If you took the cutoff from Highway 61 into Vicksburg, Mississippi, and had need of 1. sundries 2. spiritual uplift or 3. a powerful folk-art environment, you could stop at Margaret’s Grocery. The Rev. H.D. Dennis, who encased the country store inside and out with his sculpture and fantastic architecture, would preach you a personal sermon while his wife Margaret stood ready to meet your earthly needs. These pictures are from 1995. The site decayed after the couple’s passing, but rehab is happening under the auspices of the Mississippi Folk Art Foundation and its director, Suzi Altman. You can learn
Continue readingCategory: Roadside Art
Vollis Simpson Whirligig Garden
After Vollis Simpson died in 2013, his massive back-country whirligig garden in Lucama, North Carolina, was relocated to the center of nearby Wilson. Simpson ran a machine shop, did heavy equipment repair and was involved in moving houses. In retirement, he started tinkering with odd parts he had lying around. And he started making whirligigs. Big ones. His original whirligig park was the world’s most spectacular concentration of these wind machines. They still impress in their Wilson location, perhaps even more at night. Check out these videos. Scroll down for two photo galleries. Here are still photos of the whirligigs in
Continue readingQ.J. Stephenson’s Earth Museum/Occoneechee Trapper’s Lodge
Q.J. Stephenson’s Earth Museum/Occoneechee Trapper’s Lodge in Garysburg, North Carolina, was on my list of places to visit for years. Finally made it early one morning in September 2025. It’s a sweet little spot whose story you can read at Spaces Archives.
Continue readingDiners
Here is a modest selection of diners photographed through the years, all but one from the northeast. Also a bonus group of diners as rendered by the incomparable Ernie Bushmiller. And you should check out my page of diner matchbook covers. Bushmiller tackles the wonders of the roadside. Diners, for him, were the epitome of modernity, which also meant they were sometimes befuddling.
Continue readingMexican Roadside Art
Roadside art from Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, where hand-painted signage can still be found in quantity, and some from Mexico City as well.
Continue readingThe Montrose Strip
Montrose Avenue in Chicago has been home to a wonderful collection of artworks, displayed as signs by the many shops that line it. Sadly, much of the artwork featured below has disappeared, usually along with the businesses advertised, though here and there Montrose still boasts some fine roadside imagery. Back to The Western Avenue Art Gallery
Continue readingThe Western Avenue Art Gallery: Beauty Salon Art
Beauty salons and barber shops, despite inroads by chains, have remained bastions of individual initiative. That initiative included, at least until recently, their often strikingly personal signs. Unfortunately, hand-made hair parlor signs have followed the broader signage trend toward clip art and plastic. The relatively short lifespans of both the signs and the salons have made this changeover rather rapid. The signs below were photographed mostly in the first two decades of the current century, and with a few exceptions they’re gone. Styles range from folky to ultra-glamorous to barely trying, and there are even a few fine efforts on
Continue readingThe Fabulous World of Mr. C’s
Whether Mr. C’s Steak House in Omaha swarmed with kitsch or charm is all in your point of view. But take a look at the faces in its dioramas. Each is said to have represented a local notable. Yano and Mary Caniglia had a drive-in restaurant on 30th Street that they rebuilt and reopened as Mr. C’s in 1971. It was a classic local institution and one of those rare places where you could dine inside an art environment. It closed in 2007. You can read more about Mr. C’s, including its disappointing racial history, here: https://northomahahistory.com/2017/12/06/a-history-of-mr-cs-restaurant-in-north-omaha/
Continue readingRIP Jeff Elersic, artist
I never met Jeff Elersic, who died Dec. 14, 2024, at 70 years old, but I did manage to photograph his house/tirade in Geneva, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland. In common with a number of other art environments (W.C. Rice’s, Royal Robertson’s and Jesse Howard’s among others), Elersic’s expressed an uncomfortable degree of rage. To say his language was not measured is an understatement. But it was artfully written and arranged, and he was an excellent colorist. Have a look. Images are from 2016. You can view a short obituary here and read more about him at Spaces Archives.
Continue readingThe Red Hot Annex
Before I started photographing the gyros signs of Chicago — now collected as The Gyros Project — I had an idea to document signs at Chicago’s hot dog stands. I had become increasingly interested in roadside signs as examples of vernacular art, and hot dog stands have long been a ubiquitous part of Chicago’s street life. The red-and-yellow red hots signage that advertised and decorated so many of them literally set the local color for the city. I ultimately decided against hot dogs in favor of gyros, however, for two reasons. First, in those days (early 1990s) there were so
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