Mountain Tapes (formerly Navajo Motel) (Gone)
Holbrook, AZ Photo courtesy Tony Craig
Here is the old chieftain sign from the Navajo Motel, once located along Route 66 in Holbrook. With its large profile, feathered headdress and traces of neon tubing, this fellow must have been quite a sight greeting travelers as they rolled into town. The motel was one of the many independent roadside lodgings that once competed for attention along Holbrook’s busy strip.
After the motel closed, the property found a second life as Mountain Tapes. The old chieftain remained out front, watching over the passing traffic even though the rooms behind him were no longer welcoming travelers.
UPDATE: Mountain Tapes is gone, and the former motel building has been demolished. The distinctive chieftain sign was also removed, leaving another empty spot along Holbrook’s old Route 66 roadside. 09-26
Ortega's Shoes (Closed)
Douglas, AZ Photo courtesy Devil Doll
The old marquee for Ortega’s Shoes still hangs over the sidewalk in downtown Douglas, advertising the family shoe store in big, straightforward letters. Signs like this once filled central shopping districts, back when a walk downtown could take care of everything on the list and shoes came from a familiar family business rather than a giant warehouse. The projecting marquee made the store easy to spot from either end of G Avenue.
Juan Ortega came to the United States from Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1914 and learned leatherworking and bootmaking under legendary bootmaker Tony Lama in El Paso. He later moved to Douglas and opened Ortega’s Shoes with his wife, Conception, in 1923. What began as a local shoe and repair shop eventually grew into a small Arizona chain with locations in Douglas, Safford and Globe.
The family business survived the Great Depression, copper smelter strikes, recessions and several peso devaluations along the border. During the lean years, shoe repairs and military surplus boots from Fort Huachuca helped keep customers coming through the door. That is quite a run for an independent downtown shoe store.
UPDATE: Ortega’s Shoes closed at the end of May 2018 after nearly a century of family business in Douglas. The historic G Avenue storefront remains, and its wonderful old shoe marquee is still hanging above the sidewalk, keeping the Ortega name visible downtown. 09-26
Tourist Home (Closed)
Flagstaff, AZ Photo courtesy M.C. Morrissey
The Tourist Home opened in 1926 as a boarding house for Basque sheepherders passing through Flagstaff. By the time this photo was taken, the old lodging joint had been closed for years and the neon had disappeared from its weathered marquee.
UPDATE: After sitting abandoned for nearly four decades, the building was restored and reopened in 2014 as Tourist Home All Day Café. The old sign survives above the sidewalk, and the former Basque handball court now serves as an outdoor patio. 09-26
Imperial Schools (Formerly General
Motors Testing Laboratory) Phoenix, AZ Photo Elgin MacMillan
Check out the Imperial
Schools building in Phoenix, AZ, which was formerly the home of the
General Motors Testing Laboratory. First off, here's some info on this
building, which was designed in the streamline moderne style. Many thanks to Elgin MacMillanfor info.
The rooftop marquee for Imperial Schools once helped identify this sleek Streamline Moderne building at 20th and Roosevelt streets in Phoenix. With its rounded corners, horizontal lines and bands of glass block, the place looked more like something designed for the future than an ordinary school photography business.
That futuristic appearance was no accident. The building was constructed in 1937 as a General Motors testing laboratory, where automobiles and even military tanks were put through their paces in the Arizona heat. Designed by the Austin Company of Cleveland, it was reportedly the first building in Phoenix to make extensive use of glass block. GM continued testing here until 1953, when its desert operations shifted to a much larger proving ground near Mesa.
Imperial Schools (Formerly General
Motors Testing Laboratory) Phoenix, AZ Photo Elgin MacMillan
After GM left, the building briefly housed an insurance agency before becoming the longtime home of Imperial School Photography. That explains the large “Imperial Schools” sign seen on the roof. Funny how a building that once tested cars and armored vehicles eventually became associated with school portraits and class pictures.
UPDATE: Imperial School Photography is gone and its familiar rooftop marquee has been removed. The historic 1937 building still stands, although it has spent long stretches vacant while several redevelopment and adaptive-reuse ideas have come and gone. Its distinctive Streamline Moderne shape survives, but many of the original glass-block windows have been covered or painted over. 09-26
Cowboy Museum (Closed)
Tombstone, AZ Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Check out the Cowboy Museum in Tombstone, AZ. This place
has more than a passing resemblance to the Big Texan Steak House in Texas. Many thanks to Elgin MacMillanfor info.
The giant smiling cowboy perched above the Cowboy Museum in Tombstone was hard to miss along Fremont Street. With his bright colors, oversized hat and welcoming wave, the fellow looked ready to pull passing travelers right through the front door. Inside were John Wayne memorabilia, period firearms, pioneer artifacts and items connected to the Earp family. Located just around the corner from Tombstone’s tourist row and the O.K. Corral, it fit right into a town where the Old West is never very far away.
UPDATE: The museum has closed and the big rooftop cowboy has been removed. The building has since been repurposed for other heritage-related uses, but Fremont Street is a little less colorful without that giant fellow keeping watch from above. 09-26
Beall's Plumbing/ Wall Art Gallery (Gone)
Phoenix, AZ Photo courtesy Elgin MacMillan
I spoke with the owner and operator of the Wall Art Gallery and he told me that Beall's Plumbing still owns the
building and still operates the plumbing business out of the back part
of the building.
According to the gallery owner, he likes the historical plumbing sign
and plans to leave it up. The only change he said he would like to make
to the sign if the city and Beall's will allow, is to change the word
"plumbing" to art gallery or something to reflect the new business
in the front half of the building. Many thanks to Elgin MacMillanfor info.
Here is one of those wonderfully odd roadside combinations that makes you look twice. Beall’s Plumbing / Wall Art Gallery brought pipes and pictures together under one roof along busy Indian School Road. Need a leaky faucet repaired and something decorative to hang over it? This may have been the place.
Beall's Plumbing/ Wall Art Gallery
Phoenix, AZ Photo courtesy Elgin MacMillan
The storefront was part of the long commercial strip that grew with postwar Phoenix, when locally owned businesses used distinctive signs and unusual specialties to grab the attention of passing motorists. Beall’s operated as a longtime Valley plumbing company, while the Wall Art Gallery added an unexpected bit of color to the address.
UPDATE: The Indian School Road property has since been repurposed, and the old Beall’s Plumbing and Wall Art Gallery signage is no longer displayed. The unusual pairing has disappeared from the Phoenix roadside. 09-26
Mountain Tapes (formerly Navajo Motel) (Gone)
Here is the old chieftain sign from the Navajo Motel, once located along Route 66 in Holbrook. With its large profile, feathered headdress and traces of neon tubing, this fellow must have been quite a sight greeting travelers as they rolled into town. The motel was one of the many independent roadside lodgings that once competed for attention along Holbrook’s busy strip.
Ortega's Shoes (Closed)
Cowboy Museum (Closed)
Beall's Plumbing/ Wall Art Gallery (Gone)
Beall's Plumbing/ Wall Art Gallery
