Magic City Signs Contracted To Restore Harreld Chevrolet Sign

On Friday March 28^th the audience in attendance at the Rose Garden Room of the Canton Welcome Center received an electrifying presentation “All About Neon” by master neon craftsman Rene Pastor of Magic City Signs.

Invited to the City of Lights by the Canton-Madison County Historical Society, Mr. Pastor traveled from his workshop in Birmingham, Alabama to entertain the crowd with stories and a slideshow of his near-forty-year career fabricating, fashioning, and assembling neon signs. 

The event was hosted by Canton Tourism and marked the kick-off to a widescale fundraiser seeking to raise funds to fully restore the Harreld Chevrolet Company sign located south of the city on Highway 51.  Mr. Pastor and his crew from Magic City Signs will be commissioned to refurbish the sign provided the fundraiser’s monetary goal is reached. 

The iconic Harreld Chevrolet sign became the largest neon sign in the state of Mississippi at the time it was first lit in the early months of 1947.

Writing about the sign many years later, Canton historian Jim Lacey, Jr. emphasized, “Everybody driving from Chicago to New Orleans or any points in between passed along Highway 51; People would compare the big Harreld sign to the one atop the Peabody Hotel in Memphis.”

Four grandchildren of the sign’s originator, Billy Will Harreld, were in attendance as Mr. Pastor guided the audience from the early discovery of neon gas to its heyday as America’s Main Street ornamentation.

From the 1930s through the 1960s the jubilance of neon lights adorned storefronts and restaurants  across the country, but when cheaper, alternative lighting arrived, neon’s reign came to an end. Most of the colorful and captivating lights were swiftly replaced or resigned to back lots and scrap heaps.

Over recent years, new-found enthusiasm has fueled a niche industry of refurbishment.  There are still individuals working the neon trade, but few craftsmen have the experience and artistic eye Mr. Pastor brings to his masterworks. 

The work of Magic City Signs can be seen across the country. Many readers may recognize the company’s Laurel, Mississippi signs featured on HG-TV’s popular Home Town program. 

Following the success of their southern neighbors, Canton will be taking the spark that re-lit Laurel to ignite a decade-long series of projects to brighten, enliven, and beautify the City of Lights for the upcoming 2036 Bicentennial.