The new owner of the closed Apache Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, took down its neon sign on Thursday, though she didn’t plan to do so.
Joanne Thompson, who in February acquired the Route 66 motel from her former business partner Wade Dirr, noticed the sign had twisted at an angle.
Upon closer inspection, she found the base of the sign’s metal pole had almost entirely severed, leaving the sign to twist in the wind and threaten to fall onto the street or the neighboring Kix on 66 restaurant. The pole probably failed during high wind gusts the previous week.
Thompson hurriedly hired a local welder to attach bracings to the pole to stabilize it, then called SkyRite Signage Co. in Amarillo, Texas, to take down the sign. The firm managed to do that in a few hours Thursday amid increasingly gustier winds.
The sign now is lying on its side while Thompson gets quotes for its restoration. SkyRite brought a flatbed trailer to Tucumcari, but the 24-by-18-foot sign was too large to be transported back.
Thompson wants to restore the sign and has set up a $50,000 GoFundMe.com campaign to help with that effort.
She also is exploring grant options, such as the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program‘s.
Because of the sign’s enormous size and elaborate design that includes chasing lights on its edge, “I imagine (restoring) it will be $100,000 or more,” she said.
Because the motel was only partially renovated before work halted about three years ago, Thompson said “I’m up for anything” on its options, including reselling it, converting it into housing for the local community college, or making it a motel again.
Thompson returned to Tucumcari as a resident recently, though she also will split her time in the winter in Florida, from which she hails.
“I love this town,” she said. “It’s so cool. I’m a fixer-upper junkie. And the town is a fixer-upper junkie’s dream come true.”
In 2005, an Oklahoma investment group bought the Apache Motel and rehabbed it, including repainting the huge black neon sign white.
It closed less than a year later.
The motel, once known as the Apache Inn, was built in 1960.
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