Sign back on display after a decade

A neon sign that once hung on the now-defunct Vorenberg Hotel in downtown Tucumcari recently was recovered by the Tucumcari Historical Museum and is back on display there after it was misplaced and apparently forgotten for more than a decade.

An official with the museum hopes to have the sign's neon tubing replaced so it can glow again.

Cindy Lathrom, a treasurer of the Tucumcari Historical Research Institute that runs the museum, said she discovered an item about the sign while researching minutes of the board's meetings. She didn't have an exact date but estimates the meeting occurred about 12 years ago, when Doug Powers was city manager.

"I was researching another topic when I came across the minutes of this meeting that the city manager said there was a new program he was working with the state economic development coordinator," Lathrom recalled Wednesday. "There was a program going on in Santa Fe that would restore neon signs with LEDs. He asked the board of directors with the research institute whether he could take the sign and do that, and the board agreed."

Lathrom said she checked minutes of later museum board meetings, and the Vorenberg Hotel sign never was mentioned again.

"The city came and got it, and that's the last we ever heard of it," she said.

Lathrom called Powers to inquire of the sign's whereabouts. He said it probably never left town, and it would be in storage somewhere on city property. Ralph Lopez, project manager of the city's Community Development Department, also said he remembered seeing the sign.

Finally, during a work session in March, City Manager Mark Martinez made phone calls about the sign and found it was in the planning and development building. The sign was delivered back to the museum earlier this month, and it sits in the Big Red Barn building on the grounds.

Lahrom surmises the sign simply was placed in a corner and forgotten.

"Nobody thought about it. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess," she said. "We're just grateful to get the sign back. We're glad they had it indoors in nice, dry storage. It's pretty well preserved, and we're happy about that."

She said other details about the state's LED preservation program years ago are scant because many of the principals involved long have since retired.

Lathrom said the museum is "in the early planning stages" of launching a fundraiser to have the sign's neon tubing and electrical system restored.

She said her preference is to have the restored sign on display at the museum. Connie Loveland, executive director of Tucumcari MainStreet, also has said in city meetings she wants to eventually form a neon sign park in downtown.

"I wouldn't rule that out, but my concern about a neon lights park is security from vandalism," Lathrom said. "My goal is to protect and preserve that sign."

An inspection of the sign's side revealed it was manufactured by Goldenberg Electric Co. of Tucumcari. Online newspaper archives show Goldenberg also had offices in Carlsbad, Clovis and El Paso, some of them as far back as the late 1920s.

The sign's age is uncertain, but a large image from March 1954 of the Vorenberg Hotel displayed at Le Deane Studio Photographers in Tucumcari clearly shows the sign on the west side of the building. That means it is probably at least 70 years old.

Newspaper archives indicate the Vorenberg Hotel was built about 1910 at Second and Main streets in Tucumcari, the latter which would have been on the old Ozark Trail.

The Vorenbergs were German Jewish immigrants who lived in Pennsylvania before moving to New Mexico. They also owned businesses in Wagon Mound, Santa Fe and other areas of the state.

According to research by late Tucumcari author and Quay County Sun columnist Debra Whittington, Vorenberg Hotel lessee J.F. Caldwell announced plans to hold an open house with a reception and dance in May 1911. He said, "Tucumcari's first modern hotel would be furnished in solid oak, mission style with brass beds."

The hotel once housed First State Bank and in 1936 became a bus depot for the Santa Fe Trail Systems. The Vorenberg also became a home for soldiers in the city's glider school during World War II.

The Vorenberg Hotel fell into disrepair during the 1970s and was torn down the following decade. The only remnants are the first-floor arches, which is part of a courtyard for VFW Post 2528.