BOISE, Idaho — Six historic neon signs from Boise businesses of the past have a new home on Grove Street. The Signs of Our Times Historic Neon Sign Gallery — the first of its kind in Boise — is part of the Rebuild Linen Blocks Project.
- The six restored signs on display are Chuck Dragoo Auto Sales, Mercury Cleaners, Truck Stop Cafe, Sands Motel, Blue Bell Auto Park, and L&B Beverage.
- The signs were installed as part of the Rebuild Linen Blocks Project— which aims to make major improvements to Grove Street.
- You can learn more about Signs of Our Times, the local organization behind the restored historic signs, here.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
"Well, I started collecting signs over 25 years ago, and I've continued to collect," says Vangie Osborn, the Founder of Signs of Our Times, a local organization that aims to recover, restore, and display historic signs from Boise's past.
"And in those years I've continued to look for the perfect place to start putting some up," says Osborn.
She found that perfect place on Grove Street.
"For a lot of people, they're like — I knew they'd be cool, but I didn't think they'd be that cool," says Osborn.
Six signs from iconic Boise businesses are on display at The Signs of Our Times Historic Neon Sign Gallery — the first of its kind in Boise.
The gallery is part of the Rebuild Linen Blocks Project, which aims to make major upgrades to Grove Street.
"The improvements that you see today — the new concrete paving, the wider sidewalks, the added trees and landscaping, public art elements, and this key connection to the bicycle infrastructure are all a part of this Rebuild Linen Blocks Project, which was really informed by extensive public outreach," says Amy Fimbel, a Senior Project Manager for Capital City Development Corp.
Capital City Development Corp worked with Signs of Our Times and The Boise City Department of Arts and History to add these signs to the Department's collection as historic artifacts.
"So normally, when we get artifacts, we display them in a case… To display artifacts in the open like this is actually quite unique and quite unusual," says Jennifer Stevens, the Director of the Department of Arts and History.
She tells me that an open-air gallery of historical artifacts like this is rare to see.
"It's an experiment and we did a lot of work with the partners to make sure that we had our maintenance plans in place and that we would know how to take care of these going forward," says Stevens.
"There's still some signs out there and you know we're always looking for more because they're a part of our history and we need to save them. For anybody who is from here, they'll remember at least one of the signs from, you know, their childhood and growing up here. So there is the nostalgia and people just really love neon," added Osborn.
