When we talk about preservation, we often talk about buildings, neighborhoods and historic materials. But some of New Orleans’ most memorable places are also defined by light: the glow of an old sign, the curve of a hand-bent tube and the way neon can turn a storefront into a landmark.
For this issue, as the Preservation Resource Center focuses on Midcentury Modern architecture and Googie design, neon felt like an essential part of the conversation. Googie architecture, with its sharp lines, roadside visibility and playful commercial forms, was designed to catch the eye. Neon helped make that architecture speak.
How did Nate Sheaffer get into neon?
When I was an undergrad at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I was taking a lot of independent study art classes and making some big, funky structures. One of my professors introduced me to Jerry Noe, who was an early adopter of neon in his art practice in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
At one point, a sign company had donated a complete neon shop to the university, but no one had ever set it up. Another guy in the program and I set it up, and we burned through about 1,000 pounds of practice glass that had also been donated.
I was really hooked at that point. It was the whole challenge of exerting your will against the material and making it into something. There are so many complicated facets to that with neon glass bending.
Why is neon tube bending an endangered craft?
People don’t get that 100 percent of neon tubing is touched multiple times by human hands. It is a very complicated set of skills that all have to work in concert, and they really only work well after someone has put in five to 10 years of hard work.
This craft is 100 percent endangered. Fifty years from now, there is a good chance the only neon makers will be people who have enough money to have it as a hobby. LED and other technology are displacing it, despite the fact that LED doesn’t measure up to neon visually, and certainly not in terms of longevity.
What I would like people to understand is that this is a craft worth preserving — either through support, by buying things people make, or just by getting the word out that there is a neon glass blower and you should go check them out.
“I’m not real happy with the idea of retiring something that, with a little effort, can have a new life — and is also worthy of that life.”
– Nate Sheaffer
What does neon add to Googie design?
The nice thing about neon, relative to Googie architecture and midcentury design, is that it is really effective at highlighting or creating lines.
Googie in particular relies on very sharp, dramatic lines in the architecture. Midcentury Modern is almost like layered planes of very simple forms. Neon can light that effectively. Entire signs can make you feel like you are looking at a Googie storefront or a Googie drive-in.
A place like Ted’s Frostop stands out because there is nothing like it in New Orleans anymore. There used to be. But because it is so unique, it is defining in terms of its originality. You look at Frostop and think, “Whoa, that’s a big old mug of root beer represented in neon and tin.”
And animated neon — whether it is rotating or flashing on and off — is amazing for people to see.
What do we lose when historic neon signs disappear?
You lose the soul of signage in America.
Illuminated signs don’t just hearken back to the glory days of Route 66 or Times Square. They defined efficient advertising for everyday Americans in small towns that may have had only six or seven neon signs and maybe a movie marquee.
But that made that town at night. It defined it as vibrant — as a living, breathing thing. When you don’t have that anymore, when you don’t have this long-standing craft, it’s gone. There no longer is that vibrancy in people’s everyday life.
What does being a preservationist mean to Nate Shaeffer?
Being a preservationist, to me, means I’m not real happy with the idea of retiring something that, with a little effort, can have a new life — and is also worthy of that life. It is that simple.
All of these iconic neon sign cabinets that come to me, that have been stripped through age, disuse or abandonment, every single one of them has merit. Almost all of them are going to last another 50 to 100 years if you do it right.
Almost every single thing I’ve ever made is going to outlive me and my children. That is what is great about neon. When done properly, it is going to last decades — many decades. More than likely 100 years.
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Enjoyed this story? It originally appeared in Preservation in Print, PRC’s magazine exploring the people, places and stories behind New Orleans’ historic architecture, neighborhoods and culture.
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