Googie Hunting in McKinney, TX
Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 10:05AM
Googie architecture (also known as populuxe) is a form of novelty architecture and a subdivision of futurist architecture, influenced by car culture and the Space and Atomic Ages. Originating in Southern California during the late 1940s and continuing approximately into the mid-1960s, the types of buildings that were most frequently designed in a Googie style were motels, coffee houses and bowling alleys. The school became widely-known as the Mid-Century modern style, and some of those more notable variations represent elements of the populuxe aesthetic, as in Eero Saarinen's TWA Flight Center.
Features of Googie include upswept roofs, curvaceous, geometric shapes, and bold use of glass, steel and neon. Googie was also characterized by Space Age designs that depict motion, such as boomerangs, flying saucers, atoms and parabolas, and free-form designs such as "soft" parallelograms and the ubiquitous artist's palette motif. These stylistic conventions represented American society's fascination with Space Age themes and marketing emphasis on futuristic designs. As with the Art Deco style of the 1930s, Googie became less valued as time passed, and many buildings built with this style have been destroyed.
Source: Wikipedia
I first became interested in Googie architecture several years ago after I read a book by Alan Hess called Googie: fifties coffee shop architecture. I bought this book around the same time I had moved to Texas and had soon spotted a magnificent old Googie cafe sign right here in McKinney. The sign belongs to Bill Smith's Cafe, a Mckinney staple for over 50 years. It's the oldest restaurant in McKinney. Back in 2003, I had taken a picture of the sign with my old Kodak DC4800 (3 whole megapixels...wow!) and had posted it on a web site called Roadside Peek.
Flash forward to two weeks ago, I met a local artist named Charlie Rose who showed me an illustration he created titled "Bat Cafe." I immediately recognized the sign as looking very much like the one at Bill Smith's. Charlie had found the picture on line and it became the inspiration for the Bat Cafe picture. He had no idea I had posted the picture and had never heard of Bill Smith's Cafe before then. Small world.
Charlie is currently planning on creating another version of the illustration. You can see more of his work on his website.
Our conversations about Bill Smith's Cafe had reminded me about a couple of other Googie signs I had spotted in McKinney. Early one morning last week I went out to see what kind of photos I could get. I especially wanted to get a photo of the Bill Smith's Cafe sign when it was lit up. Unfortunately, two of the letters were out (pic at top of page).
A couple of miles from Bill Smith's is the McKinney Inn Motel on Hwy 5. Although not lit up, this old sign sports many of the classic attributes of an old Googie-style sign...the big arrow and the star at the top especially.
Then there is the sign at North Side Medical, just down the street from Bill Smith's. This is a great sign, and I've seen pictures of it lit up at night (the pic below was early morning). The building itself is a great example of Mid Century Modern architecture which made me wonder what the building was originally built for.
When I first saw the sign, I saw a cocktail glass with an olive...shows the way I think. What it actually is is a mortar and pestle, the symbol used for compounding which is a service they offer. So, maybe the building was originally built as a pharmacy or medical center after all. I'm used to seeing Googie signs at places like restaurants, bowling alleys, hotels, etc., any place that wanted to use something bold and flashy to get your attention. Just seemed a bit odd to see a space age Googie sign for a pharmacy/medical office. But there it is.
The building itself is definitely worth a second look. While I was there getting this shot I walked up to a small courtyard area that had a gate in front of it. Apparently, I set off a motion detector and an alarm went off. Oops...
2 Comments tagged Googie, McKinney, signs 
