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Tijuana’s Historic Signs and Storefronts
By Maria Curry
March/April 2025
 The 5 de Mayo Building, also known as Enrique Aldrete, is one of Tijuana’s oldest commercial structures. Parts of its original 1917 sign remain visible on the arched pediment. This c. 1920 photo shows painted signs above the windows. Unfortunately, these are now lost, painted over a few years ago. Courtesy Alejandro Lugo Perales Collection, SDSU Digital Collections
 The Tropicana Motel, once located on the old Ensenada highway, was demolished in1996. However, thanks to the late Tijuana activist Ricardo Fitch, its neon sign lives on. He persuaded the hotel's owner to preserve the Googie-style sign by reusing it for another business on the same street. This is a fine example of how other threatened signs in Tijuana could be preserved and reused. Photo by Juan Carlos Domínguez |
Over the past few decades, many of Tijuana’s old signs and storefronts have been lost or altered, erasing lively and distinctive architectural features that contribute to the historic character of the city’s commercial zones. The few remaining examples worthy of preservation and restoration date from roughly the 1910s to about 1970, spanning the decades from the Prohibition era to much later urban development beyond the downtown core. These structures hold valuable insights into Tijuana’s entrepreneurial and social history.
Examples include Art Deco storefronts, curved Streamline Moderne facades with painted signs or images, a few Googie style neon signs, hanging signs, facades with painted signs in script, ghost signs, and terrazzo tile signs embedded in entryway floors. Some signs are in English, targeting American tourists.
The 5 de Mayo Building is one of the oldest surviving commercial landmarks on Calle Segunda. This 1917 wood and stucco structure with regularly spaced doors and windows housed several businesses. The original painted signboard, which appears on old postcards, advertised a drugstore, a general merchandise shop, and a modern bakery: “Botica, Mercancias Generales, Panadería Moderna.” Unfortunately, these signs were painted over several years ago. A ghost sign in the parking lot reveals another layer of the building’s history of tenants: a famous 1960’s men’s clothing store. The faded sign reads: “La Victoria…La linea mas fina...de la famosa marca…”
Downtown Tijuana’s street corners offered old, single-story stores and eateries the opportunity for painted signs that appealed to pedestrians and drivers coming from two directions. Examples include El Gordo, a seafood restaurant in a Streamline Moderne style building on Calle Primera, Café Iris on Calle Segunda, and Panadería Nancy on C. Salvador Díaz Mirón.
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Left Castillo's Western Shop on Calle Cuarta caters to charros, or cowboys, and mariachi bands. It has a flat illuminated sign, which has been vandalized, and signs in English painted on the exterior walls. Right The 1947 Nelson Hotel on Avenida Revolución displays neon signs, painted wall signs, and illuminated plastic signs in English. The Art Deco building it occupies has retained its historic integrity and welcomes American tourists who walk into Tijuana. Its bar is famous for its rock and roll music collection. Photos by Maria E Curry |
 The 1970s Romo traditional drugstore on Calle Cuarta bears the name of its original owner, chemist Ignacio Romo Calderón, who prepared formulas for creams, lotions, and medicine powders. His clients included dermatologists, gynecologists, and the public. The Streamline Moderne facade includes a flat, wrap-around sign and an illuminated entrance, topped with a neon pharmacy sign that needs restoration. Photo by Maria E Curry |
 Pinturas Corona, a well-known paint brand in Tijuana, was made by Calette Industries, a company founded in the 1940s by Miguel Calette Anaya. This fading mural on Calle Segunda has been defaced with graffiti in the lower half. Photo by Maria E Curry |
 Many street corners in downtown Tijuana feature rounded facades, a trend that emerged around the 1930s in response to the Art Deco and Streamline styles. Most of these are single-story businesses with painted signs, like this distinctive one for a seafood restaurant on Calle Primera. Photo by Maria E Curry |
The 1947 Art Deco style Hotel Nelson on Avenida Revolución has acrylic and painted signs on its front and side facades. The recessed storefront’s painted plastic cornice advertises: “Margaritas, mixed drink’s [sic], coffe [sic] shop, Tequilas.” An illuminated plastic sign reads: “Hotel Nelson Cocktail Lounge, Aire Acondicionado. Air Conditioned + T.V.” On the side facade, huge painted letters announce: “Hotel Nelson, Bar, Restaurant.”
The 1950s Castillo’s Western shop on Calle Cuarta still sells clothing and merchandise for charros, or cowboys, and dresses mariachi bands from head to toe. Its Art Deco-inspired storefront combines an illuminated blade sign and English-language wall signs, all working together to promote the business.
The 1970s Romo drugstore, in a Streamline Moderne building that curves around a street corner, is an excellent example of traditional commercial architecture. Its historic integrity has been preserved inside and out. The building is named after the owner, chemist Ignacio Romo Calderón, whose store still offers original formulas and preparations for balsams, ointments, and other products, made by an employee who has worked there for 30 years. Its original neon mortar-and-pestle-shaped sign, mounted above a painted version of the same emblem, needs restoration.
Cherished and important Tijuana businesses have disappeared, but their signs remain and could be restored, rehabilitated, or repurposed. The neon signs of Tiendas El Águila and the painted mural advertisement for Pinturas Corona, promoting the famous Calette paint company of Tijuana, are just two examples.
We urgently need to document the remaining old signs and commercial storefronts to convince businesspeople and politicians to restore and reuse them, since they are part of the community memory and markers of Tijuana’s commercial and social evolution. The late preservationist Ricardo Fitch set an inspiring example. When the 1950s Tropicana Motel was demolished in 1996, Fitch approached its owner and persuaded him to save its old Googie-style neon sign and reuse it for his new retail business. Let’s build on Fitch’s preservation win before it’s too late.
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