A recently-rediscovered sign harkens back to a sweet part of Phoenix history.
Donofrio’s was a candy store, which also sold ice cream, and later added a bakery and flower shop. It opened in downtown Phoenix in 1887, moved to a different location downtown in 1905 and then again to another spot in the 1920s.
Arizona writer and historian Doug Towne wrote about the discovery of a neon sign from the store.
Towne joined The Show to talk about what was this place about and why it was so special.
Full conversation
DOUG TOWNE: It was the store to go to, started 25 years before Arizona became a state. It featured candy, ice cream and it was a hangout, particularly during the Prohibition days, because there were no bars or lounges to go to. So people went to the, you know, the local ice cream store, if they weren't, of course, in a speakeasy.
MARK BRODIE: So let's talk about these artifacts from this store that were found recently, because the store has not been around in a very long time. What exactly is new that has been newly discovered?
TOWNE: So this August, an old friend of mine, Jason Mihalic, who's the grants coordinator at the Arizona Historical Society, called me up and said, “Hey, we have some old neon signs in the back lot. They're old, decrepit. Can you come over and give me some ideas about how maybe we could get some funds to get them relit?”
So I went over there. I've been photographing neon signs since the 1980s. It's kind of a hobby that's become an obsession, more or less. And I knew they had this mammoth sign from the Rose Bowl Motor Hotel on Van Buren, but I didn't know about the other sign, and that was the Donofrio’s ice cream and candy store sign.
BRODIE: As you described, this was sort of the hangout in its day. Did you have any sense that anything from it still existed or was still around anywhere?
TOWNE: No, I'd always heard about Donofrio’s and it's sort of complicated, because they not only had this confectionery, they also were in the bakery business, had a restaurant, had a flower shop.
So there was a lot going on with the family, and it seemed kind of complicated and intimidating. So I never really did too much research on it, until, of course, I found the sign.
BRODIE: So I've got to ask you about one of the things that Donofrio’s was really known for, which was basically the, what I would imagine is one of, if not the first, versions of cactus candy.
TOWNE: So that was their kind of, their holiday special, from what I gather, and you can imagine, especially folks back East receiving a box of that in the mail, they must have been beside themselves, you know. How could anyone eat a thorny cactus, you know.
But that was a big seller. But what I really love about Donofrio’s was not only the cactus candy, but they kind of marketed their products using local landmarks. So another famous brand was Donofrio's Camelback chocolates, which, you know, foreshadowed the recent local first Arizona movement, which is really cool.
BRODIE: Yeah. What would you say was the heyday for this store?
TOWNE: Well, I think it was still going strong, even when it ended in 1955 the restaurant closed at that time. It was in the security building, basically at Van Buren and Central Avenue, and from the newspaper articles, I found people were just aghast.
They loved the place. They loved what it was, a restaurant and candy store at that time, but incredibly, I think, they lost their lease, and people were starting to complain about parking to get to the place. Can you imagine, in 1955 complaining about parking compared to today?
BRODIE: Yeah, wow. And so, as you say, even as they closed, it was still doing pretty well. Wasn't the kind of situation where business seemingly had dried up like it sounded like. Absent those other issues, they could have kept going for a while.
TOWNE: Yeah, it's kind of a mystery. According to the article, they still had lines, you know, at the store, people buying candy for the holidays and everything, and they said they would, quote, reopen in another location, but that never happened.
BRODIE: So what do you hope to do, or have done with the neon sign you found?
TOWNE: So it's kind of like pulling a thread on an old shirt. I started doing some research, and I learned from some local historians that along with this sign, at some point, the Ellingson building in downtown Phoenix was removed brick by brick, and they hope to put it back together in historic heritage square.
And they took off some plywood on the facade, and there was this beautiful glass transom that said Donofrio’s chocolate with this amazing desert landscape in the background, and that has been in one of the Donofrio’s family's garage for going on 40 years now.
BRODIE: Wow.
TOWNE: Yeah. And so I thought, you know, you got this wonderful old neon sign. You got this beautiful window transom, and you don't have anyone who remembers this confectionery anymore.
So when I wrote the article for downtown Phoenix in November, I ended it with a statement, quote, “it seems the pieces are in place to resurrect a monument, the downtown Phoenix, most beloved confectionery.”
And we've lost so many wonderful buildings in downtown Phoenix over the years and I thought maybe this would be a wonderful way to give back to downtown and at least create a little memorial to it.
BRODIE: So then, like, ideally, would you like to see maybe the glass and the sign go up on a downtown Phoenix building somewhere. Are you looking to, maybe, like, erect something small, just for that, as a monument to it, or something?
TOWNE: Well, I really haven't gone down that road too much, but I think, like a little monument to it, at like some public space. But you know, all that's going to take permits and a lot of, you know, marketing, but which isn't really my forte, but I thought I'm kind of the guy who likes to discover stuff and write about it and then hand it off to a mover and a shaker who could get that done.
BRODIE: Got it. What is so special or unique about this particular sign, especially relative to other you know, old school neon signs from here?
TOWNE: Well, I know a lot about neon signs, but even better, I know someone who knows just about everything about neon signs, and she told me basically that Donofrio’s on the sign was spelled out in neon, but the words candy and ice cream next to it would have been backlit opal glass, and this really makes the sign unique, and probably dates it before World War II. The beaded borders around the sign are also very special, and we were just kind of brainstorming about it.
And it might be, well, it certainly is one of the oldest neon signs in existence. And it might be the oldest. So that's always tough to date.
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