Lights out?
The glory days of neon may be over, but for many the signs retain special glow
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The V-shaped, glowing Pleasant Cafe sign juts over the sidewalk like a miniature marquee on Washington Street in Roslindale, a beacon to motorists and pedestrians on the well-traveled artery. Like the best classic neon, the sign - a glowing mix of pink, turquoise, orange, and yellow - commands the attention of even the most distracted driver.
John Morgan, who owns the almost 70-year-old establishment, lovingly maintains the sign, which his father and a partner had created for the cafe in the 1950s. Photographers and artists periodically drop by to capture the Boston neighborhood landmark.
"Depending on the time of year, it can look really pretty at night," said Morgan. "When you're coming down the hill on an early autumn night, it really stands out."
David Waller, a Malden collector who has preserved many of the Hub's most famous neon signs, said the signs identify neighborhoods.
"You know you're in Mattapan when you see the Simco's sign," said Waller, referring to the oversized hot dog and ice cream cone on the rooftop of the Blue Hill Avenue takeout restaurant. "They have become wayfinding places in the city."
From Roslindale to Park Square, East Boston to Davis Square, and Coolidge Corner to Charlestown, neon is holding on to its tenuous perch among the town's signposts, rooftops, and windows.
It hasn't been easy. For years, the signs have been under pressure in more ways than one. Age and the elements have taken their toll on the 20th-century artifacts, which are costly and difficult to maintain. Municipal zoning regulations, most adopted in the 1960s and 1970s, restrict or prohibit large new neon signs in many communities. In recent years, a new threat arrived: energy-efficient LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, which can provide a similar look but not the same feel as neon, fans say.
Arthur Krim, a geographer and founder of a preservationist group, the Society for Commercial Archeology, said neon has a special appeal.
"It does have a lifelike quality to it," said Krim. "It burns through the fog. It seems to have an animated inner life."
Richard Batten, owner of Batten Brothers Sign Advertising in Wakefield, whose company maintains neon signs, said neon is different from other kinds of lighting. "There's a glow to it. Neon has a warmer quality," he said.
Boston's most famous neon - the giant Citgo sign in Kenmore Square - was converted to LEDs in 2005. (The new, improved version hasn't been immune from problems, though, suffering an ill-timed electrical fire in October that caused $5,000 in damage and briefly dimmed it during the baseball playoffs.) Perhaps the area's second-most famous neon, for the Shell Station at Memorial Drive and Magazine Street in Cambridge, has been dark for several years because of wiring difficulties. The oversized Shell trademark is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and major repairs require approval from historical preservation agencies.
Other famous neon landmarks are long gone, either acquired by collectors, placed in storage, or hauled off with the trash. The giant
Cambridge's spectacular flashing Bottled Liquors sign, which dwarfs the small liquor store it points to on Massachusetts Avenue, was restored with LEDs, which can cost half as much to operate, a couple of years ago. The original sign was built in the early 1950s.
"It's Cambridge's Citgo sign," said Joe D'Agostino, night manager at the store, Dana Hill Liquors.
Waller, the Malden collector, has mixed feelings about the state of neon in the area.
"I thought it was pretty dismal until I started making a list of the signs that are still out there, and there are actually quite a few left," said Waller. "But every year there are fewer of them."
Among Waller's favorites are the large rooftop sign for the Union Oyster House, and the oversized Schrafft's sign on the former candy factory in Charlestown. The Schrafft's building is now office space, owned by the Flatley Co., which has kept and maintained the sign.
Over the last 100 years or so, neon has fallen in and out of public favor. Invented in the late 1800s, neon lights work by passing a high-voltage charge through neon gas trapped in a glass tube. The signs are produced by bending the glass.
In the 1920s, the signs were considered elegant works of art, and over the next several decades, they spread to commercial establishments across the country.
By the 1960s and 1970s, tastes had changed, and neon came to be viewed as tacky and garish. Communities all over the country used zoning to curb their spread. Today, as nostalgia for the 20th century grows, appreciation for neon is on the rise once more, even as the number of survivors dwindles. Smaller varieties are most commonly seen in the windows of bars, liquor stores, nail salons, and fortune-telling establishments.
In Boston, the signs can be found in unlikely places. On the roof of Symphony Hall, the word POPS appears in bright red, all-capital letters each spring when the Boston Pops ensemble is performing. Built in 1934, the sign is recognized as the oldest original neon sign on display in the city, and each of its letters has to be installed separately. In the 1970s, one of them - the S - broke and had to be replaced with a facsimile.
Neon also is prominent at the entrance to the MBTA's Back Bay Station, and on the American Airlines hangar and inside the American terminal at Logan Airport.
Theaters have some of the Hub's most eye-catching neon. Spectacular signs can be found at the AMC Loews Boston Common cinema on Tremont Street, the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, and the Paramount Theatre on Washington Street.
But if there is a ground zero for neon in Boston, it is Park Square. A neon parking garage sign sits across from the Legal Sea Foods restaurant, which is festooned with neon, including a large image of a fish that changes color from blue to green to orange.
Around the corner, the window at Espirista, a psychic and palm reader, features a neon hand. And nearby is the Tam lounge, with its overhanging sign and matching oversized Budweiser and Michelob logos.
The Blanchard's liquor stores in Jamaica Plain and Allston have some of the area's best-maintained neon. "It's definitely not easy," said Christine Elder, president of Blanchard's Wines and Spirits. "They're all old and they need a lot of maintenance."
Elder said the neon signs are important to Blanchard's image and also are neighborhood landmarks.
The chain's West Roxbury store had a neon sign that was the neighborhood's most visible landmark, taller than the tallest church steeple. However, as the condition of the sign worsened, the company finally decided to dismantle it; it was replaced with a backlighted fixture made of plexiglass.
"The city was delighted for us to take it down," said Elder. "It was disintegrating."
Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com. 
