Starlite Motel - Mesa, AZ - Neon Signs on Waymarking.com

The Diving Lady first splashed into her blue neon bath back in 1960. She was a bold statement for the Starlite Motel, announcing a rare desert amenity at the time: a swimming pool.

"When my husband and I came out here, we didn't have a whole lot of money so we would say, 'Well, let's go look at the Diving Lady,"' said longtime Mesa resident Ramona Zehm. "That was the big entertainment."

This 78-foot stretch of steel and neon hanging above the old U.S. 60 Route in Mesa might just be the most famous part of the old road. In fact, the Diving Lady outside the Starlite Motel on Main Street once marked, roughly, the crossroads of U.S. highways 60, 70, 80 and 89.

Historic U.S. 60 starts in the Arizona desert and crisscrosses the entire nation to the east. It travels 2,600 miles, right past the U.S. gold supply at Fort Knox and dead ends at the Chesapeake Bay.

When the motel was first built a half century before, only desert and cottonwoods surrounded the area, said Vic Linoff, president of the Mesa Preservation Foundation. Main Street was a highway at the time and the Diving Lady was the first sign — literally — that told Mesans they were almost home.

"You knew you were getting home when you saw the Diving Lady," said Arlee Johnson, longtime Mesa resident.

Not only that, but she was one of the only roadside attractions in the young Mesa community.
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On Oct. 5, 2010 the original sign was damaged by an storm — falling down into the parking lot below.

All of the sign’s lighted neon tubes shattered and most of the sheet metal was wrinkled, said Larry Graham, owner of Graham’s Neon, who helped restore the sign.

“The guy that taught me neon is the one who built it,” Graham said. “25 years ago, he pulled out the prints and showed me. I wish I had kept those,” he said laughing.

Graham had to do the restoration one piece at a time, working without plans, he said.

While the original colors may have been more saturated, the restoration decided to keep the now well known “faded” version, Linoff said.

“It’s really the last of its kind — can’t do it again,” Peters said of the animated sign.

Mesa and the city council were instrumental in getting the lady back to her place of honor, Peters said. The city was willing to grandfather the animated sign, despite the current restrictions on signage in the city.

“It’s the last animated sign in the Valley,” Linoff said. “If a sign like this was made today, it would probably be LED.”

Neon signs, like the Diving Lady, is art that resembles historical Americana, Linoff said.

The pole has now been reinforced and would take a disaster to fall again, Linoff said. The new pole sleeves the first 20 feet of the original pole and the rest of the nearly 80-foot sign is stronger.
“It’s not going anywhere,” he said.

“It used to have a pool right over there,” said Linda Flick, a Mesa Preservation Foundation board member, gesturing to the rocky landscaping at the center of the motel courtyard.

“I know because I stayed here for month in 1964,” she said, with a smile. “I laid out by that pool every day.”

Flick’s family was waiting for base housing to open up after her father was transferred to Williams Field Air Force Base. The base is now Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

“The community said it was important,” Linoff said. “Our job was to facilitate it and make it happen.”

"It's iconic and it is a celebration of the community's love for an inanimate object," said Vick Linoff, president of the Mesa Preservation Foundation. "Everybody calls it the Diving Lady. You don't speak of the sign as an it, you speak of it as a her or a she."

Tuesday night, April 3, 2013, preservationists flipped the switch and turned her back on after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus.

About 300 people were at the Starlite Motel to see Diving Lady return to her nightly routine -- a three-part plunge from the top of the motel sign. Mesa Mayor Scott Smith stood among classic cars from Diving Lady's heyday to flip the switch just after 7 p.m.

And now "she" is back -- the iconic blond in the pale blue one-piece bathing suit repeatedly dipping into a blue splash of neon lighting. An Arizona icon, Diving Lady, is once again plunging into her desert oasis in Mesa.

Name of business: Starlight Motel Type of business: Hotel/Motel Condition of Neon Sign: Hitsville - In good working order Physical Location: 2710 East Main Street Mesa, AZ USA 85213 Web Address: [Web Link]

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