Downtown Phoenix’s Mysterious Roadside Display, Courtesy of Christy Signs
It’s certainly a sign of the times that vintage advertisements are all the rage. Tucson has the Ignite Sign Art Museum; Mesa has The Neon Garden; and in Pinal County, there’s the Casa Grande Neon Sign Park. These places have opened in response to the phenomenal success of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati in 2005.
A powerful, unseen factor is influencing the evolution of vintage signs from marketing tools to an essential part of a community’s aesthetic. “I think the common thread that runs through preserving vintage signs is emotional,” says Tod Swormstedt, founder of the American Sign Museum. “Signs are a proverbial walk down memory lane, and they almost always conjure up fond memories.”
Unfortunately, Downtown Phoenix lacks an official venue to display vintage signs. But a company founded at 15 S. 15th Ave. in 1929 took it upon itself to rectify that absence. This is the story of Christy Signs and its salute to our commercial past, which countless drivers whiz by on Interstate 17 at the Durango Curve, yet few know its backstory.
The homespun exhibit's genesis dates to 1921, when Samuel Christensen, a housepainter, accidentally painted over a business sign at a mercantile store in Fremont, Nebraska. “Leonard ‘Christy’ Christensen, then 14 years old, was helping him and, amazingly, repainted the advertisement from memory,” says his son, Dane Christensen. “Christy soon became known as the 'whiz kid' sign painter in town.”
In 1929, Christy moved to Phoenix and opened a sign shop just west of Downtown. The business later relocated to Grand and 16th avenues, 1919 W. Grant St., 4200 N. Seventh Ave., and finally 4488 Grand Ave.
“My father was an exacting man,” recalls 84-year-old Dane Christensen. “I remember him preparing to paint a company's logo on a truck door. He jacked up the vehicle and sat on a milk crate, about to go to work. But before he could start painting, he grabbed a newspaper, folded it three times, and placed it on the crate for a smidge of added height. ‘That’s more like it,’ he said and started doing the job.”
According to Dane, Christy was an excellent, low-tech sketch guy who liked doing things correctly. "He was the best gold leaf letterman in the Southwest, which he did for both business and government offices," Dane says. "He was friends with Governor Paul Fannin, as well as Senator Barry Goldwater and Congressman John Rhodes Jr., and created the gold leaf lettering on doors for legislators at the state capital for over 40 years."
In 1988, Christy Signs moved to 1827 S. Black Canyon Highway on the I-17 Durango Curve. In 2023, the company relocated to 3345 N. 33rd Ave. and sold most of the property.
But Dane Christensen kept a one-acre parcel that includes a billboard and a cell phone tower, and he added some of his favorite commercial signs, topped by a Mobil Pegasus, the flying red horse that once symbolized the oil company’s stations. “We're trying to keep these displays of antique advertising in the public eye,” he says.
After digging through his storeroom, Christensen found more vintage advertising and plans on displaying them at a later date. “It’s kind of my place to go where I can show off all the items I've collected over the years for the public,” he says.
The site also features vintage buildings, vehicles, a windmill, and odds and ends. But the most poignant item is a message displayed beneath this parcel’s 1827 S. Black Canyon Highway address sign, reading, “Christensen: Always Do Good by Your Fellow Man.”
“That was my dad's favorite saying,” Dane says of his father, Christy, who died in 1979 at age 72. “He was known as ‘Christy the Sign Man,” and everybody was his friend.”
Douglas C. Towne is the editor of Arizona Contractor & Community magazine, www.arizcc.com.