Let there be neon light

Flashy and hard to maintain, the vintage signs still hold the power to attract

A few feet from the curb on Route 9 in Framingham, the glowing soft-pink sign for Ken's Steak House seems to warm the winter night. The amoeba-shaped neon sign, now half a century old, commands the attention of even the most distracted driver.

"It's from a day gone by," said Tim Hanna, owner of Ken's and son of the restaurant's founder, the late Ken Hanna. "It's an important part of the business. It's Ken's Steak House's persona."

Amid the malls, big-box stores, and strip plazas of the Route 9 retail megalopolis, the sign for Ken's stands out.

"It's that neon miracle-mile sign that sits out by the side of the road and pulls you in," said David Waller, a Malden sign collector and an authority on neon artifacts in the Boston area. "It's also important because it's the only one left there."

For several decades, neon's glow has been fading from the region, with the signs costly and difficult to maintain, and new ones are banned or limited by most communities.

Also, in recent years, a new threat arrived: energy-efficient LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, which can provide a similar look.

But while neon clearly is under pressure, survivors from another century can be found scattered across the region.

One of them is atop Bigelow Cleaners on Sumner Street in Newton Centre, a sparkling pink sign that brightens the nighttime scene. It dates to the 1930s, according to owner Peter Stavros, making it one of the oldest neon signs in Greater Boston.

"Once in a while the bulbs burn out, and you have to replace it," Stavros said.

Those maintenance issues helped spur the conversion of Boston's most famous neon - the giant Citgo sign in Kenmore Square - to LEDs in 2005. The diodes may glow like neon, and can cost half as much to operate and are far more durable, but they lack the sensory appeal of neon, according to aficionados.

The elegant sign at Ken's, which is enshrined on labels of Ken's salad dressing, is the only significant neon sign surviving on a strip that once looked like a miniature Las Vegas.

In the 1960s and early '70s, the Golden Mile in Framingham and Natick featured huge neon signs for Shoppers World, Howard Johnson's, Holiday Inn, and Chateau de Ville, as well as many smaller signs. Today, the signs along the busy highway are mostly backlighted plexiglass.

A more recent neon sign can be seen by thousands of drivers every day on Route 128/Interstate 95 - at the "You-Do-It" Electronics Center, off Highland Avenue in Needham. The 60-year-old business actually has two signs - one on the roof, which is widely visible, and another on the side, which comes into view as drivers get closer. The rooftop sign was erected shortly after the Blizzard of 1978, while the other one dates to 1965 and was relocated when the business expanded 30 years ago.

"Customers come in and say, 'I've seen your sign a million times,' " said John Ahigian, co-owner of "You-Do-It" and son of the founder. "People use it as a meeting place. I see them in my parking lot in the morning."

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. It burns through the fog. It seems to have an animated inner life," said Krim.

Richard Batten, owner of Batten Brothers Sign Advertising, said neon is different from other kinds of lighting. "There's a glow to it. Neon has a warmer quality," said Batten, whose Wakefield company maintains neon signs.

Invented in the late 1800s, neon lights work by zapping the gas, trapped in a glass tube, with a high-voltage charge that makes the neon particles emit light. The signs are produced by bending the glass tubes.

In the 1920s, many neon signs were designed as elegant works of art, and over the next several decades they spread to commercial establishments across the country. But in the 1960s and '70s, tastes changed, and neon came to be viewed as tacky and garish.

Today, as many people look back nostalgically at the mid-20th century, appreciation is growing for neon signs, even as the number of survivors dwindles. Activists have mounted campaigns to save some endangered neon signs, and neon sign museums have opened in Cincinnati and Las Vegas.

No museum is needed in Waltham, host to a colorful collection of neon that ranges from the vintage signs of Queen Cleansers and Edwards Jewelry to the newer Embassy Cinema and Watch City Brewing Co. displays.

"There is a whole little neon world there," said Krim. "I think it's the best in Boston."

One of the more dazzling antique neon signs anywhere sits above Lord's department store on Main Street in downtown Medfield. Lord's is one of the rarest of retail establishments - a local five and dime, slightly smaller than an old Woolworth, offering an assortment of goods and a friendly lunch and breakfast counter.

The sign for Lord's spells out the establishment's name in elegant bright-red script, the word sitting on the looping tail of the capital "L."

"It's been hanging up there for 51 years," said William Kelly, 85, who delivered fliers for the store's grand opening in 1940 and later bought the business from founder Ray Lord. "We have it on a timer and leave it on until midnight so people can use it for directions."

The town has had a love-hate affair with the Lord's sign. In the 1960s, there was a movement to ban neon signs in Medfield. Although some town officials wanted the Lord's sign taken down, it escaped because it had been built before the regulations were adopted.

In recent times, townspeople have come to cherish the downtown landmark. From time to time, artists set up on the sidewalk with easels to paint it.

"People absolutely associate it with the center of town," said the store's manager, Nancy KellyLavin, Kelly's daughter.

Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com.