Do you ever leave the house, only to worry that you forgot to turn something off? Well imagine what the owners of Clifton's Cafeteria in Los Angeles felt like when they uncovered a neon sign that has been running uninterrupted since 1935.
The yellow neon light was discovered during the new owner's extensive renovations at the landmark LA eatery. It had been buried inside a partition wall built during an earlier renovation in the 1940s, and remained unseen for over 70 years.
The neon isn't some beautiful artistic 1939s creation, but was simply a panel with neon bars used as backlighting for a transparency set into partition wall. Why the builders didn't just unplug it at the time isn't clear, but the new owner has calculated that the sign has burned through about $17,000 of electricity over the decades.
The neon isn't the only historic discovery made during the remodeling, and it seems like the early owners were fond of stashing old stuff away instead of throwing it out. Many of the recovered artifacts, including the neon panel, will be put on display in the newly renovated cafeteria.
Via LA Times
Posts
