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- W.F. Gormley & Sons will install its historic neon sign at 2691 Riverside Blvd. Oct. 15.
- Pacific Neon rewired the sign, repaired damaged letters and kept its glass letters.
- Sacramento Preservation Commission will hear the sign’s register nomination Oct. 21.
The historic neon sign from W.F. Gormley & Sons funeral home was unmistakable as it sat Tuesday inside Pacific Neon’s warehouse in north Sacramento.
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But some subtle changes to the sign were also apparent.
Pacific Neon workers removed the sign on Aug. 18 from 2015 Capitol Ave., where W.F. Gormley & Sons has operated since the 1920s. The removal came ahead of the funeral home’s upcoming move to Land Park, so the sign could be touched up before going to the new location at 2691 Riverside Blvd., where George L. Klumpp Chapel of Flowers used to operate.
The W.F. Gormley & Sons sign still bears the same porcelain finish and glass letters as before. At close inspection, though, the sign had received new wiring and fresh black paint near two letters that had to be repaired.
“We took it all apart,” said Fred Escobar of Pacific Neon’s electric and assembly department as he stood near the sign. “I ran new primary wires into it and then put it all back together.”
What was also clear Tuesday was that the sign will soon be in its next phase of life. Representatives for both Pacific Neon and W.F. Gormley & Sons confirmed that the sign will be installed at the funeral home’s new location on Oct. 15. The sign could also soon be placed on the local Sacramento historic register.
Why the sign is moving
W.F. Gormley & Sons is continuing to hold funerals at 2015 Capitol Ave. though it could be operational at its new location as early as next week. This is pending results of an inspection that was scheduled for Thursday by the Cemetery & Funeral Bureau, a division of the California Department of Consumer Affairs.
In the meantime, W.F. Gormley & Sons has been working to get the new location ready. Renovation work has included new flooring, creating ADA-compliant bathrooms and interior painting.
“This building in this location was a funeral home, so a lot of people unfortunately have seen it and now we’re here to kind of show what we did to make it our own,” said Patrick Gormley Jr., co-owner of the business and the fifth generation of his family to work in it.
“And the big thing is the neon sign coming over,” he added.
The sign has long been a memorable part of the midtown skyline. It’s also captured public imagination to some degree. Gormley said he had received many calls related to the sign.
It has also been of interest to the city. The current W.F. Gormley & Sons’ location on Capitol Avenue has been on the Sacramento historic register since 1982. Sean de Courcy, the city’s preservation director said that the Sacramento Preservation Commission will hold a nomination hearing Oct. 21 to put the sign itself on the register — a rare, if not unprecedented move.
“It’s terrific that it’s keeping its landmark designation,” de Courcy said. “This way that sign will continue to be honored and protected and recognized as a historic object in its new home.”
Gormley said he was “absolutely” on-board with the city’s push to grant the sign historic status.
“I was on a call and I fully support what they’re doing,” Gormley said.
He said that getting his business to its new location, where there will be a free open house on from noon to 3 p.m. Oct. 25 had been a journey.
“It’s eye-opening,” Gormley said. “It’s exciting for myself and my father to kind of put our spin on this building for what we see how it serves the community and we’re excited.”
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What’s been done to the sign
The W.F. Gormley & Sons sign measures about 9.5 feet wide and 5 feet high, not including poles that extend about 10 feet below the sign.
Pacific Neon workers were careful in removing the sign from its old location on Aug. 18 and transporting it back to the shop at 2939 Academy Way, a journey of around five miles. As the sign was being loaded onto racks inside of Pacific Neon, however, it slipped, damaging a couple of letters.
“These things can be kind of flimsy and it just went the wrong way,” said Tim Bekker, shop supervisor for Pacific Neon. “It really disappointed us because the installation crew did a great job taking it down and getting it here.”
The call to fix the letters went out to Sacramento’s most-experienced neon sign repairman, Steve Uroff. He worked many years for Pacific Neon and now bends glass tubes on a part-time basis for the company. While Pacific Neon now largely does LED sign work, reflecting a broad shift in the sign industry, veteran hands like Uroff, 70, can serve a valuable purpose when needed.
“He is without a doubt probably the best glassblower… in the state,” said John Drury, president and CEO of Pacific Neon. “There’s not too many of us around anymore.”
For his part, Uroff didn’t appear to mind the work.
“You’re always a neon bender,” Uroff said. “You never really retire. There’s always somebody that wants something or ‘Can we do this?’ And I enjoy it. It’s just fun.”
Uroff, who had repaired the W.F. Gormley & Sons’ sign many years before, went to work. He installed a new electrode and reused the glass that had broken, which had been put in when Pacific Neon previously worked on the sign. Uroff heated the glass to 400-500 degrees, removed impurities, added argon color and then sealed the glass.
“It’s like anything: Once you know how to do it, it doesn’t take as long,” Uroff said. “It was a one-day thing. No problem.”
The sign didn’t need much attention beyond this.
“All the neon was in good shape,” Bekker said. “Rewired it, put new updated transformers in it and everything went really well.”
Among the work that appeared to be left to be done was adding a protective shield, which Uroff said could protect the letters for another 20 years.
Work on historic neon signs is now but a small part of Pacific Neon’s business, whose clients include Boot Barn and some Target stores.
“We build a lot of signs for great companies, retailers, large and small,” said Drury’s son Ryan Drury, a sales rep for Pacific Neon. “But signs like this, they come around very rarely. And especially for the Gormley family, who’ve been a big part of the community for so many years, it’s pretty special to assist them as well, too and be a part of their next generation.”
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