Seventy-six-year-old Bow Mac sign was saved in 1997 by a heritage revitalization agreement between Toys “R” Us and the City of Vancouver.
Toys “R” Us is closing its longtime location on West Broadway in Vancouver.
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The move is bound to bring up a big question for many residents: What will happen to the Bow Mac sign?
For the uninitiated, the Bow Mac sign is a local neon icon that has loomed over Broadway since it was switched on on May 25, 1959.
Vancouver was a neon mecca in the 1950s, when the city had an estimated 18,000 neon signs. Many came to be beloved, such as the neon sea horse at The Only restaurant on East Hastings Street and the Aristocratic restaurant sign at Granville and Broadway.
The Bow Mac sign wasn’t as playful or imaginative as The Only or Aristocratic signs, but it was a landmark, because it was the tallest sign in Vancouver. At one time the Guinness World Records dubbed it the tallest free-standing neon sign in North America.
According to a city heritage report in 1997, the sign at 1154-1174 West Broadway was 29 metres high, illuminated with red neon and had more than 1,200 flashing light bulbs.
It became such a local fixture that the City of Vancouver allowed Toys “R” Us to keep it when it took over the old Bow Mac location, albeit with a Toys “R” Us sign partly over the original. The sign on top of the sign was a compromise reached by the city when the Bow Mac sign was threatened with demolition in 1997. Essentially a colourful new Toys “R” Us sign was placed over the southern part of the original, which could still be seen behind it.
The sign was much bigger than current zoning would allow, and a heritage agreement was reached where the owner of the property would fix up the Bow Mac sign, and keep it in good shape.
But the Bow Mac part of the sign is looking a bit rough, with faded and peeling paint. The neon “Bow Mac” hasn’t been switched on in decades.
The city was unable to respond by deadline as to whether the Bow Mac sign has heritage designation and/or any protection from demolition.
Neon expert John Atkin was involved with saving the sign in 1997. He said with the 1997 heritage revitalization agreement, “a developer will have to at least talk to and negotiate with the city (before redeveloping the site). It doesn’t prevent it from coming down, but it certainly gives the city some negotiating room.”
The sign was built for Bowell McLean, a car dealership that occupied the West Broadway site when Broadway was filled with car dealerships. The general manager of Bow Mac at the time was Jimmy Pattison, who commissioned the big sign. It was built by Neon Products, a company that Pattison later acquired after he left Bow Mac to begin his business empire.
Mackenzie Bowell and Dan McLean both died in 1969, but their dealership soldiered on until it declared bankruptcy in 1982. The Bow Mac name was still in use until 1995, when the West Broadway site was sold for $5.2 million.
A new, one-storey retail building with rooftop parking was constructed for Toys “R” Us at the large site (76-m long, 45-m deep), which was sold for $18,354,000 in 2009. The current owner is Pengco Enterprises, and the current property assessment is $50,103,000.
Atkin thinks the sign should remain at the site, which falls within the Broadway plan and will likely be redeveloped.
“There’s opportunity here of just doing something quirky and keeping a little bit of Broadway history alive,” he said.
Besides, it would be a lot of work to take the sign down.
“If I remember correctly, I think the concrete and steel that hold that thing up are something like 80-plus feet in the ground,” he said.
