The Museum of Neon Art last week rescued the iconic House of Spirits signs that stood in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles after a major fire closed the business.
The museum, based in nearby Glendale, California, also accepted the donations of the liquor store’s storybook house with the crooked chimney, white picket fence and neon tree from the business’ longtime owners, reported Los Angeles Magazine.
The store closed after a major fire last year and the ruins have been ransacked. A neon liquor bottle that was once part of the composition was stolen and is still missing, so the museum knew it was time to act. “We’re putting up a banner in English and Spanish,” says Siegel. “We wanted to explain where the sign is going and that we hope to return it.”
The bucolic tiny house and streamline “House of Spirits” lettering measures about 50 feet long and fills the entire face of the building. “It’s beaten and weathered,” says museum president Eric Lynxwiler. “But the tubes are intact, and we will clean it up until we find a new home for it in Echo Park.” The museum owns several of the classic signs on display at Universal Citywalk and leases them to the shopping center.
Here’s a video of the sign removal by the museum:
House of Spirits was at 1314 Echo Park Ave., a stone’s throw from the Sunset Boulevard (aka Route 66) in Los Angeles.
According to R.I.P. Los Angeles, the House of Spirits opened in 1958. All of the elaborate neon was constructed for the business that year.
Yes, it’s a quaint little cottage (hey, like the kind we used to have in Los Angeles!) with a wonky-donk chimney puffing out animated smoke. With a sunset behind, or maybe that’s a rising orange moon? It may be the greatest sign in Los Angeles, which would therefore make it the greatest sign in the world.
This time-lapse video doesn’t show the House of Spirits’ main sign, but it shows the rest of them when the liquor store still was operating 10 years ago:
The fire occurred in December 2018, prompting the closing of the House of Spirits.
(Hat tip to Chris Willman; image of House of Spirits sign in 2000 by Thomas Hawk via Flickr)
Wow, that is some fabulous Googie! I wish I’d noticed this when it was still open. I guess real estate values in the neighborhood will now plummet as Googie fans move away.