Iconic sign going to neon sign museum instead of dump

Western Cycle sign moved The historic Western Cycle sign came down on Saturday. It will be moved to the Edmonton Neon Museum.

EDMONTON — A new addition to the Neon Sign Museum will be lighting up downtown as an iconic sign that sat atop the Western Cycle building was brought down Saturday.

In May the Alberta Sign Association launched an online fundraising campaign to save the decades-old sign. The building had been bought by the city during expropriation for the west LRT line.

“They (Western Cycle) approached us and the Alberta Sign Association about a year and a half ago when they knew the relocation was taking place,” said Taylor Blanchett, the corporate services manager with Blanchett Neon.

“(They) reached out to us to ask if there was an interest to reutilize their sign so that generations to come could enjoy it enjoy it just as much as people in the past have.”

The cyclist sign will join the myriad of others occupying the outside of the Mercer Warehouse and TELUS building downtown.

The Neon Sign Museum currently has 20 signs installed.

“We really view signs as art, specifically some of these older signs that have been up for a number of years," Blanchett said. "A lot of signs today are hand painted, it’s master craftsmen that are doing this work.

“The fact this this art piece that people spend a lot of hours working on isn’t going to the dump is fantastic.”