Historic 7Up Bottling sign, salvaged mere days before arson fire, will be gifted to museum’s neon plaza collection
July 9, 2025 | In the PressIf it seems like Kern County Museum Executive Director Mike McCoy gets a phone call every time a historic building closes down or burns down, that’s because it’s pretty much the case.
At his Mission Bank Neon Plaza, he’s always looking for new additions, and he now has a new, beloved resident coming to join the existing 40 signs within the next few months.
It’s that old 7Up sign from the iconic art deco soft drink bottling plant on East 18th Street in Bakersfield. The bottler, now known as Keurig-Dr Pepper, moved to a new warehouse on James Road last month. Workers came back and fetched the historic sign mere days before an arson fire tragically gutted the architectural treasure.
Company officials were ultimately told they couldn’t mount the sign because of modern code restrictions. So, the management did what at least 40 other property managers have done over the past decade: They called the museum’s executive director.
“I got a phone call: Someone saw the sign going down Highway 99,” McCoy said.
“They asked if it was headed to the museum. I said no. And now apparently it is,” he said, laughing.
The 7-foot diameter, 400 pound sign will be among the first to occupy the Neon Plaza expansion – 5000 square feet of additional space gifted by the Batey family.
The sign will be mounted on a pole – probably paired with another sign and unveiled in perhaps six months.
First, it will need to undergo extensive and expensive renovation. It costs between $4000 and $15,000 to bring these babies back to life.
Contributions are more than welcome.
As McCoy likes to say, every neon sign in the museum collection has its own story. For him the story of the 7Up sign is a personal one, shared by hundreds of others.
“They used to actually formulate and make 7Up in that building. They had a bottling plant and anybody that’s my age or just a bit younger went there when it was a bottling plant on a school field trip. I went there with Cub Scouts,” said McCoy.
What is it about neon signs anyway?
Well, neon signs are called liquid fire, and when they light up – there’s a reason why Times Square was all neon back in the day,” he said. “It just really means party, it means excitement, and it means color.”
Look for the unveiling early next spring.
“We will be serving 7Up, yes,” McCoy said.
You just now, this moment, decided that, Mike?
“Great idea, yeah. We’ll have 7Up at the unveiling.”
