The American Sign Museum is a Blast From the Past & a Tribute to America’s Love Affair with the Highway
Just north of downtown Cincinnati you’ll find an old brick building. The bland exterior gives few hints that inside is a blazing tribute to America’s love affair with the auto. Here you’ll find every kind of sign, from paint store in neon, to a fiberglass genie for Aladdin carpets to an illuminated sputnik replica.
All the big names in American retail are here, from Rexall to Big Boy. Though it is billed as The Sign Museum, it’s really the museum of American tastes told through the history of signage. Sunoco, DeSoto, Colonel Sanders, and Howard Johnson’s,are represented, but so are Dutch Boy Donuts, the SkyVu Motel, and United Pentecostal Church from Shreveport, La. These signs are familiar to every baby boomer who ever went on a family road trip or a Sunday drive.
Tod Swormstedt, president of the museum has been searching for and purchasing signs for the museum’s growing collection since 1999. Having spent his career at Sign of the Times, an industry Trade journal, Mr. Swormstedt knows his business. The journal’s parent company chipped in $1.5 million for the non-profit museum which opened its doors in 2005. The museum will be relocated to a considerably larger space that will include 28 foot tall ceilings in late 2008 or early 2009.
The American Sign Museum is located at 2515 Essex Place in Cincinnati, Ohio Tours are by appointment (1-800-925-1110 ext 336) Admission is $10 for adults, children under 12 are free. Group rates are offered.
SOURCE: The Columbus Dispatch wednesday 27 February 2008
