Columbia Bank
Photo courtesy Georg Balandran

Banks aren’t usually the first places you check for imaginative roadside advertising, but Columbia Bank offered a reason to look twice. Its marquee paired the business name with a large illustration, giving the display more personality than a conventional bank logo. The artwork helped turn a practical identification sign into something memorable.

Financial institutions once used distinctive buildings, clocks, and illustrated signs to establish a recognizable neighborhood presence. This display followed that approach, presenting the bank through a design motorists could identify from the road. Without a confirmed location or installation date, the photograph supplies the clearest record of this particular example.

UPDATE: The current status of this Columbia Bank sign has not been established. The bank’s name alone is insufficient to identify the property confidently, so its later history remains uncertain. For now, the photograph preserves an unusual example of a bank putting some imagination into its roadside introduction. 08-26

Badcock Home Furnishing (Gone)
Tampa, FL
Photo courtesy Andy Callahan

The vintage sign at Badcock Home Furnishing Center supplied a reason to notice the store even if you weren’t shopping for furniture. Its bold lettering stood along 7th Avenue in Tampa’s Ybor City, adding another individual business identity to a district known for historic storefronts and eye-catching signs.

Badcock’s Florida roots reached back to 1904, and the company grew into a familiar furniture retailer across the South. The Ybor City location brought that household name into a setting quite different from a suburban shopping center. Here, the sign became part of a streetscape where the advertisements could be as interesting to roadside observers as the merchandise inside.

UPDATE: The Badcock chain ceased operations in 2024 following its parent company’s bankruptcy. The Ybor City store has closed, and the vintage sign is no longer part of the streetscape. Photographs preserve its contribution to the neighborhood’s commercial scenery. 08-26

Miller High Life (Demolished)
Tampa, FL
Photo courtesy Steve/Back on Tack

I had driven by the old neon Miller beer sign on Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa thousands of times, but it never really sunk in. It took a visit from a New England friend and roadside observer before I consciously realized its presence. As she so gingerly exclaimed when we passed it, “Great sign, crappy beer.” Point well taken. It may be why the sign still rises to the rooftop, but the bottling plant has packed it in. Many thanks to Steve/Back on Tack for info.

Although the building was sometimes described as a bottling plant, it served as a beer distribution warehouse. That distinction didn’t change the sign’s roadside impact. Its elevated position made the brand visible across the surrounding traffic, turning a working distribution property into a recognizable feature of the boulevard.

UPDATE: The warehouse closed after J.J. Taylor relocated its operations in 2003. The building was subsequently demolished, and the rooftop sign disappeared. Another familiar piece of Tampa’s commercial skyline was lost, leaving photographs to recall the years when the neon watched over Kennedy Boulevard. 08-26

Crown Wigs
Tampa, FL
Photo courtesy Andy Callahan

Need a disguise? Crown Wigs looked ready to help. The vintage sign made the shop’s specialty clear, giving passing Tampa motorists something a little different to notice among the usual restaurant and automotive advertisements. A wig store might not appear on a sightseeing itinerary, but its sign could still earn a photograph.

Specialty shops like this contributed their own identities to commercial streets. Large, readable lettering announced exactly what customers could find inside, while an individual business name helped distinguish the storefront from its neighbors. Crown Wigs is a reminder that interesting roadside advertising wasn’t limited to businesses catering to vacationers.

UPDATE: The current operating status of Crown Wigs and the fate of its vintage sign have not been confirmed. The photograph preserves the shop’s roadside appearance without establishing what followed. Another ordinary retail business supplied an unexpectedly memorable stop for the camera. 08-26

Foto Fast 1 Hr Photo (Gone)
Ocala, FL
Photo by RoadsidePeek.com

One enormous word did much of the advertising at Foto Fast 1 Hr Photo in Ocala: “FILM.” The tall marquee along Silver Springs Boulevard made the service easy to recognize from a moving car. Before memory cards and phone cameras, that was a useful message for travelers documenting a Florida vacation.

One-hour processing changed the experience of waiting for photographs. Customers could leave a roll, run errands, and return to see whether their pictures had turned out. Near an attraction corridor such as Silver Springs Boulevard, the service suited vacationers as well as local families. The sign’s straightforward lettering reflected a business built around speed and convenience.

UPDATE: Foto Fast has closed, and its familiar “FILM” marquee is gone from Silver Springs Boulevard. The decline of everyday film processing changed the market for shops like this, leaving their signs as reminders of when getting photographs meant another stop after taking them. 08-26

National Trailer Rental Co. (Gone)
Tampa, FL
Photo courtesy John V Cinchett

One of the first U-Haul Rental locations in the state of Florida was found in Tampa. Check out the look of this marquee in this photo from 1951. Many thanks to John V Cinchett for info.11-08

Created by Cinchett Neon Signs, the marquee reflected the attention local sign makers brought to businesses of every description. A trailer rental operation could receive the same imaginative treatment as a restaurant or theater. During the postwar years, such services helped families transport belongings behind their own cars as growing communities attracted new residents.

UPDATE: The original rental lot has disappeared, and its distinctive marquee no longer stands along Hillsborough Avenue. The photograph preserves an early chapter in roadside moving services, when an independently advertised trailer business could make its presence known with a substantial custom sign. 08-26

Stamie's Beach Wear (Gone)
Daytona Beach, FL
Photo courtesy Paul Bauke

The diving girl above Stamie’s Beachwear looked ready to launch herself toward the nearby Atlantic. Wearing a bright red swimsuit, the oversized fiberglass figure turned a beachwear shop into one of Daytona Beach’s recognizable roadside attractions. Even customers who didn’t need a swimsuit had a reason to look up.

Stamie’s began selling beachwear in 1947, and the rooftop diver joined the scene in 1965. The figure neatly advertised the merchandise while adding a little theatrical movement above the storefront. Over the following decades, she became a familiar sight to returning vacationers, surviving long enough to become a landmark independently of the shop beneath her.

UPDATE: Stamie’s closed in 2017 after seventy years in business. The Ocean Avenue store is gone, but the diving girl was preserved and relocated to One Daytona. Good to see the familiar figure find another home rather than disappear with the business she once advertised. 08-26