Although she was still in high school in the early 1960s, Laragene Schuyler vividly recalls the popularity of the Lompoc restaurant that sat on a plot of land owned at the time by her father.
“It was a hangout,” Schulyer said of the now-closed Hi Restaurant, which operated at the corner of Ocean Avenue and South E Street. “It was like when you go into little towns and all the farmers and the bankers and the judges and lawyers would meet for coffee every morning. It was the staple of the community.”
Although the restaurant closed a decade ago, its iconic sign — the bright red paint has faded over the years and the light bulbs have fallen out, but it still has its large “Hi! Let’s Eat” script — has remained a popular landmark in the city, even as another business opened and closed at the location.
With the sign facing a perilous future early this year, a group of Lompoc historians, appointed officials, city staff and separate business owners combined their efforts to ensure that it will remain standing — though in a new location.
Karen Paaske, the president of the Lompoc Valley Historical Society and one of the leaders of the push to save the sign, said she knew she couldn’t just let the sign go.
“It’s an iconic sign,” she said. “Whenever you Google 'Lompoc', you’re gonna see that sign.”
The sign has stood on the plot of land near Lompoc’s east entrance since the Hi Restaurant opened in March 1960. When the restaurant closed nearly five decades later, the property was transformed into a Jalama Beach Café, whose owners chose to leave the large “Hi! Let’s Eat” sign to greet drivers on Ocean Avenue.
When the Jalama Beach Café closed last year, the sign remained in front of the vacant building.
Its fate was put into question, however, when Starbucks received approval from the Lompoc Planning Commission on March 8 to open a new drive-thru business on the property.
The managers of the new Starbucks decided early on that they did not want the sign, so a group of Lompoc residents, led by members of the Historical Society, quickly sprang into action.
As part of the city’s review of the Starbucks application in late 2016, city staff researched the history of the “Hi! Let’s Eat” sign to see if it was eligible for any historical protections. An historical assessment was performed by Rincon Consultants on Nov. 28, 2016, according to the city, and when it was determined that the sign did not meet historic designation standards, there was a possibility that it could have been simply torn down and trashed.
Paaske said she and the Historical Society members knew they had to step in, even if no one else would.
“In the city of Lompoc, (people) have lost a lot of battles on keeping old buildings and things like that, so to me it seemed important to at least make the effort to try,” she said.
Initially, Paaske said the Historical Society planned to have the sign moved to its headquarters at 207 North L St.
Mark Herrier, an actor/director and Lompoc native who joined the effort to save the sign, reached out to the owners of the newly opened Solvang Brewing Company in Lompoc, however, to see if they would be interested in displaying the sign at their restaurant at the corner of North H Street and Chestnut Avenue.
Those talks eventually waned, but Dennis Block, owner of the American Host restaurant at 113 North I St., reached out to the city and expressed interest in having the sign moved near his restaurant.
Because the sign does not meet current codes, the Historical Society went to the Planning Commission and requested, among other things, that the sign be designated as a “landmark” and given protections within the city.
Those requests were granted by the Planning Commission at its April 12 meeting, and the Historical Society, which now officially owns the sign, has obtained permits to remove the sign from the future Starbucks property.
“I want to thank you all for not just throwing it in the trash,” Herrier, who is spearheading the Lompoc Theatre Project restoration effort, told the planning commissioners just before the unanimous vote of approval on April 12.
Following the vote, Planning Commissioner Ron Fink pointed out the quick timeline for the sign saga, which appeared to suggest a universal desire to have the sign preserved.
“This is a record for the city of Lompoc to have a problem brought to our attention and then solve it in 30 days,” Fink said at the meeting, drawing some laughter and cheers from the audience.
Paaske said she has a contractor lined up to remove and relocate the sign, likely to the American Host location. She said, however, there is no timeline set.
She pointed out that the company working on the renovations for the new Starbucks business, Elliot Megdal and Associates, paid for the Historical Society’s demolition permit and has pledged $1,000 toward the costs of relocating the sign.
Herrier told the Planning Commission that the costs to get the sign fully operational again, with new lights in the lettering, would be about $15,000 to $20,000.
The Historical Society hasn’t yet decided if it will pursue renovations of that magnitude, according to Paaske.
Schuyler, whose late father Lawrence “Bill” Schuyler worked on the design and construction of the sign, said she was glad to see it saved from the trash heap. Her father collaborated with the Hi Restaurant's owners at the time to come up with the look, which she said was inspired by the old Jolly Tiger restaurant in Santa Barbara.
“I think it’s wonderful,” she said of the sign being saved. “I’m glad it’s going to the Historical Society, because a lot of new franchises don’t like to keep things like that from the past.”
She said she views the sign as part of her family’s legacy and never really considered the possibility of it being removed from the Lompoc landscape altogether.
“I just thought that if they sold the restaurant, the new owners would keep it. But then it went to a Starbucks,” she said, laughing.
“But I’m glad that they’re preserving it. That’s great."
For more information on the Historical Society’s efforts or to make a donation, call 735-4626 or visit www.lompochistory.org.
