Paradise Center
Fresno, CA
Photo courtesy Mary Patterson

Check out the Paradise Center sign along Fresno’s Blackstone Avenue. Those yellow plastic balls on metal stalks gave the marquee a playful Space Age appearance. A shopping-center sign with its own little planetary system—at least before the pieces started disappearing.

The design likely dates from the 1950s or 1960s, when unusual shapes helped shopping plazas compete for passing motorists. Paradise Liquor kept the center’s name visible below, but the yellow “ballies” supplied the real roadside attraction. One disappeared between 2008 and 2013, beginning a gradual loss of the sign’s decorative features.

UPDATE: By 2020, all the yellow balls and their supporting stalks had been removed. The center remains active, and the main sign structure survives, though considerably less dressed up than before. Still a place to shop, just without those cheerful little satellites overhead. 11-26

Westgate Plaza
Merced, CA
Photo courtesy Jimmy Bowman

The Westgate Plaza pylon rises above a Merced parking lot with the familiar look of an older neighborhood shopping center. Tenant names could change, but a tall sign helped everyone find the entrance. There was once quite a lineup of familiar stores waiting behind it.

Opened around 1960 and remembered as Merced’s first suburban strip mall, Westgate included Gottschalks, Newberry’s, Thrifty Drug, Karl’s Shoes and Purity Grocery. An earlier sign also carried a clock until it reportedly blew down during a February 26, 1973 windstorm. The photographed pylon may have replaced that fallen landmark.

UPDATE: Westgate Plaza continues serving shoppers with a newer mix of businesses. The present status of the photographed sign has not been confirmed. These views preserve a familiar marker from a center that helped bring Merced’s shopping beyond the downtown storefronts. 11-26