Category Archives: Iowa

What struck me most as we drove east from Grinnell along Highway six through several  small Iowa towns  in central Iowa last Saturday was the remarkable collection of well-preserved old business signs, several neon, adorning store fronts. It felt like we were on the set of “Back to the Future.”  Below is one of my favorites in Brooklyn, Iowa. (You have to drive off the highway and go into town to see it.) It’s a wonderful old creme-colored tile building decorated with vintage letters that spell out: Service Standard Oil Products.

A highlight in Brooklyn, Iowa

Downtown Grinnell also is full of great old signs – the big bright red letters on the curved marquee of the restored Strand Theater which still shows movies; the blue neon sign outside the Danish Maid Bakery on 4th street (opened in 1945 and famous for its “creme-filled coneys”) ;  the glass tile blocks spelling out Grinnell, Iowa on the facade of  an old department store that is now a bike shop, Bikes to You on Broad Street; the plain old-fashioned lettering of the sign outside the local newspaper, the Herald-Register. There’s also an old 1930s brick gas station complete with the old pumps – that now houses a 1950’s style soda fountain called Candyland Station and serves $3 sundaes.  It’s at 831 West Street.  The most remarkable building of all is the famous Jewel-Box Bank, designed by Louis Sullivan.

Past Brooklyn, on two-lane Highway 6 we drove through Ladora, Iowa – and a sign for the amusingly named convenience store, the Ladora Stora. (Geddit?) and then the old neon sign for a garage “York and Sons” that looked like the garage in The Great Gatsby. Also appreciated the neon sign outside the Sudbury Court, lighting up the roadside motel on a dark winter night.

Betsy outside Brooklyn (iowa)