Restoration of Evangeline Theater sign complete

Published 8:00 am Friday, February 28, 2020

Two crane trucks were set up on the street in front of the Sliman Theater Thursday morning, forcing traffic to a crawl as deputies blocked parts of the street.

But any delay was for a worthwhile cause as workers reinstalled the building’s iconic neon-and-chaser-light Evangeline Theater sign, which was taken down last month for refurbishing.

The project was funded through a community development block grant from Louisiana Main Street, along with matching funds from the city of New Iberia. Consequently, the iconic sign at the entry to the city’s downtown area will once again light the way for visitors.

“I’d say it has probably been 10 years, maybe more, since I saw that sign lit up,” New Iberia Main Street Director Jane Braud said. “Parts of it were lit at one time, but I know it’s been well over 10 years since it has all been lit.”

The historic structure it is attached to notwithstanding, the sign itself has architectural significance as an example of the use of neon in Art Deco architecture. Neon did not see common use in Louisiana until the late 1930s, so the sign represents an early example in the state.

GibKo Signs sales representative Tim Bordelon, whose company performed the work, said the refurbished sign in some ways is better than it was before.

“It has about 450 bulbs, which we replaced with LEDs,” he explained. “The inner works that sequence the lights were replaced with a circuit board. The neon is still neon, though.”

The sign was mounted to the flatbed trailer for transport from the company’s shop in Bunkie. A welder had to cut the supports holding it firm during transport as the two crane trucks stabilized it in preparation for the lift to its place on the building’s façade. Between the Main Street grant and the city’s match, $20,000 was available to complete the job, including the restoration and installation of the piece.

“We found a sign company that came in under budget, and also had experience with period restoration,” Braud said. “We were very fortunate. The sign is a landmark downtown. It’s so prominent. Plus, this was a restoration, so some of the pieces for the original are not even made anymore.”

Another upgrade is the addition of a timer to turn the lights on and off each evening said Paul Allain, the architect who helped draft the grant proposal. The Bayou Teche Museum sponsored the grant effort.

“It will turn on at 5 p.m. and turn off at 5 a.m.,” Allain said. “It saves the city from having to have someone come by each day to turn it on and off.”

The newly repainted, rewired and porcelained sign now stands in stark contrast to the rest of the building’s marquee, which was damaged in recent months when a truck backed into the left side of it. Braud said work on that piece of the city’s history will be coming soon.

“It’s an insurance issue, so it is in the works,” she said. “They are negotiating with us. We have a price in mind, after we had an appraisal done, of what we thought the cost would be. The insurance company wants to pay less, of course.”

Braud said part of the issue is that any work done to make repairs has to be done in accordance with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s standard for historic preservation. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in February 1999. From its humble beginnings at the dawn of the 20th century as a wholesale grocery, it grew into its present glory when it was remodeled as a movie house in 1929. The current Art Deco façade was finalized in a renovation 10 years later.

“It’s a historic building, not just someone’s garage,” she said. “We can’t do just one side, we have to do both for it to be in keeping with what a historic property should be. We have an estimate, which we think is fair. It isn’t the highest. It’s what is appropriate.”

Overall, the sight of the new sign lit up again after so long is a beacon for the downtown redevelopment effort.

“We are working really hard to get projects done,” Braud said. “The downtown area is the heart of the community. It’s good to see things are happening here.”