
The American Sign Museum, a revered repository of America's vibrant signage history, has initiated a GoFundMe campaign to breathe new life into the Frisch’s Mainliner sign, a beloved Cincinnati landmark. The campaign, highlighted by FOX19 NOW, seeks to amass $50,000 for refurbishment efforts, including introducing a new steel structure and re-igniting its vintage neon glow.
In addition to physical restorations, the museum has earmarked $10,000 of the funds to establish an "oral history project," where Cincinnati residents will have the opportunity to record their narratives connecting to the Mainliner sign and others in the museum’s eclectic collection, as reported by Local12 this undertaking, an endeavor which, through vocal recounting, binds the city's people ever closer to their glowing relics of yesteryear, it vests in them each burning filament, each curved metal like a part of their collective heritage, and memories.
The acquisition of the sign came after the closure of the Frisch's historic Mainliner restaurant. This timeless emblem once marked Cincinnati’s original drive-in harks back to seven decades of the city’s history. It's a piece of Americana that echoes the golden age of automobiles and the unique charm of Queen City's culinary and social landscape, as chronicled on Frisch's website and brought forward by WCPO.
Described as "substantial work," the initiative, which increases the funding target to $60,000 when considering stretch goals for the oral history project, is ambitious— requiring detailed attention to restoring vintage elements and reviving the sign's electrical dynamics. Yet, this project is more than a preservation of steel and light, it's a resurrection of collective historical consciousness, as articulated in the GoFundMe elaboration, and a statement from the museum emphasizes the need for careful restoration "to ensure it remains a lasting testament to Cincinnati's history." According to the WCPO News