Newer Pictures of Older Places...

First off we have some of the older Hotels lining Beach Blvd, From Huntington Beach to Buena Park...

Then we have a little hidden gem in O.C., that I shall remain quiet on the actual location... The manager was cool about me taking these shots, but was leary of me putting them on a tiki website. Apparently there had been multiple offers made to buy these off of the owners, but the family that owns the property(and tikis) are keeping them. Since the owner plans to keep them in the family, they want to keep the location mum, to avoid any wrongdoing to the tikis.
I know Sven HAS to know about these, and probably knows who carved them. So, who's carvings are these? They definitely look old up close...I actually really like the style..

The next 2 shots are from Long Beach...One of what is left of the abandoned Long Beach Automotive Museum window sign,

and the one below is my favorite dive bar in Long Beach, est. 1940(ish)...It was originally named the "Venetian Room", but was renamed "The V Room" when the current owner took ownership. It is located on 4th street and Alamitos...Tell C.J. I sent ya!

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2008-07-16 23:21 ]

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2008-07-17 15:55 ]

OK, I think this was the topic created for pictures of signage of yore. I couldn't find the original post. At any rate, here's my contribution:

The gym I go to is located on a busy commercial highway with big box retail stores galore, but directly adjacent to the gym's parking lot is The Colonial Motel.

The structure itself is a little dilapidated but the motel features a long, low, bank of rooms with a central main office and then in back of the first row of rooms is a square parking lot with identical buildings to the first bank of rooms enclosing said parking lot. Confusing? Perhaps. I wish I could explain it better, but it's really not important - they're nothing spectacular save for the Howard Johnson's-esque teal and orange color scheme and the fact that the rooms are all ground level like ranch houses that nobody builds anymore because they take up too much land. Grrr!

I'm not sure when this motel was constructed but it definitely reeks of late 1950s, early '60s architecture: from the stacked stone, to the color scheme, and the abundance of honest-to-goodness neon in the sign, this blast from the past, in the midst of modern retail storefronts galore, always makes me smile.

I'm sure it won't be around much longer.
Peace,
Peter