After the Nixon Library it was time for lunch and what better place then Orange. This little town in unique in that it saved many of it’s old houses during the building boom that started in the 1950s. 
It is well known for it’s center that is built around a circle plaza. 
I love the old time Christmas decorations. In the plaza and up above the streets.
I also love how small town America puts up these signs honoring their sons and daughters who are serving in the military.
Now this is a Christmas decoration!
Many of the old buildings now house antique and vintage shops as well as good restaurants. This building has both a bank and a Starbucks.
Banks don’t need as much space as they did before, although the bank is still occupying a lot of this space. Starbucks is open from 6am – 7pm, I don’t think the bank shares those hours.
Gorgeous painted wood ceiling.
Plaster detail inside.
Looking up where two building meet. 
The blade advertising is here, the building houses stores.
Clocks are always important, for the many people who didn’t own watches.
In 1929 The Orange Movie theater opens on Glassell Street. It was one of the many movie palaces build at the time. Like many theaters it went into decline in the 1950s and by the 1970s someone wanted to turn it into a porno theater. Thank God the Son Light Christian Center bought the building. Many of the original features had already been removed, but Churches take very good care of old theaters and this is no exception. I’d rather see sermons than porn here any day.
I’m taking a guess that the design elements outside are from Gladding McBean. No one else does their standard of glazed terra cotta designs.
I love ghost advertising, I hate graffiti.
Using the old building, probably from the 30s as it was intended – for car repairs. I do like the signage they have added, both the flag and the cars.
Orange is a wonderful little town to wander through, on Thanksgiving weekend, it was full of people enjoying the sun, the shops and the restaurants.
Leah
Have you seen the Sign Painters movie? http://www.signpaintersfilm.com/#watch
UCLA’s Fowler museum screened it and a great number of sign painters in the LA region came to see it. Some of the students featured in the documentary came with their teacher.
I also heard a lecture about African art at the Fowler, and the guest lecturer talked a great deal about the importance of sign painting for both practice and financial sustenance for African artists.
When I went to Africa, I paid close attention to the hand-painted signs.
Printed vinyl doesn’t hold up to harsh tropical sunlight. The tropics will save hand-lettered signs-painting as a art and craft.
No I haven’t seen that yet, but it’s on my list now. I did see something about the mural painters in NYC, someone who was painting a Stella Artois ad on the side of the building. In the same vein. Technology marches forward, but many of these old arts refuse to die – for good reason.