Wishing I could get back on the tours of Galena, Illinois, I am facing some new and exciting transitions in life, including a new place to call home. Hopefully, I will get back to tours of Galena as well as Dubuque, Iowa soon, but for now we have to settle for a new episode of The Twilight Zone.
During our trip to Galena in late June, we took a drive out to Elizabeth, Illinois in hopes for some antiquing. We found a wonderful old home full of antiques with the chattiest lady and not much else. On our way back to our digs in Galena, my guy sees a highway sign leading to a few ski lodges. For some odd and inane reason he decides he wants to see what a ski lodge looks like. Why he would even attempt to do this in the middle of June is anyone's guess but as we drove and drove down the road that led to the lodges, our patience was being tested as nothing but trees and grass came within plain view. Suddenly, I saw a Sears sign. Wait a minute, Sears? In the middle of an invisible ski lodge in a small town with greenery and not much else? How could that possibly be?
Of course, we stopped the car, placed our eyeballs back into our collective sockets and marveled at some mysterious stranger's "collection" of signs as seen above. Had I walked into some strange sign or retail geek's home museum? I still don't know. We did not see a soul in sight to inquire. This weird shrine of sorts looked kind of abandoned. Now if only this could have been a real episode of The Twilight Zone. If it had been, we would have been transported back to 1957 because the soul says that is where we belong. Unfortunately, the rusty Kohler's Trading Post sign taunted me with the fact that I was still here in 2010. Ah, I still feel as bad as that sign looks.
It's hard to tell what era it is or where that Sears sign came from. The font and tone look very similar to this photo of a 1957 Sears at Cermak Plaza in Berwyn, Illinois courtesy of Dave's wonderfully and ever increasingly more informative and hilarious (a fantastic duo!) blog Pleasant Family Shopping. Aside from that picture to go on, I got nothing else. An intriguing mystery indeed.
4 comments:
I was going to ask if this was the latest Sears concept store. LOL
LOL! It will be if they keep going the way they are.
That’s a neat-looking place! I’d love to have a shed or barn or whatever it is and decorate it with old signs. There’s one located off of I-40 near Memphis where they have a bunch of old neon car dealer signs from the 50’s (Ford, Oldsmobile and others) mounted to the building.
I would date the Sears sign from the 1940’s. I think I have a photo of a New England area store with that style sign. It’s from the era of “plainer” Sears signs, between the awesome deco 30’s and the great script and serif signs of the late 50’s and 60’s. When they expanded the Cermak Plaza Sears in the 60’s, they scrapped the plain lettering shown in the photo and went with the serif version (just “Sears”) with white blocks around each letter. Definitely a bolder and better look!
Thanks so much for the props, Didi. I’m trying to decide whether to add more information or hilarity! ;D
Dave, information vs hilarity, I cannot pick. On the one hand, information is very knowledgable, informative and leads to a more productive and geeky society and on the other hand hilarity rules geeky, productive society or not! Oooh, too hard. But I have been enjoying it lately either way so kudos for that.
I, too, would love to have a place as seen in the photo. Though my sign musuem would probably be neon signs of old motels. Those are some of the most adrenaline flowing ones I love. Alas, I am and always will be a city girl so it's quite unlikely I will ever gain the space for something like that. Although we are working on making a corner of our basement a 70s lounge room and I think over time we will achieve it since we have already gathered some minor items from estate sales, so who knows on the sign museum of motel lore.
I had a feeling that the Sears sign predated the script/serif era, I just wasn't sure because I don't think I have ever seen a Sears sign like that. Much appreciated for pinpointing that for me, Dave. Funny thing was, the other day before I hopped to work, I was at an Esate Sale on the far northwest side of Chicago and came across a maybe early 50s era sewing machine with a manual from Sears. The Sears logo in the manual was identical to my photos. Unfortunately, I have about as much use for sewing machines as I do for a set of pots and pans. Sewing and cooking are not frontier skills I want to learn how to enjoy. I don't even have the patience for boiling water. I am that terrible.
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