San Jose’s Neon Signs: Works of Art That Tell Our Story

LOCAL HISTORY

May 12

I got my pins!

As a big fan of local history, I was excited to see The Preservation Action Council of San Jose (PAC*SJ) offer these pins commemorating many of the one-of-a-kind vintage neon signs we have here in San Jose. They’re available on the PAC*SJ website individually or in sets of 4.

These pins take me back to a walking tour and photo crawl I attended in 2015, organized by PAC*SJ and led by local photographer Josh Marcotte. Josh is the 4th generation of his family to live in San Jose, and he works under the creative alias Lost San Jose. (If you haven’t seen his stunning photography of all the gritty details of the city, I highly recommend checking out his work and supporting his effort to document our rapidly-changing landscape). The tour’s focus was a cluster of San Jose’s neon signs – all of which are likely well over half a century old. We toured Midtown, including stretches of Bascom Avenue, West San Carlos Street, and Lincoln Avenue. Tour attendees were encouraged to bring a camera, and I’m glad I did. Although I don’t consider myself much of a photographer, I jumped at the opportunity to capture images of each sign myself. There were so many – and several of them I’d never even noticed before. It was a satisfying experience to slow down, admire, and appreciate each example of skilled craftsmanship and design.

A snapshot from the walking tour, featuring O.C. McDonald’s neon sign on West San Carlos Street.

Ever since the tour, I’ve been wanting to dig a little deeper into the history of these signs and the long-standing businesses attached to them. That desire has strengthened now that I’ve witnessed several of them close permanently. Family-owned Western Appliance is a prime example. At the time of its closure in 2020, the company had been in business for 147 years. The beloved San Jose store opened its doors in the 1930s, and its sign dates from 1962. It is a crowning piece in the PAC*SJ pin collection. The giant sign originally had bright, blinking lights at the tip of each tine, but they were removed early on because they were too distracting for drivers passing by along Highway 17 (“Western Appliance History”).

I can still hear their jingle when I see the Western Appliance sign.

I love the typography choices for these signs – Time Deli’s especially.

Time Deli was another business with a fantastic neon sign. Unfortunately, they too have just closed permanently after having served the neighborhood for 67 years. An attorney known for filing thousands of ADA lawsuits sued the business for ADA violations in 2017. The owners decided the required renovations would be too costly for the business. (Pizarro, “Iconic”) For now, the clock still stands. It actually predates the business, which chose its name because of the sign (David).

During our walk, Josh pointed out that it may not be a total coincidence these signs are all within walking distance to one another. But in order to understand one of the possible explanations for their proximity, it’s worth looking back at San Jose’s history of rapid growth and its approach to annexation. After World War II, San Jose was in a rush to grow its tax base, as many American cities were (Guevarra). Anthony P. “Dutch” Hamann was appointed city manager in 1950 to take the lead on expansion. He shared the city’s desire to grow, and was motivated by his own vision of transforming San Jose into “the Los Angeles of the North.” Hamann’s strategy involved aggressively annexing areas that were the easiest first, regardless of whether or not they shared a border with the city. His effort to expand was so strong that the office dedicated to annexation was known as “Dutch's Panzer Division” – a reference to Hitler’s panzer tank divisions that rolled all over Europe during the war (Christensen).

One of the ways Hamann persuaded outside landowners who may not have wanted to join the city otherwise was by creating a sewage monopoly. San Jose was at the center of “The Valley of Heart’s Delight” because of its dominance in fruit canning, but by mid-century, it desperately needed a new sewage system that could handle all the waste from the canneries and support future growth. Hamann made that happen early in his career as city manager, and landowners realized they wouldn’t be able to build on their land without adequate sewage service. He also predicted where large shopping centers were likely to develop and annexed narrow strips of land along the major roads and intersections that led to those areas. This allowed the city to collect sales tax revenue from the businesses once they developed. Between 1950 and 1970, San Jose approved over a thousand applications for annexation. For context, only 47 annexations had occurred in the 100 years prior. (McKay, Creason-Valencia)

As a result of this unconventional expansion method, Santa Clara County wound up with hundreds of tiny, detached “urban islands” of land that were surrounded on all sides by San Jose. These unincorporated pockets have always been interesting to me. I grew up in one on the border of the Alum Rock and Berryessa neighborhoods (which seems to have been annexed sometime after I moved), and today I live in another one a few blocks away. Even though our address is written as “San Jose,” we don’t have the San Jose Police show up at our door if we call 911 – we get the county sheriff. Our trash is picked up by a different company than the one that services San Jose. And there are, of course, minor differences in ordinances between San Jose proper and Santa Clara County. Most people wouldn’t recognize that these pockets are different just by looking at them. In fact, some new residents don’t even realize until after moving in that their home isn’t technically in the city (Kifer).

