province.”

One issue going forward, however, will be the cost of restoring these additional signs.

“All of the signs now on the wall were restored at no cost to the city, other than a bursary grant of $1,000 per sign, which didn’t come close to covering the restoration work,” says Pedrick. “As more signs become available, there is not as great an appetite to do all of this work for free, so Linda Wedman is out trying to raise more funds.”

In the meantime, the museum is already being updated with plaques. Installed along the wall at eye level, these exterior interpretive panels will share the unique story behind each sign with an increasing number of passersby.

“The location couldn’t have been better in terms of exposure,” says Pedrick. “The museum is right across from the Mercer Tavern, one of the city’s oldest buildings, which features its own new neon sign, built by Newlook in 2014. Condos are going up in old warehouses and this area gets a lot of foot traffic now by day and night. The museum has been well-received. People are always looking at the signs and taking photos.”

In addition to celebrating the past, the museum and the Mercer Tavern may even lead to a neon renaissance for Edmonton.

“Cantilevered signs of this type aren’t normally allowed under the existing bylaw, but now there’s a special permit zone here to encourage new neon signs along the street,” says Pedrick. “The city wants to promote the artistry of signage, which is great because we tend to beat ourselves up in this industry. We need to take greater pride in our work at a grander scale. Projects like the museum help as building blocks in this respect.”

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/illumination-edmontons-neon-sign-museum/

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