Business owner restoring historic neon signs damaged by monsoon
By Andrew Christiansen
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TUCSON, Arizona (KGUN) — Jude Cook has been working to fix the neon Coronado Hotel sign that stood in Downtown Tucson, a piece of history that dates back about seventy years ago.
It’s one of the three signs that were damaged by monsoon winds about three weeks ago.
“It’s satisfying work, but it’s dirty work,” Cook commented.
He’s the owner of Cook and Company Sign Makers and the founder of the Ignite Sign Art Museum.
He said the wind was strong enough to cause one of the sign’s wires to pull out of the wall.
“And this angle and this angle up here were both still attached to the building,” he said, pointing to some exposed wires.
Monsoons winds also damaged the La Siesta Motel sign, which snapped the pole it was on. Cook believes the pole was deteriorating at or near the ground and gave out.
The Quail Inn Sign was also damaged by the winds. Cook believes after about seventy years, the mortar got to a point where it wasn’t attached well.
In the last ten years, Cook said Tucson has lost about ten to fifteen percent of its historic signs.
However, he said the recent damage on the three historic neon signs is the most amount of damage to historic neon signs he’s seen in recent years.
“The faces are flexible. If you get enough wind, you create a vacuum and it sucks the face in or sucks the face out,” he said.
He said there is a difference between restoring historic signs versus some of the modern signs we see.
“Most of the historic signs are steel. Most of the new signs are aluminum. Probably the biggest difference is the historic signs are always dirty, filthy, and full of pigeon stuff,” Cook said.
He said restoring the signs can range from three to four thousand dollars all the way to $50,000. He said the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation is looking into raising money for the businesses whose neon signs got damaged.
As he surveyed the damage on the signs, Cook said getting the signs back to their original condition isn’t just his passion; he also wants to help preserve Tucson history.
“If you lose these signs, you eventually end up looking like any town, anywhere,” Cook said.
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