The county didn’t keep records on these urban islands until the 1990s, when it decided the patchwork of pockets was becoming too much of a strain to service. They initiated an island annexation program with an aim to ease incorporation of the pockets into San Jose or neighboring cities like Campbell. If you refer to a current map of San Jose’s city boundaries, you’ll still see several urban islands. (Uncheck the General Plan 2040 layer and zoom out to see the city boundaries). As perforated as the map might appear today, one can only imagine what it looked like at the height of the expansion craze. As recently as 2005, there were still 180 separate islands. The effort to incorporate the remaining islands continues today, although it’s a cumbersome process, and at times there’s pushback from residents who want to keep their neighborhood’s unincorporated status. (Guevarra)

The Burbank theater is in the unincorporated neighborhood of Burbank, which has fought against annexation into San Jose.

As San Jose’s boundaries started moving outward, the city began passing strict ordinances on the types of lighted signs that businesses could use. That change meant businesses within the San Jose city limits were forced to update. (Marcotte) Sadly, as trends change and as hand-crafted, labor-intensive works of art tend to do, these signs probably fell a bit out of fashion toward the end of the 20th century anyway, so many business owners likely didn’t resist when asked to trash their old-school neon signs – especially in cases where the owners were new and had no attachment to them. I’m sure many local historians would tell you that San Jose hasn’t had the best record of preservation throughout its history.

And yet, it wasn’t always desirable for businesses to update. As you may have put together by now, much of the Midtown area is unincorporated. Because city ordinances didn’t apply to businesses in unincorporated areas, many of the signs there remained intact. (Marcotte) Other businesses found workarounds to the ordinances. Western Appliance, which had its storefront within the city boundaries, is one. On first glance it looks like its huge neon sign is mounted to the roof. But if you’ve ever stepped inside the building, you might have noticed that the sign’s legs shoot straight through the ceiling and plant themselves directly into the ground. This was done intentionally to avoid San Jose’s 1960’s ordinance restricting rooftop signs (David). Other signs may remain because the business owners simply refused to comply with updated ordinances. In neighboring Campbell, for example, Paul De Grande stood his ground and wouldn’t take his sign down without compensation from the city. The sign stayed up until after his death when the family sold the business. (Marcotte)

One of my favorite stops on the walking tour was Westside Billiards. I love the star, the giant 8-ball, the irregular shape containing the text, the typeface and color choices. It’s not something you’d see a pool hall put up today. The sign is probably as old as the business, which dates to about 1947. The lights in the star blink when the sign is working, and the 8-ball is likely a later addition. (David) An image similar to the one I took above popped up in the San Jose History Facebook group of which I’m a member. The person who posted the image wanted to know more about the history of the hall. For one thing, it had tables for snooker – a different game than pool. A few people commented that the famous pool player “Fast Eddie” Pelkey played and worked there. Someone posted a screenshot from an SFGate article published at the time of Pelkey’s death, which states he was the inspiration for the “Fast Eddie” character played by Paul Newman in the film adaptation (and sequel) of the Walter Tevis book The Hustler. There’s debate about that assertion, however – apparently a few different men could have been the inspiration. Eddie Pelkey is certainly one possibility, but others claim the Newman character was based on another “Fast Eddie” – Eddie Parker, or other pool pros like Ronnie Allen or Ed Taylor (Dyer).

The counter seats inside Westside Billiards.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Luckily the hall was open while we were on our walk, so I got some great shots of the counter seats inside. When I took the photos, I thought the fun and colorful upholstery mirrored the mid-century look of the sign outside. I should have known by the great condition they were in, however, that they were not original or even very old. A couple of comments in that same Facebook post mentioned the hall was a film location for a 1989 Whoopi Goldberg movie called Kiss Shot. I looked it up, and sure enough, the made-for-tv movie was filmed in San Jose. You can see the inside of Westside Billiards in one of the early scenes. It’s clearly the same place, but the counter seat upholstery is different. (Kiss, 14:00 - 14:35)

Another fun sign I noticed as we walked down West San Carlos Street was for Y Not – an eye-catching design which dates to the mid-1960s. Originally made for a bar, it’s now a sex shop that rather cleverly took on the same name in order to continue use of the sign. It’s been altered slightly from its original form, but it was done in a way that preserves the essence of the sign. It once lit up in a three-phase loop to reveal a red martini glass at the center of the “Y.” Where it now says “open” at the top, it used to read “cocktails.” (David)

The sign for Y Not was updated to suit the new business that inherited it.

