Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 29, 1995 TAG: 9505010037
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When Cecil Boone began dating his wife, Barbara, little did he know that her father was building what is now one of Roanoke's most noticed landmarks.
Soon after her father and another sign maker finished the H&C Coffee sign, which is a familiar fixture of the Roanoke City Market, Boone assumed the role as a caretaker of the sign, owned by the Dominion Sign Inc. He retired from the company Friday after 41 years.
Boone and co-worker Ira Tolliver had been maintaining the colorful neon sign, which his father-in-law, Fred Stevens, helped build. Stevens handled the sheet metal for the sign, and another sign maker, William Bryant, shaped the neon tubing. Stevens worked for independent sign maker Harley Webster while Bryant had his own business in the 1940s.
"You still find yourself driving by to check on it," said Tolliver, who retired last year but continues doing some glass work for Dominion Sign of Roanoke.
Boone has been the company's shop manager for 15 years, but he inherited the job of maintaining the H&C sign many years before that.
Dominion Sign was formed when investors bought three independent sign shops in 1946. Boone joined the company in November 1953. Tolliver was hired shortly thereafter.
"We've worked together side by side for 40 years," Boone said. "He deserves as much credit as I do."
Boone said the coffee sign actually requires little maintenance.
"It may go for six months without having anything to do with it. It's a very trouble-free sign," he said, adding that it hasn't needed any maintenance for three months. Boone said the sign's repairs usually involve replacing bad wires, transformers or neon bulbs.
But getting to it is no easy chore. Boone said he must climb to the rooftop of one building, then climb over a billboard and onto the roof of the building where the sign rests atop Billy's Ritz restaurant near the corner of Salem Avenue and Market Street.
"It's a job getting up there," Boone said.
Most of the work for Boone and Tolliver came when they refurbished the sign in the late 1980s. It had stood atop the restaurant building for nearly two years unlit. Boone flipped the switch when it was relit in 1991.
Boone said he definitely will miss the work but that it's time for him to move on.
"I just don't feel like climbing anymore," he said.
F.T. Turner, one of the principal partners in the transaction in 1946, now is the sole owner of Dominion Sign. Losing two key employees like Boone and Tolliver within two years is devastating to a small company like Dominion, Turner said. The company employs 10 to 12 workers.
"They're irreplaceable," he said. "We are going to stay in shock for a while, and then we'll manage."
by CNB