I noticed LILEKS (James) has a picture of this Lufkin, Texas, motel back in its prime as a part of his excellent "the american motel" series he's just completed.
“Sun” isn’t exactly a rare commodity, which is perhaps why they added “Pines” for that extra oomph. This motel still exists in Lufkin, but I can’t vouch for the sign. The pool, incidentally, was “Tropically Heated.” You know, the tropics. Where they have all the pines.
I can vouch for the sign, as well as the tropical heat:
Not quite the same, is it? Why would it have been dismantled? Either it changed hands, and the new owners felt the sign looked too dated (I can't imagine that), or it was damaged, somehow, beyond repair.At least the office has retained some of its retro appeal (curved lines, etc.):
Also, I imagine these letters would have been pretty cool back when they worked:
I bet the pool is no longer "tropically heated." The effects of global warming here in Texas has taken care of the need for that!
6 comments:
I went to Lufkin and took pictures to send to Lileks the day he posted. Glad to see you comment on this.
I sent him an email at the one he provides (lileks@mac.com) and it came back undeliverable. Hope you had better luck!
It took me two tries: james at lileks dot com. I think it went through. No response, but I didn't expect one.
I bet he'll update, eventually. I seen updates (as I'm sure you have) for some of the other ones.
I only mention this because no one seems to have before, but the sun in the top picture would move in an arc and when it reached the apex, the neon "rays" would all light up.
Okay, maybe it was just obvious.
Oh man, that must have been something! Not only was it a beautiful sign, but it was also animated. What is going through the mind of a person as they dismantle such a thing and possibly junk it??
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