Whereas some businesses have been thoughtful in upkeep, renovation, and reuse of their signs, others along our walk unfortunately stood out as examples of how not to do it. Public Auto Wholesale seems like it missed an opportunity to give an incredibly fun lighted sign new life. I was actually a little sad when I looked at this one long enough to realize the original business name might have been framed by a more interesting irregular shape, just as the Westside Billiards and Y Not signs were. But the truth is, proper restoration and maintenance is not always feasible, especially for small businesses. Thinking back to the Western Appliance sign, although it’s one of the largest, it was still amazing to read that it would cost the business at least $5,000 per year, not including electricity, to maintain it (David).

One sign that we did not see on the tour, but that could stand on its own as a symbol of San Jose, is the one for Orchard Supply Hardware. Originating in 1931 as a co-op for farmers, the store grew to include hardware and housewares in addition to gardening supplies (David). I remember going to our local store on Alum Rock Avenue with my dad as a kid. Back in the dark ages before the internet, home improvement DIY-ers and gardeners like him relied on the expertise of employees working in stores like Orchard for tips and advice. I think he and many of his generation still lament the days when you could walk out of a hardware store with more knowledge than you had walking in. To many, however, Orchard was even more than that. In the decades prior to my dad and I ever having stepped foot in one, farmers relied on Orchard to provide them with everything they needed to produce the fruit that put San Jose on the map.

The Orchard Supply Hardware sign installed at its new home in History Park.

In 1947, one of the first Orchard Supply Hardware stores opened on West San Carlos Street. The store was not very visible from the main road because it sat right where West San Carlos begins its ascent over Los Gatos Creek and several sets of railroad tracks. Driving by, you might have missed it if it wasn’t for the colorful roadside sign, complete with a giant red arrow pointing down toward the building. Although Orchard would go on to open dozens of other stores, the neon sign at the West San Carlos location was the only one of its kind (David).

After decades of success, sales slowed and a series of ownership changes followed. All Orchard Supply Hardware stores closed in November 2018 (“Orchard Supply Hardware”). After the West San Carlos location’s closing, its neon sign mysteriously and abruptly disappeared. Everyone who had been paying attention to preservation of these signs feared the worst (Pizarro, “Orchard”, del Castillo). I remember wondering to myself: Did someone take it down and trash it without realizing its historical significance? Or worse, did they just not care? Weeks went by, when finally local news outlets reported that the sign had been found! Apparently a misguided citizen tried to save the sign from destruction by taking it down himself. Amazingly, no arrests were made; it was determined that the person who took it did so with good intention. The sign sustained some damage during the botched rescue effort, so it went to San Jose’s History Park for repairs and eventual installation at its new home there. (Wadsworth)

You can walk right under the Orchard Supply Hardware sign.

My horrible shot of the Orchard sign when lit, as taken from my car during Christmas in the Park in 2020.

Fast forward to the strange days of mid-pandemic lockdown last December, and the organizers San Jose’s annual Christmas in the Park tradition converted it to a drive-through event at History Park. I quietly experienced a moment of joy as we came to the end of the drive-through and I caught a glimpse of the original Orchard sign, all lit up to greet us near the exit.

I think the neon sign for San Jose Radiator is quite charming. They’ve been around since 1944.

Hill’s Flowers has been serving customers since 1920.

Back on the walking tour, Josh also mentioned San Jose’s current General Plan and how it would likely affect the future of the remaining signs. You can read all about the upcoming changes to zoning in the Envision San Jose 2040 Plan. From the Plan:

The Envision San José 2040 General Plan sets forth a vision and a comprehensive road map to guide the City’s continued growth through the year 2040. The Plan includes land use policies to shape the transformation of strategically identified and historically underutilized Growth Areas into higher-density, mixed-use, urban districts or “Urban Villages” which can accommodate employment and housing growth and reduce the environmental impacts of that growth by promoting transit use and walkability. This land use strategy, in combination with progressive economic and environmental policies, will guide the City toward fulfillment of its future vision.

Within the Envision San Jose Plan, there is a General Plan Land Use Map that shows West San Carlos Street is slated for some big change over the coming years, including several of these new “Urban Villages” described above. The landscape will change dramatically as the new vision for neighborhoods like these begins to take shape.

