Sunday, January 3, 2016

Looking at the past 13 months...

This post has nothing to do with the hotels themselves, but as I was preparing the next update, I realized it's been at least a year sine I embarked on this journey.  I went to my photo archives to see exactly how long it had been.

I had known of two locations since the early 1990s, but was never fully aware of how far-reaching the chain was until I saw a billboard one evening as I was driving home from work.

A billboard???

Many billboards back in the day were glued on or painted on; today's are largely some sort of vinyl wrap.  This particular billboard usually advertises a furniture store, but the wrap was missing, uncovering its original message:

The date of the photo was December 3, 2014.  After I found the billboard, I decided to start searching for other locations and what information I could find on the chain.  That made three I knew of, there HAD to be more...

In the months that followed, I found their old website on archive.org, leading me to 24 more of their locations.  A simple "Signature Inn" search online led me to many of the same locations, plus a 28th that wasn't on their site.  I began searching by address to find what the hotels are now and what other names they carried.  I learned that for the most part, county auditor sites are a great source of information (some charge a fee or have limited information; others are a wealth of knowledge).  I eventually decided to begin this blog in order to present what I've learned.  The History of Signature Inn made its debut on June 9, 2015.

As of mid-June 2015, I visited and photographed 17 of 28 locations.  Of the remaining 11, there are seven within a few hours' drive from me that I hope to get to, two that I may never get to, and two that have been demolished.

Also since beginning this project, I managed to find some memorabilia as well.  I ended up with a packet of matches from eBay, and a set of Do Not Disturb signs from a collector of DND signs.


At this point, I am about one third of the way through posting the locations on this blog.  I still expect to feature a new location every two to three weeks, along with any updates as I run across them.

To those that have followed me thus far, thank you!  I hope you have enjoyed what you have seen so far!

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