Comments (0) Best Sign - 2005
Brooks-Mays Pianomax
So you're driving along U.S. 59 when, through the clutter of billboards, you see it: a grand piano, perched precariously on a pole 108 feet above the ground. Chances are, your first thought is "Does that thing really play?" And your second thought is probably "Either way, that's pretty damn cool." Erected in 1973, when the music store was called Holcombe-Lindquist, the metal piano is 15 feet long and nine feet wide. It even has a faux keyboard, with 88 black and white keys. Store co-founder Russell Lindquist says when the Houser Neon Sign Company showed him and business partner Don Holcombe their miniature model of the sign, "It was so overwhelming that we couldn't not go along with it." The 1973 installation and 1978 improvements cost a total of $153,000. In its heyday, it revolved and was lit up with neon. But even if it doesn't revolve anymore, it's still one of the coolest signs in the city.
