Arizona Daily Star photographer Kelly Presnell revisited neon signs that dot the landscape in Tucson. Many are a throwback to a time when a handful of longtime restaurants, hotels and bars served a smaller city. Some of the signs are barely hanging on today. Some have been lovingly restored to their former glory. Regardless, there's no way to duplicate the feel of neon when the sun goes down.
The gas station is long gone, but PJ Subs T6 Filling Station at 2500 E. 6th Street is still aglow with neon signs. Owner Jay Tolkoff opened the shop on Speedway in 2004, then migrated into the former Long Wong's in the Sam Hughes neighborhood. The original business was Jimmy's Service Station, opened by James McDowell on April Fool's Day 1956. He sold the business to his son-in-law in 1983, who added an expanded service station at Tucson Blvd. and Broadway Road, eventually closing the 6th Street location. Jimmy's Broadway Automative has been a beloved midtown mechanic since then.
ABC Market on South Park Avenue is closed as of March, 2018, but its simply elegant neon sign still hums. According to a history compiled by the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, the 100 or so groceries that Tucson’s Chinese families operated in Tucson by the 1940s catered to a clientele that shopped for Mexican specialties.
Some of Tucson's most-notable neon signs now light up Drachman Street west of Stone Ave.: Medina's Sporting Goods, left, the Arizonan Motel, Magic Carpet Golf and the Tropicana Motor Hotel. In 2012, the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation restored and relocated the historic neon signs along Drachman Street (Historic Route 80 & 89 and State Route 84) at Pima Community College Downtown.
Pat Patterson opened the third location of his famous chili dog outlets in 1962. The sign was designed and fabricated by the ABCO Sign Co. The swirling neon sign at 1202 W. Niagara still shines brightly, multiplied in the windshield and hood of a delivery vehicle.
A neon wasp adorns Arizona Pest Control, 1127 N. Rook Ave., family owned and operated since 1947.
A 30-second exposure of the front of Rincon Market, 2515 E. 6th Street. The duplicate image is caused by panning, or rotating the camera during exposure.