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Photos: Grand opening of Mesa’s Neon Garden
A new outdoor space in Mesa illuminates the city’s history with restored neon signs that once appeared in various places downtown. The grand opening took place Thursday, May 15, 2025.
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Legendary sign maker Paul Millet designed this 30-foot figural neon sign for Watson’s Flowers. A windstorm blew it down in 2014, and now it stands in the center of Mesa’s Neon Garden. (Ignacio Ventura/KJZZ)
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This Ford sign — on display at the grand opening of Mesa’s Neon Garden on Thursday, May 15, 2025 — was originally installed above Smiley-Berge Motors when it moved to Main Street in 1960. (Ignacio Ventura/KJZZ)
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The Frontier Motel was one of more than 50 motels along Mesa’s Main Street in the 1950s. Its sign is preserved in the city’s Neon Garden. (Ignacio Ventura/KJZZ)
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The city of Mesa held the grand opening of the Neon Garden sign installation on May 17, 2025. (Ignacio Ventura/KJZZ News)
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This Bill Johnson’s Big Apple sign — on display at the grand opening of Mesa’s Neon Garden on Thursday, May 15, 2025 — stood above the barbecue chain’s Main Street location, which operated from 1977-2014. It is a smaller replica of the sign from the original Arizona location on Van Buren Street in Phoenix. (Ignacio Ventura/KJZZ)
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A replica of the iconic 60-foot “Diving Lady” sign from the Starlite Motel on display at the grand opening of Mesa’s Neon Garden on Thursday, May 15, 2025. The original sign was destroyed in a microburst in 2010 and restored by the nonprofit Mesa Preservation Foundation, inspiring the city to protect its historic neon signs. (Ignacio Ventura/KJZZ)
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The grand opening of Mesa’s Neon Garden on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Ignacio Ventura/KJZZ)
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The crowd waits for organizers to flip the switch at the grand opening of Mesa’s Neon Garden on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Ignacio Ventura/KJZZ)
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