So what will become of San Jose’s older businesses as fresh new development comes in around them? For those that still have them, what will be the fate of their quirky signs? These are important questions. The signs are valuable for a number of reasons. They give us a nostalgic feeling; they remind us of people we love and experiences we’ve had in the past. They’re also unique works of commercial art made specifically for each business. Most importantly though, they are stepping stones that lead us back to the time before we became Silicon Valley. We were known as “The Valley of Heart’s Delight” because of our dominance in the fruit packing industry. San Jose’s Orchard Supply provided farmers with the tools and materials they needed to produce the fruit that went to the canneries. Western Appliance served the many new residents who were flocking to the area. And where did the cannery workers likely unwind after their shifts? Perhaps at Westside Billiards to play snooker or at Y Not for a drink? What I’ve come to realize at the end of this short investigation is that these businesses and their signs are all valuable pieces of San Jose’s story.

Luckily there is a strong effort going on right now to get many of these signs landmarked, which would keep them a part of San Jose’s skyline permanently. I finally became a member of PAC*SJ this month, something I should have done a long time ago. The nonprofit organization is actively working to educate the public and save our historic buildings (and signs). If you share my perspective on the importance of saving what we have left from our past, please consider supporting in whatever way you can – follow PAC*SJ and the San Jose Signs Project on social media, share posts and stories, attend events, become a member, donate. As San Jose enters a new phase of rapid growth and development, I think it’s in our best interest to preserve what is left so we can continue sharing our history with generations to come.

To see future posts on San Jose history, subscribe to my blog or join my mailing list.

Works Cited

Christensen, Terry. Interview with Tricia Creason-Valencia, Director/Producer. Changing Boundaries: The History of San Jose. Norman Kline Productions, 2015, [45:00].

Creason-Valencia, Tricia, Director/Producer. Changing Boundaries: The History of San Jose. Norman Kline Productions, 2015.

David, Heather. The San Jose Signs Project, A Guide to the Vintage Signage of San Jose. Preservation Action Council of San Jose, 2017.

Del Castillo, Amanda. “Beloved Orchard Supply Hardware sign disappears from oldest retail site in San Jose.” ABC7 News/KGO-TV, 7 Nov. 2018, www.abc7news.com/missing-orchard-supply-hardware-sign-stolen-san-jose-osh/4643986/.

Dyer, R. A. Hustler Days: Minnesota Fats, Wimpy Lassiter, Jersey Red, and America's Great Age of Pool. Muf Books, 2003.

Gafni, Matthias. “Serial ADA lawsuit filer striking Bay Area.” East Bay Times, Bay Area News Group, 10 Apr. 2016, www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/04/10/serial-ada-lawsuit-filer-striking-bay-area/.

Guevarra, Ericka Cruz. “Why Does San Jose Have So Many Urban Islands?” KQED, 2 Feb. 2017, www.kqed.org/news/10953849/whats-it-like-to-live-in-an-urban-island.

Kifer, Cassie. Secret San Jose: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful and Obscure. Reedy Press, 2020.

Kiss Shot. Jerry London, Director. CBS Television, 1989. YouTube, uploaded by reelblack, 24 Jul 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpStk9L9Muc.

Marcotte, Josh. Interview. Conducted by Sarah JL Nguyen, 26 Apr. 2021.

McKay, Leonard. “Dutch Hamann - Part One” San Jose Inside, 16 Jan, 2006, www.sanjoseinside.com/news/dutch_hamann/.

“Orchard Supply Hardware.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Apr. 2021, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchard_Supply_Hardware.

Pizarro, Sal. “Iconic Time Deli to close in San Jose,” The Mercury News, Bay Area News Group, 11 July 2017, www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/11/iconic-time-deli-to-close-in-san-jose/.

Pizarro, Sal. “Orchard Supply Hardware’s vintage sign has disappeared from San Jose store.” The Mercury News, Bay Area News Group, 6 Nov. 2018, www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/06/orchard-supply-hardwares-vintage-sign-has-disappeared-from-san-jose-store/.

Wadsworth, Jennifer. “Police Recover Missing OSH Sign.” San Jose Inside, 17 Jan 2019, www.sanjoseinside.com/news/police-recover-missing-osh-sign/.

“Western Appliance History.” Western Appliance, www.westernappliance.com/our-history/. Accessed 15 Mar 2021.

“Western Appliance is Closing!” Western Appliance, www.westernappliance.com/western-appliance-is-closing/. Accessed 15 Mar 2021.

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