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By The LUMI Neon Museum

The 15-unit Motel Capri opened in 1961 in the historic Northeast area of Kansas City, Missouri, at Independence Avenue and Paseo Boulevard. A 2015 article in the Northeast News notes that later in the year, the motel’s owners—local businessmen Jack DiBenedetto, Sal Arrello, and Phil Forte—commissioned its attention-grabbing neon sign from the United Sign Company of Kansas City.

Free-standing motel signs from the 1950s and 60s are typically large, as is the double-sided 72.5 ft. tall by 23 ft. wide Motel Capri colossus. The sign’s “Googie” futurist design (based on the Hollywood, California, Googie’s Coffee Shop; John Lautner, architect) typifies popular roadside architecture of the time, and is described by Smithsonian Magazine as an “ultramodern” architecture style drawing inspiration from “Space Age ideals and rocketship dreams.” Today, the genre is considered part of mid-century modern.

In 2015, Motel Capri was purchased and razed by Kansas City University. The sign was saved by Tim Saxe, Northeast News Publisher Mike Bushnell, and Industrial Salvage & Wrecking Co. Inc., and donated by Kansas City University to the Kansas City Museum (KCM). In 2022, KCM Executive Director Anna Marie Tutera worked with Nick Vedros, founder of The LUMI Neon Museum, to facilitate LUMI acquisition of the sign.

Denise Morrison, KCM Director of Collections and Curatorial Affairs, notes that while “it is rare to transfer items out of the Kansas City Museum collection, we knew it would have the best home at LUMI where it could be restored and displayed outdoors for future generations to enjoy and be enlightened by this classic neon and its story.”

The restored Motel Capri sign will be part of an extensive exhibit of neon signs at the upcoming Pennway Point Entertainment District slated to open near Union Station in 2024.
To learn more about the The LUMI Neon Museum, visit: thelumineonmuseum.org.