GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) — A new neon sign was installed over the Pine Street entrance of the Hotel Northland Monday morning.
“It finishes up the exterior and the way that the hotel was originally received in ’24,” Kenny Didier, General Manager of the hotel said.
The sign is an exact replica of the neon sign that adorned the hotel in its former life.
“It’s new, but it is an exact replica of the sign that used to sit on the Adams Street entrance,” Didier said.
Hotel management chose to change the location of the sign from the Adams Street entrance to the Pine Street entrance because of the setup of the hotel and the location of the front desk.
Jones Sign started working with the hotel to build the replica months ago, using old pictures to design a perfectly sized sign.
“They’ll that points in that picture, such as a door, and they’ll take that and they’ll scale that and then they have the tools and the ability to scale the size of the sign, the overall sign, then they’ll break it down to the size of the letters,” Patrick Basche, an Account Executive with Jones Sign explained.
Using that modern technology, an old sign was brought back to life.
“There’s a certain amount of beauty in those signs, an elegance,” Louise Pfotenhauer, Collections Manager for the Neville Public Museum said. “You get a real feel for what that period of time was like and how important the hotel was to the community.”
Management for Hotel Northland hopes that the sign helps the hotel become as intergal to downtown as it once was.
“I think it’s going to bring some light and vibrancy to the downtown area,” Didier said. “I just think it’s a wonderful marquee for us.”
The hotel has been in operation since Valentine’s Day.
