The appearance of the once-long-neglected Cucamonga Service Station in Rancho Cucamonga, California, has changed dramatically in recent weeks, including a bright yellow repainting and a replica of the Richfield gasoline sign that once stood atop the building that was unveiled Wednesday.
Volunteers of the Route 66 Inland Empire California Association have been working diligently for months to restore the century-old station. The group plans to reopen it as a museum.
A report by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin had a few details about that Richfield sign from Wednesday’s ceremony:
Anthony Gonzalez, president of the Route 66 IECA, said he and other members of the nonprofit came across the sign for Richfield, the name of the oil company that evolved into Arco, on a trip to an antique warehouse last year in Northern California. The porcelain sign, 16 1/2 feet long and 3 1/2 feet high, is a mellow yellow, with the Richfield lettering in blue.
It has some slight imperfections, including two bullet holes, Gonzalez added.
“Nothing has been done — they haven’t painted it. The way you see it is the way we got it,” he said. “We’re going to leave it like that because we’ve got to maintain it that way.”
The group did install new steel framing for the light yellow- and blue-lettered sign, which went from weighing 65 pounds to more than 450 pounds. The move was also a safety measure for those days when high-speed winds hit the area.
The black lettering on the sides of the building were hand-lettered. A volunteer reported that the interior work on the station was 90 percent done.
Here’s a video shot by the group from the ceremony:
You can follow what Route 66 IECA is doing through its Facebook page.