Wilder’s Steakhouse rooftop sign removed for restoration

The rooftop neon sign at Wilder’s Steakhouse in Joplin, Missouri, was removed Friday for restoration. A relighting ceremony for the sign is scheduled for dusk April 14.

According to a news release, the animated neon sign has not operated for least 25 years. The restaurant at 1216 Main St. landed a $24,000 cost-share grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to restore the sign. (Wilder’s other neon sign at its front entrance has been continuously maintained for years.)

Sign Designs of Joplin removed the sign Friday and will oversee its restoration.

More about Wilder’s history:

In 1930, Verne Wilder purchased a building at 1216 Main St. There, he opened a drugstore known as Southern Pharmacy. The pharmacy would be a short-term business for Wilder, as he soon decided to switch occupations, trading his pharmacy instruments for a recipe book and a chef’s apron. By 1933, he added another business to his pharmacy, a restaurant called Southern Buffet. Three years later, he converted the entire space into a full-scale restaurant and changed the name to Wilder’s Buffet. For the next 40 years, his legacy would be connected to running an upscale restaurant.

By the mid-1970s, due to declining health, Wilder sold his restaurant. During the 1980s, the restaurant changed hands several times. Clarence and Shirley Burggraff ran the noted establishment for over a decade. In 1996, Mike and Marsha Pawlus purchased the restaurant from the Burggraffs, and ever since have enjoyed preserving a piece of Joplin’s heritage.

Wilder’s restaurant has had two neon lit signs since the 1950s — one over the front door and one on the rooftop. The animated rooftop sign was specifically added to be seen from downtown Seventh Street (Route 66) to tell travelers “here I am” when they were looking for this restaurant that was known from coast to coast.

“That sign is what drew in a lot of people from Route 66,” said Marsha, “it lit up the sky.”

UPDATE: KODE-TV filed this report about the sign’s removal:

The Joplin Globe also filed a report.

(Images of the Wilder’s Steakhouse sign removal courtesy of Sign Designs)