Photo from warsze
Last summer, CHOW MEIN vanished and we watched the beautiful Jade Mountain sign get crushed, then carted away. My emails to the owners of Shoolbred's, asking for the whereabouts of the signs, went unanswered. My pleas to save the signs fell on deaf ears. Until now.
Thomas Rinaldi of New York Neon shares the very exciting news that the signs have been salvaged.
July 2011
A mysterious someone called only "Kathleen in Canada," reports Rinaldi, first tracked the Chow Mein sign to the building contractor's junkyard where she found the treasure "partially dismantled, its neon tubes knocked out and metal faces folded over themselves, literally tossed on the scrap pile." She found the Jade Mountain sign in another location and in better shape.
Says Rinaldi, "the signs are now tucked away for safe keeping in a Bronx warehouse, awaiting restoration."
NY Neon
We don't know what Kathleen in Canada has planned for the signs after their rescue and restoration, but we can hope that she intends to make them available for everyone in New York City to enjoy. The last place they belong is on some collector's condo wall.
NY Neon
Read more:
Jade Mountain Closes
Save the Signs
Signs Vanish
This is great news.
ReplyDeleteOf course, on a condo wall is better than the scrap heap.
ReplyDeleteThey would be great in MOMA, if Ms. Canada is reading this.
Oh! This brought a lump to my throat! Hope Kathleen can find someone able to restore it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this sweet bit of news.
Great news, hopefully Kathleen chimes in with an update!
ReplyDeleteGood for her. And yes, while it would be nice if we all could see those signs again, they were pretty site-specific. So let Kathleen light up Canada.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, why did the Chow Mein sign come down after so long had passed since the business changed? It was quite a pleasing nod to the past for a while.
--BabyDave
that piece of news literally "brightened" up my day!
ReplyDelete