Guiding light: Domino Sugars sign turns 75. Meet the company that’s keeping it shining.

Paul Gable’s father used to point out the Domino Sugars sign illuminating the Inner Harbor whenever they drove by it. An industrial machinist, his father worked in the shipyards on Fort Avenue in Locust Point, Gable said.

“He was very fond of the sign,” Gable said, “Even before I got into the sign business.”

The beloved sign, which has been part of the city skyline since 1951, will turn 75 this Saturday. Originally built by New York’s Artkraft Strauss Co., Baltimoreans are protective and proud of the sign, one of the last markers of the harbor’s manufacturing past after the departure of McCormick & Co., Coca-Cola and Allied Chemical. The only times the neon sign was unplugged were briefly during the 1970s energy crisis and after an explosion and fire at the facility in 2007, according to Baltimore magazine.

Decades later, in 2021, Gable’s company restored the iconic sign — what he calls the guiding light of the city.

His namesake signage firm, Gable, is also behind Montgomery Park’s rooftop display and the new T. Rowe Price topper on the scoreboard at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. He founded his company in 1980, the same year he graduated from high school in Pasadena. It started as a traditional sign shop, he said, focusing on hand-lettered and handcrafted signs.

The company still is a one-stop shop when it comes to signs — they design, build and install them. But Gable business has grown over 46 years. Its clients have shifted from local, small businesses to customers across the U.S.

Still, Gable said the Domino Sugars sign is one of the highlights of his career and one of the company’s biggest successes. He spoke with The Banner about the project.

How did you guys get to remake the Domino Sugars sign?

Domino Food wanted to fix all of the neon that was already there. They were dissatisfied with all of the repairs and maintenance, along with the costs they had put into it in the past. They were looking for ideas on how to illuminate it in a more efficient way so they could save on energy consumption and still have the traditional look of the original neon sign.

They at first asked us to apply a new type of LED strip lighting on the sign, and we knew right away that was not the way to do that project. So we introduced the idea of making an entirely new sign for them and making that in a controlled environment, which is our shop, and then transporting the letters to the site and installing a brand new set of letters up on the sign that will last them for many years to come and look as good, if not better, than the original letters.

Did you keep any parts of the old sign?

We kept what they asked us to keep, and the rest were discarded. They were donated or sold to interested parties.

What about the sign makes it so iconic in the city skyline?

It’s been called Baltimore’s love letter to the residents, the visitors and the people who pass through the city. You can see it from I-95. You know you’re in Baltimore when you see that sign, and it’s well-known throughout the country.

I think why people hold on to it so much is that it is a reminder of the history of Baltimore as a working person’s town, where blue collar was just as important as white collar, and people hold on to tradition. And Domino Sugars is all about tradition in Baltimore.

Since you grew up in Pasadena, I’m sure that you have seen the Domino Sugars sign even before founding Gable. What is it like for you to have had a hand in this iconic sign for Baltimore?

Oh, it was one of the biggest thrills of our career. My father used to point the sign out to me when I was a little kid. He used to work over in Locust Point. So I would say it was an inspiration and a guiding light for me to get into the sign business.

That might be a neat little title for your article. The skyline sign of Baltimore, a guiding light to all.

I did really enjoy when you said a guiding light.

I will say that the Domino Sugars sign is a guiding light for a lot of people. I haven’t heard anybody use that phrase before. In fact, I probably should copyright it.

But it’s a great way to describe that sign. You can be anywhere in the city, and when you see that sign, you kind of know your position ... you know where you’re at.

Like a North Star.

It is, it’s Baltimore’s North Star.

Were there any projects that were influenced by the revamping of the Domino Sugars sign?

It has inspired other restoration projects for us, and we’re currently working on a couple that I can’t really mention. But they’re restoration projects where people want to take what is old and make it like new, but have it look like it’s old.

Why do people want to keep the old aesthetic?

People hold on to traditions. In today’s disposable society, where everything seems to change so quickly, so rapidly, there are certain elements in our life — and architecture and signage are a few of them — that people hold on to because they bring back a nostalgic feeling of a different time.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.