by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
Downtown’s dog has won an award. The First Coast Remodelers Award has gone to contractor Todd Hagmaier Wednesday for his work renovating Greyhound’s neon sign at the Pearl Street bus station. The award, sponsored by the Northeast Florida Builders Association, goes to an individual or group who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in commercial remodeling.
Hagmaier, the owner of Middlekauff Hagmaier Construction, spent four months bringing the 60-year-old art deco sign back to its original condition.
“We replaced the neon, put a new roof on it, replaced the sheet metal and chased the pigeons out,” said Hagmaier, who did extensive research to bring the Greyhound’s logo back to its 1940s condition, including scouring local media and libraries for color pictures in an attempt to match the original color of the paint and neon.
“I contacted an individual in Alabama who worked for Greyhound in the 1970s to see what he could recollect about how it looked,” he said. “My major concern was to put it back right and not have it look different.”
The inoperable light blue neon tubes outlining the dog and the letters were replaced and color-matched to original specifications. The contrasting darker blue paint was researched and matched as well. New sheet metal was applied, painted and the entire sign was finished and installed in early fall.
Greyhound officials were pleased with the final product.
“Todd spent quite a bit of time on his own initiative to match the paint color from back in the 1940s,” said William Sliger, senior project manager in Greyhound’s design and construction department. “He’s just sort of a historical purist.”
Jacksonville’s Greyhound terminal is one of the few locations still displaying the art deco-style neon logo, adding cultural and historical significance to the sign.
“Some of us here [at Greyhound] like the old dog logo on the old buildings,” said Sliger. “There are no art deco features that make that building stand out, so the sign is significant.”