Forwarded from ARTIFACT LISTSERV:
Date: 7/11/99 10:27:10 PM Mountain Daylight Time
From: [log in to unmask] (Maura Johnson)
Sender: [log in to unmask] (Material Culture in America)
Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (Material Culture in America)
To: [log in to unmask]
SOCIETY FOR COMMERCIAL ARCHEOLOGY MEETS IN COLUMUS, OHIO, AUGUST 19-21
Do meals seem to taste better to you in a 1950s diner? Would you drive a few
more miles to fill up at a vintage gas station or stay in a cozy tourist
cabin? Do you love the colors and buzz of an old neon sign? If so, the
Society for Commercial Archeology's annual conference has been planned with
you in mind.
A national organization devoted to vintage commercial architecture --
drive-ins, motels, diners, gas stations, highways, and neon signs -- the
Society for Commercial Archeology (SCA) will bring its annual conference to
the Westin Great Southern Hotel in Columbus, Ohio, August 19-21, 1999, in
cooperation with the Ohio Historic Preservation Office, National Signs of the
Times Museum, and the Columbus Landmarks Foundation.
The conference, entitled MADE IN OHIO: ENAMELED EATERIES, DURABLE DOMICILES,
AND FAST FOOD, will feature sessions on White Castle, one of the nation's
oldest fast food chains; Lustron porcelain enameled steel houses (1999 is the
50th anniversary of the Lustron era); Isaly's, originator of the Klondike
Bar; and Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, all of which began in Ohio.
Featured speakers include Philip Langdon, author of the book ORANGE ROOFS,
GOLDEN ARCHES: THE ARCHITECTURE OF AMERICAN CHAIN RESTAURANTS.
The original Wendy's, which opened on E. Broad St. in Columbus in 1969, will
host a reception for conference participants on Thursday, August 19. The
restaurant features an extensive collection of Wendy's memorabilia.
Conference sessions on Friday will be followed by a banquet at The Kahiki,
"the world's most beatuiful Polynesian supper club." Opened in 1961, The
Kahiki was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Its
exotic atmosphere, like the movie palaces of the 1920s, is designed to
transport patrons to another world. Guests dine in bamboo huts, or beside a
tropical rain forest where thunder rumbles, lightning flashes, and rain falls
on cue.
The conference concludes with a bus tour on Saturday, featuring vintage
tourist courts, motels, gas stations, and signs along the old National Road,
a stop at White Castle corporate headquarters, a look inside a Lustron house,
and a trip to the Longaberger Basket Company's new seven-story basket-shaped
office building in Newark, Ohio.
For details and a registration form, write Ohio Historic Preservation Office,
567 E. Hudson St., Columbus, OH 43211-1030, call (614-297-2470, or fax (614)
297-2496. A complete program description and registration information/form
is also available on the SCA's web site, www.sca-roadside.org.
The SCA is the oldest national organization devoted to the commercial built
environment. SCA's goal is to promote public awareness and understanding of
the artifacts, structures, signs, and symbols of the American commercial
process, encompassing the celebrated and anonymous work of America's best
designers, with a particular emphasis on the impact the automobile had on the
shaping of our culture.
The Ohio Historic Preservation Office, housed at the Ohio Historical Society,
is the official historic preservation agency of the state of Ohio.
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