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Photographs of Dona Maria's Tamales Restaurant signs, Las Vegas (Nev.), March 13, 2017

Information

Creator

Date

2017-03-13
2017-08-28

Description

Dona Maria's Tamales Restaurant sits at 910 South Las Vegas Boulevard. The family owned and operated eatery has been serving the valley for over thirty years. Information about the sign is available in the Southern Nevada Neon Survey Data Sheet.
Site address: 910 S Las Vegas Blvd
Sign owner: Dona Maria Alfredo Martinez
Sign details: Alfredo Martinez and Elvia met each other in California as high school sweethearts. Alfredo was a soccer player and Elvia a cheerleader who always watched his matches. After high school the two of them married and started a new chapter in their life in Las Vegas. Alfredo has a love of cooking traditional Mexican cuisine and soon taught Elvia his family recipes. In 1980 they opened their first restaurant a four table fast food operation on Charleston and 10th. Three years later after great success the four table operation grew into a full time restaurant where their location moved to 910 S. Las Vegas BLVD. For years their restaurant won many awards that led the couple to open another establishment in 1993.
Sign condition: The sign is a 4 out of 5, for the family maintains the sign. The paint on the sign is fading so it could use a new layer of paint to update the color hue.
Sign form: Pylon and entrance sign
Sign-specific description: The sign uses pale turquoise and soft pink hues to stand out. It resembles 1980s southwestern color palette. The sign is rectangular shaped with the background as the soft pink and font as turquoise. Dona Maria's font is in white and the background is maroon surrounding the letters. The border outline for the rectangular shaped sign is also in the color Turquoise to make the soft pink pop out. The base of the sign is bright custard concrete yellow attached to the building.
Sign - type of display: Neon
Sign - media: Concrete and steel
Sign - non-neon treatments: Small portion of the sign is back lit plastic
Sign environment: This location is on Las Vegas Blvd close to Charleston. It is next door to the Gateway Motel, as well as close to the Goodwhich, the Millennium Fandom Bar and a 7/11.
Sign - date of installation: Circa 1983
Sign - thematic influences: The theme resembles the prominent late 1970's/early 1980s Southwestern color palette. The sign is very colorful that resembles many Mexican restaurants that are quite colorful naturally.
Sign - artistic significance: Artistic themes is very 80s in terms of color palette, but also utilizes colors that is representative of Mexican culture.
Survey - research locations: Assessor's Page, Dona Maria's Website for the history- https://www.donamariatamales.com/our-history/
Survey - research notes: In 1980 the restaurant expanded and grew from their location at 10th and Charleston to 910 S. LV, BLVD S.
Surveyor: Gisselle Tipp
Survey - date completed: 2017-08-28
Sign keywords: Neon; Steel; Backlit; Plastic; Building-front design; Back to back; Pole sign

Digital ID

neo000126
Details

Citation

neo000126. Southern Nevada Neon Survey Records, 2002-2018. PH-00401. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/d1qb9vd0z

Rights

This material is made available to facilitate private study, scholarship, or research. It may be protected by copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity rights, or other interests not owned by UNLV. Users are responsible for determining whether permissions are necessary from rights owners for any intended use and for obtaining all required permissions. Acknowledgement of the UNLV University Libraries is requested. For more information, please see the UNLV Special Collections policies on reproduction and use (https://www.library.unlv.edu/speccol/research_and_services/reproductions) or contact us at special.collections@unlv.edu.

Standardized Rights Statement

Digital Provenance

Original archival records created digitally

Date Digitized

2017-03-13
2017-08-28

Language

English

Publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

Format

image/tiff
application/pdf