The owner of The Charcoal Oven in Oklahoma City officially has donated its iconic neon sign to the Billboard Museum five years after the restaurant closed.
Kathy Anderson, one of the officers of the museum, made the announcement on Facebook on Sunday:
The next day, all signage started to be removed by G&S Sign Services, to be placed in storage with our Billboard Museum Association. It took two days to complete the process. The plan was for us to hold onto everything until the Wilson family could decide what was the best, highest purpose of the signs going forward.
Today, five years to the day of when the signs started coming down, we are pleased to announce that David Wilson, founder and owner, has officially donated the Chef sign, the drive-through neon entrance sign, and a menu board to our organization.
Thank you so very much! It’s been our honor to safely store them these five years. And we look forward to restoring them to their neon glory.
Here’s the Facebook post:
Sunday’s announcement comes less than two weeks after the Billboard Museum — which still does not have a permanent location — announced the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City was considering a neon-sign park on its property. The Charcoal Museum sign was included in an artist’s rendering of the proposed park.
The Charcoal Oven closed Sept. 11, 2016, after being in operation since 1958, with the sign installed there in 1960. The Charcoal Oven was the last of two other such restaurants in the Oklahoma City metro region.
The original Charcoal Oven with the big sign was at 2701 Northwest Expressway, about a mile from Oklahoma 66/Interstate 44.
Here’s a video by The Oklahoman newspaper when the sign was taken down:
Last year, a member of the Wilson family opened a new Charcoal Oven in a smaller space along May Avenue (aka Route 66), but without the sign.
(Image of the Charcoal Oven sign in Oklahoma City via OKCTalk.com)