Here is your chance to own an extremely cool, rare, one of a kind piece of true vintage Americana! You will be hard pressed to find a more impressive piece of vintage neon anywhere. Look at that font! And in rare double-stroke lettering no less! This is as doo wop as it gets! The Sea Rose Motel stood proudly at 11th & Surf Avenues in North Wildwood, NJ for 40 years surely helping to create priceless memories for countless many over the summers. She first opened her doors as one of the many brand new mom and pop motels way back in 1964. The neon signs for these vestiges were true works of art, each one unique, hand made and often with design input by the Motel owners themselves. By the early 2000s a perfect storm of sorts took place. Being by the salty Atlantic seaside means constant upkeep for property owners in general, and many of the late 1950s-1960s motels were, by now, in need of major renovation. The housing boom of 2003-07 also swept the shore towns, with condominium developers offering many owners large cash buyouts. Sadly, faced with either taking loans to upgrade and press on, the buyout offers were simply too tempting to the many now retirement-aged original owners, the Sea Rose Motel being among them, and the summer of 2004 was her last. Fred from Ultra Neon in Wildwood, as he has done with many local signs for decades, originally salvaged the Sea Rose sign during the motels demolition. He can verify this, and in fact youll find this sign on his websites gallery of his salvation/restoration work. Luckily, Fred had already climbed up and retrieved the actual Neon bulbs from the sign beforehand. All of the Neon here are the original 1964 neon lights. With one side destroyed, Fred had no choice but to cut out the metal casings of the letters and create a wooden box that he then attached everything to and which, inside, houses the brand new power unit. He painted it all to match one of the two color stylings the Motel sported over the years. Luckily, he chose the teal and pink design (as at one time the Motel had a brown and gold color scheme, as seen in the old brochure photo). Fred did originally give me an extra ea portion of neon but unfortunately that broke years ago. Fred outfitted the sign with a brand new lightweight power box that works in any standard 3 prong house outlet. The sign is roughly 8 feet long, 28 tall, and 8 inches deep. All of the lights work great as pictured! The Sea Rose illuminates a fantastic classic hot pink, the waves in light blue and the No Vacancy in orange. It has been resting on a pink wall shelf I made with some of the leftover pink paint that Fred gave me so that it matches perfectly and blends right in with the sign itself. I will include the shelf. There are also two large eye bolts on top, one on either side, if you choose to display it by suspension. It has been displayed in my non smoking Philadelphia home since acquisition roughly 14 years ago. It gets lit up occasionally and still works perfectly. Unlike many Motel signs, at around 8 it will fit onto almost any wall for display. I carefully chose this sign not only because its just so freaking cool looking, but because its size wasnt display prohibitive. Some others I was eyeing measured 12-16 long, or 6-8 round in diameter and are simply too large. If youre new to collecting Neon signs, youll quickly realize that most are far bigger in your home than they are outdoors. I rented a van to originally get it from Wildwood to Philadelphia, PA where it is presently located in the 19154 zip code one mile from I-95 and one mile from US-1. Thanks for looking and see you at the beach! The item “Vintage Wildwood NJ 60s Motel Hotel Neon Sign Boardwalk Beach Rare Pink Blue” is in sale since Wednesday, February 3, 2021. This item is in the category “Collectibles\Lamps, Lighting\Neon”. The seller is “scumcrods” and is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This item can’t be shipped, the buyer must pick up the item.
- Type: Neon
