When Ben Leech became executive director of the Preservation Action Council of San Jose in 2020, he probably couldn’t have predicted one day he’d be selling enamel pins of a strip club to help preserve the city’s historic buildings and signs.
But that day has arrived.
A pin featuring an older iteration of the sign for the famous Pink Poodle — the current version was too cartoony for Leech’s taste — is among the latest round of a dozen pins depicting vintage signs from San Jose companies, some still in business and others existing just in memory.
The venture has become a surprising fundraising success for the nonprofit, which advocates for the preservation of historic structures in the city.
“This is a significant leg of our operating budget, and we never went into it intending for that to be the case,” said Leech, who designs the pins himself by tracing photographs. If it were just for the money, he wouldn’t be as into it, he added. “But it doubles as a public outreach campaign, so it does great double-duty.”
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The new batch also includes closed restaurants like Burger Pit, Race Street Fish & Poultry and Bold Knight, as well as some places that are still around like La Villa Delicatessen, Olivera Egg Ranch, Vahl’s in Alviso and Dulceria Mi Carnival, a little shop on East Santa Clara Street that sells piñatas.
They’re available on the PAC-SJ website, preservation.org, as well as at Kogura Gifts in Japantown, Recycle Bookstore in Campbell, the San Jose Museum of Art gift shop and Antiques Colony.
The idea started as a way to raise money for the Stephen’s Meat Dancing Pig sign, which was in dire need of restoration just a few years ago, and it was part of a set of four released in December 2020, along with signs for three West San Carlos Street businesses, Western Appliance, Orchard Supply Hardware and the Y Not.
Since then, the line has grown to include bowling alleys, movie theater marquees, classic bars and iconic figures like Babe the Muffler Man and Dealin’ Dollar Dan. There were also limited editions made for the move of the Pallesen apartment building, the Diridon Caltrain station and a set made for Kogura Gifts, depicting its Jackson Street building and different versions of its neon sign over the decades.
Leech also was not keen at first on making pins for businesses that were gone because his goal was to preserve what was still around instead of catering to people’s nostalgia.
“What turned me around is when I realized that while these things don’t exist in the real world anymore, they exist in people’s memory,” he said, noting that every city has theaters, toy stores and restaurants that were iconic to the people who grew up there. “If we’re recognizing what’s gone, that fits into the whole spectrum of why preservation is important.”
OLD HOMECOMING: Back in August 1974, six people who had a common interest — the owned old houses in San Jose — met for the first time, creating the Victorian Preservation Association of Santa Clara Valley, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last weekend with a dinner at downtown’s Teske’s Germania.
Historic preservation was gaining steam at the time, a push back to urban renewal plans in many cities across the nation, but the folks who gathered in San Jose had a mission that wasn’t just advocacy: They also wanted to share ideas, tools and best practices for renovating their old houses.
“Slowly it grew over the years, and it’s hard to imagine the sustainability of what actually happened here,” said Marcus Salomon, who has served as president of the group for 11 of the past 13 years.
“We were able to find resources for the restoration of our houses and lend expertise and information to the newer folks who were trying to restore their homes. One by one, it started to actually happen, and we were able to bring these old beauties back to their original glories,” he said.
Probably the biggest project the group ever took on was the restoration of the Andrew P. Hill House, a late 19th-century Queen Anne style house that was moved from Sherman Street to History Park in San Jose in 1997. Volunteers from the organization, led by Tony and Paulette Ornellas, took on the challenge of restoring the house, a project that took more than a decade before its completion in 2009.
By the way, you don’t have to own a Victorian — or any other vintage house — to join the group. It’s open to anyone with an interest in the city’s older homes, be they architecture or history fans. Find out more at www.vpascv.org.
CITY HALL FIESTA: San Jose will celebrate Mexico’s Independence Day, also known as Fiestas Patrias, on Sunday with flag-raising, folklorico dancing, charro riders on horseback and an “El Grito” ceremony at San Jose City Hall.
The festivities get started at 1 p.m., with performances going until the 6:30 p.m. ceremonies, which will include remarks by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Councilmembers Sergio Jimenez, Omar Torres, Peter Ortiz and Domingo Candelas; Mexican Consul General Alejandra Bologna; and Jesus Flores, president of the Fiestas Patrias committee.
“El Grito,” the reenactment of Mexico’s cry for independence, will take place at 7:30 p.m., followed by a performance from Omar Alejandro with Mariachi Tapatio and a dance party featuring the band El Tiburón Mayor.
BULB GUY GROWS A BOOK: Rich Santoro, aka “The Bulb Guy,” has published a book about his backyard garden in San Jose, where for nearly years he invited the public to enjoy the beauty of tulips, lilies and more every spring.
“The Bulb Guy Garden Nobody Saw” includes tons of pictures of the garden and the story behind its creation and why it’s a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The title refers to 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced Santoro to keep his backyard gate closed that spring.
The pandemic was also responsible for the book’s creation, though, as Santoro started writing it when he was hospitalized for 10 days with COVID in early January 2021. “The day after I got out, I started planting 4,000 daffodils,” Santoro said, adding that the book took longer to grow — three-and-a-half years.
The Bulb Guy has a book-signing planned for Sept. 18 at Tony & Alba’s Pizza, 3137 Stevens Creek Blvd. The hardcover books cost $30, with all proceeds being donated to St. Jude.
Tony & Alba’s owner Al Vallorz says he’ll donate $3 for every large and extra-large pizza sold during the signing, which starts at 3 p.m. and goes until closing around 8. And Santoro’s bosses at his day job with Central Concrete also planning to match all the sales of the book with a contribution to St. Jude as well.
By the way, Santoro stopped opening his garden to the public in 2022, but he said he hasn’t ruled out a return one day. Hope springs eternal, after all.
