Post #588164 by bigbrotiki on Fri, May 6, 2011 7:49 PM

On 2011-05-06 18:03, aquarj wrote:
Yippee! Great to see some new content here, especially the front door photos. All the more interested to see that slide you've been telling me about for years, Sven!
First off, about the second location. DC - we were just talking about it on the previous page. That's what we were referring to as "Lanai 2.0". And bigbro, I think you meant 80s as opposed to 60s, for that location, right?

The slide is just a full shot of the door. There was so little otherwise that captured my interest - THEN!

Randy, in '94 that mall looked kinda dated - 60s or early 70s style. The roof was flat and ended where the glass windows of the Chinese place end in your picture, I think - maybe even lower, because in my photo of the corner, there is an overhang roof with a beam and the neon sign attached to it. They must have renovated it after my visit, adding the height, and in the process "renovating" away the Lanai 2.0 :(

To become their logo, that door must have had a special meaning to the owner, maybe a good luck thing?....do you have any bio info on him? All I found was a court case with this info:

"In December of 1944, Murfee desired to purchase the Villa Chartier, a restaurant and bar located in San Mateo County.....Murfee proceeded to operate the premises under this lease-option agreement. Between December of 1944, and July of 1947, he expended over $50,000 in improvements."

Was he a Pacific War veteran? Did he have any other ties to Asia/the Pacific? I just can't believe that such a unique design was completely made up and came out of the whimsical imagination of some artist.