by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

In a few days, renovation work at the downtown St. James United Church will see one of the city’s most familiar neon signs removed. The company charged with the church’s renovations says the colourful luminescent landmark is likely in too-poor condition to maintain. The impending loss coincides with increasing discussions about the long-overlooked heritage significance of the city’s commercial signs.

“If you go back to the Renaissance, the word ‘monument’ wasn’t used to describe buildings, but rather the scriptures, what’s written in stone,” says Heritage Montreal chief Dinu Bumbaru. “We’ve written to the city and the provincial Culture Ministry to urge them to take signs into consideration, not just the ones in stone, but the painted signs as well.”

The church sign could be joining countless other landmarks lost in recent years, advertising such interests as Union Stamp Shoes, Laurier BBQ, the Black Horse Brewery and the Blue Angel Café.

“We’ve had big discussions about the issue,” says Bumbaru. “Such questions have been raised as, what if the company doesn’t exist anymore? Do you redo the sign? We’d rather keep them as pieces of urban archaeology. I’d rather have the real one.”

Vancouver is considered a haven for signage preservation, where neon signs in particular have become a fetish for conservationists. “We have people in the city who care about it,” says Vancouver senior heritage planner Gerry McGeough. “We’ve had museum exhibits on neon signs. People keep an eye on the streets.”

When a sign comes down, the city often stores it in a museum. Rather than scrap neon, the city asks new businesses just to change the lettering. “It’s tricky because signs are public domain, so they’re not covered by our regulatory system,” McGeough says. “We end up using soft negotiations.”

One upcoming project to shine some love on Montreal’s unappreciated signage is being launched by Concordia communications prof Matt Soar.

“I think there’s a cultural heritage there that matters immensely,” he says. “I’m looking at signage in Montreal, everything from the Farine Five Roses to the cross on the mountain, even the CBC sign and the CIBC logo. I think they’re an integral part of the makeup of the city. I think of it as a fingerprint. If you see a silhouette of the city skyline, it’s unique to Montreal. Not just the buildings that make an accidental shape on the skyline but these very familiar signs, they’re landmarks. They can even help people find their way around the city.”

Soar, like Bumbaru, wants the impressive St. James United Church neon preserved. But he reminds Montrealers that even what seems like a hideous sign can become tomorrow’s landmark. “Parisians initially despised the Eiffel Tower,” he says. “One ate lunch there every day because it was the only place where he didn’t have to look at it.”

Soar’s Web site, www.mattsoar.org, pays tribute to Montreal signage, and invites fellow sign lovers to contact him with stories and impressions of local signs for an upcoming academic study.