The Fight to Save Googie, the Style of Postwar Optimism

The car-centric architectural style, characterized by neon signs and dramatic rooflines, is now endangered. Its admirers mourn the loss of the ideals it represented.

The car-centric architectural style, characterized by neon signs and dramatic rooflines, is now endangered. Its admirers mourn the loss of the ideals it represented.

The oldest McDonald’s that is still in business, in Downey, Calif. The brand’s golden arches, once among the most ubiquitous examples of Googie, are harder to find these days. Credit... Ashok Sinha

In June, the Arby’s on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles shut down. The news, announced on the restaurant’s marquee — “FAREWELL HOLLYWOOD TY FOR 55 GREAT YEARS” — didn’t seem surprising, with rents and labor costs on the rise. What was out of the ordinary was the public’s response to it.

Judy Sibelman, whose family had owned the business, said that she was overwhelmed by the “outpouring of emotion” from strangers. People wrote to the family “saying things like ‘I was a writer at one of the studios around the corner, and I would sit in a corner booth at Arby’s and write,’” Ms. Sibelman said. “One person even said they lost their virginity there. I certainly hope it was in the parking lot.”

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